Ease of maintenance?

[goalieguy1]

How easy is it to maintain a VX? I live in the Central Valley of California, and my mom and I were debating about how hard it would be to have work done on one around here. My mom's thinking is that since the VX is pretty rare, it must be expensive to have work done on it. Since I don't have a lot of money, I don't want to end up with a car that is in the shop for weeks on end and costs me thousands to keep up! What have been your experiences with maintenance? Any advice is appreciated!

[tbigity]

the cost of maintenance isnt what will get ya, it is finding someone that knows enough about the VX to tackle it that will get ya. As you can find out in any number of threads, good mechanics that know the ins and outs of a VX are rare.

However, they are not that expensive to maintain thanks to www.isuzuparts.com You can find literally any part of your vehicle on there. If something goes south, you can get what you need and probably tackle it yourself. Failing that, a mechanic can take care of it for you. Just search the forums though, chances are, someone here has had the same problem and posted a "how to" for your mechanic to follow.

[Anita]

Forum member Bill Brown lives in Clovis. He may have a suggestion on where to have your VX serviced if its need goes beyond just regular maintenance. Check his profile for an email address.

[spaceCADETzoom]

the engine is built like a rock. that, and pretty much the overall truck has been treated the same as the isuzu trooper at my go-to mechanic. All intents and purposes, any mechanic that handles the trooper will be fine with the vx. they may not know the vx's specific quirks, but for the most part the trooper/vx are interchangable in my experience.

My parents' trooper just hit 210,000 miles. Same engine, etc. Maybe others have different opinions, but i've had the vx for 20k miles or so (it's at 85k now)...not one problem. (ok, the abs light is on, but thats it, promise)

[nfpgasmask]

Well, I've had my VX since May, and so far I have changed the spark plugs myself, changed the transmission fluid/filter myself and now I am changing the oil myself. I did have some help from my buddy who is a part time mechanic, but I am learning tons of stuff about the VX (and cars in general) and as a result I am getting more and more confident with doing the work myself. Of course there will always probably be some things that are difficult and that need to be looked at by professionals, but if you are at all mechanically inclined or want to be, the VX is probably an ok decision. I am in love with the truck, and I for me doing the work myself not only saves me money, but it is quite gratifying as well.

My only advise would be to do some serious hunting and try to find a nice VX with low mileage that runs good. Stay on this forum and I'm sure you will find a nice one to buy. And although you might not have a lot of money, be prepared to spend some bucks initially on some serious preventative maintenance once you buy one. I bought mine with 30k and it needed attention in several areas, right away.

All that said, the VX does have some quirks that you will have to get used to and accept. Again, just spend a few weeks on this forum and you will probably read about some of them and then you can make a more educated decision.

But I say, go for it, the VX is like nothing else!

Bart