Introduce yourself here!

[Thelgord]

Welcome! This forum has a mountain of information available. Feel free to ask questions and be sure to check out the search function.

[Mile High VX]

Welcome to the VX family. Lots of friendly people here that are always willing to help. As stated above the Search function is your friend. Over a decade of great stuff here...probably not much can happen that hasn't been addressed here in some way.

[SuBo99]

Hey I'm Subo from Salt Lake City, UT. I never even knew there was a car called an Isuzu VehiCROSS until a couple weeks ago. I had a listing online to trade my 66 VW Bug and some guy offered to trade for his 99 Isuzu Ironman Edition. After some googling and research I decided, why not?! I'm SO GLAD I made that trade. The VX is in really great shape for being 20 years old. Check Engine light was on but it ended up only needing some gaskets replaced. Tranny is good and most everything else is in ok shape. She has 152k miles on her, so that's not super great. Overall I'm stoked to be a part of this community and to have one of these interesting and rare cars.

[VX KAT]

What a great story! Glad it worked out! Very important tip...you MUST check oil very frequently....this engine is well known to consume oil, inconsistently, and sometimes in pretty large quantities. Check it every fill up for a while until you get familiar with it, and if it uses any. Sometimes it only happens on longer highway driving (like 4 hrs), that's what mine did. Always carry at least a few qts of oil in the truck! We have a Vehicross Facebook Group also. But the really good voluminous reference info is stored here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/32929439606/

[ipd]

Welcome to the addiction. I just flipped my odometer over 100k this week, and it felt like the end of an era. 152k isn't bad at all for 20 years though. Heck, anything under 200k for a 20 year old car is not bad.

Now if we could get the FB crowd to post up here more often...

[SuBo99]

Yeah i'm not on FB so I miss out on the content there. I wish I was around in the VX crowd about 8-10 years ago when it seems people were very active on this site. It appears that this forum is relatively quiet these days. It's all good though.. I get to benefit from everyone's previous posts and words of wisdom

[ipd]

Shame. I moved from Clinton UT back in 2017. Never got to meet any VX owners locally or do the Moab pilgrimage. Only got to drive through Moab on the way moving cross-country.

[Thelgord]

Welcome to the site! This forum was active(ish) over the last year. It goes in waves it seems. Most of the active people here have a lot of insight to give if you have any questions. There is a massive amount of information stored away on this forum, the search feature will help you a lot.

Having said that, it is important to keep a few things in mind. These were only I made for a few years, and in limited numbers. Isuzu’s market in North America is the NPR box/commercial truck. Every month there is a story on FB of one being totaled, parted out, wrecked, or otherwise no longer drivable. Availability of part will continue to get harder. There is nearly no after market support (some exists such as weather tech rain gaurd for the door windows). You will learn very quickly which parts are interchangeable from other vehicles (honda passport for transmission and brakes, Other Isuzu models, some GM models). The FB group tried to do a poll to see how many were still running. It never reached 300. I would say it is safe bet that between 400-600 are still left on the road in running condition.

Now, having said all of that, this is an amazing time to be a VX owner! This is an amazing vehicle with a great history of perseverance and overcoming hardships. The dwindling numbers only serve to make it more exclusive to own one. Even at 20 years old, it looks like it could have rolled off a production floor yesterday. It is old enough that you won’t feel terrible about modifying it to make it yours. It can still keep up with any Jeep or Toyota made, even the newest ones, on or off-road.

I absolutely love my VX (99 Ebony that is getting ready to hit 180k), and I will be keeping running for a very long time. Welcome to addiction. It’s more than just a saying with the Vehicross

[Camoman]

Proud owners of a 1999 silver 154k mi VX and love it! I was a builder/restorer for years but physics have caugjt up with me. Years + weight + old injuries + grandkids just added up. My VX has a few minor needs but I can't stop enjoying it. Thanks for a great place to share and gain!

[Thelgord]

Welcome!

[MajkMac]

I have been a fan of the VX since the first time I saw one in '99. Finally got a chance to get ME a ride with only 2 doors. Could not be happier. Reality is that I have a 20 year old car with 168k and rolling on the odometer (daily driver). Dash lights don't work, tranny slipping, seats worn, oem stereo replaced with pos, headlights dull, spare tire cover fasteners stripped out...welcome home baby!

First things, first. I need to get the tranny issue sorted (only seems to be slipping at take-off, can manage with gentler throttle) - from there will be tackling electrical issues in dash (hopefully just fuses/bulbs)

Hello, and thanks in advance. I will be posting pics asap.

[Mile High VX]

Welcome to the addition. If you do Facebook be sure to join the group there as well.

[ipd]

Can't speak to the trans issues. Dash lights I've done. I swapped the instrument cluster to LED and it's not nearly as difficult as you might think. Worn seats is a non-issue. Get some Wet Okoles and don't look back. You'd be hard pressed to even tell the set I have aren't stock--because I got them to put the Vehicross logo on them! lol

Dull headlights? Get some smoked lens covers & upgrade to LED headlights so the additional brightness can compensate for the additional diffuse layer. Spare tire knobs? You there's a guy on here who makes custom ones. Just this past year, I got him to make me a set of purple ones. They look AMAZEBALLS with my purple-accent-themed interior.

[seamus]

Sup guys I guess I'll just explain my situation with my VX. So I got my license almost a year ago and have been driving my Grandma's car since then. However recently my uncle offered his Black 1999 VX that had been sitting in his driveway for over five years to my dad for free! Not gonna lie I thought the car was pretty weird at first but over time I liked it more and more. We took my uncle's offer and now we've started working on it. I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction as to mods and the dos and don'ts.

[ipd]

Honestly, I wouldn't mod it. Not unless you've already got hands-on experience working on other off-road vehicles. I've generally found that modding something makes it more user-dependent to be reliable. That's why all I've done with mine is pretty much cosmetic. Wheels, tint, etc. Just enjoy it for what it is. I wouldn't mess with the powertrain unless you know what you're doing. I've been much happier with my stock-powertrain VX than I ever was with my last car which I'd been attempting to heavily modify.

As for the rest, there's a few things like window mods that can be helpful to correct for OEM engineering defects.

Welcome to the forum, and please feel free to ask questions. There's a bit more who hang out on FB, but the knowledge is still mostly over here.

p.s.
From 1 black 99 owner to another, hi-five!