2002 Isuzu Rodeo S Sport Utility 4-door 2.2l on 2040-cars

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Wienermobile gets burned by hotdogging catalytic converter thieves

Catalytic converter theft has been on the rise, but few could have predicted its latest victim. Turns out, not even the Wienermobile is immune to the emissions device bandits. Low-lifes purloined the exhaust cleaner off of Oscar Mayer's 27-foot-long wheeled hot dog as the vehicle made an overnight stop in Las Vegas. As Fox 5 Las Vegas reports, the thieves made off with the catalytic converter in front of the Sonesta Suites motel in Sin City. The Wienermobile, one of six such vehicles circulating across the country, had been scheduled to make an appearance at a shopping center in town on Friday, but was forced to make a pit stop at a local Penske trucks shop for repairs.  According to Road & Track the Wienermobile is built on an Isuzu NPR HD chassis, so it makes sense that a truck shop would be able to service it. Unfortunately, vehicles with a lot of ground clearance like SUVs and pickups are often the targets of catalytic converter pirates, as the parts are more easily accessed from beneath.  In 2019, reported thefts of catalytic converters nationwide totaled only 3,389, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. The number of reports climbed to 14,433 in 2020. In 2021, that swelled to 65,398, a 353% increase over the previous year. The rate continued apace in 2022, with State Farm alone reporting 44,500 thefts from their customers through June of that year. The emissions-scrubbing devices contain valuable metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium. The National Insurance Crime Bureau says those metals are valued at $1,128, $2,938 and $20,000 per ounce, respectively, as of March 2022. Last year, California passed new legislation to make it harder to sell stolen catalytic converters, while the Department of Justice busted a ring of catalytic converter thieves with assets totaling $550 million. Joseph Rodriguez, a Penske maintenance coordinator, told Fox 5 that the repair was only temporary, as they did not have the correct part to install. However, it was enough to send the Wienermobile on its merry way.  Cars such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Accord, and Ford F-150 routinely top lists of cars targeted by catalytic converter thieves. That's partially due to the fact that those are common cars sold in large number, but the lesson here is that no vehicle is safe. If scofflaws are brazen enough to steal from a bright yellow truck shaped like a frankfurter, nothing is safe. Humor Weird Car News Isuzu catalytic converter wienermobile

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Isuzu Pickup, Zombie Response Edition

Isuzu-built pickups first went on sale in North America for the 1972 model year, but with Chevrolet LUV badges. Elsewhere, they were known as the Isuzu KB or Isuzu Faster, But eventually they got Isuzu badges in America, and were named the Isuzu P'up in the early 1980s. Later, they became simply known as the Isuzu Pickup (following Toyota's lead after the US-market Hilux became just the Toyota Truck) starting when the third-generation Faster debuted for 1988. Here's one of those trucks, found in a Denver self-service boneyard last Halloween. I see a lot of zombie-themed decor on junkyard vehicles, mostly just a single decal here or there (often combined with snowboarding and/or cannabis-themed stickers), but someone went above and beyond in the zombification of this Isuzu. This truck started life with a coat of dark blue paint, but that's just too cheerful when you're out hunting down the undead. Now it has a thick coat of flat black and "Toxic Waste Green" stickers everywhere. It appears that you can buy this sticker set on Amazon for under $30 right now. Remember when you'd see these Metal Mulisha stickers all over? In case you're looking for some Get Up Stand Up Light Roast coffee, Marley Coffee has you covered. Someone should write a doctoral dissertation about the stickers found on vehicles in Denver car graveyards. The engine is the 2.6-liter Isuzu straight-four that went into so many Amigos and Rodeos over the years. You should have four-wheel drive and a manual transmission when pursuing zombies across the wastelands of eastern Colorado, especially in the winter, and this truck has both. There's no telling how many miles were on it at the end, because some junkyard shopper nabbed the instrument cluster. While four-wheel-drive small pickups are useful even at age 32, the rust plus the manual transmission (plus the Zombie Appearance Package) would have made this one a tough sell for its final owner. When you have Isuzus of the late 1980s and early 1990s, you have Joe Isuzu! Did you know Joe Isuzu was a phone phreaker? The Isuzu Pickup was slightly cheaper than the Toyota Truck, if you considered only the stripped-down base versions. The only things scarier than Isuzu trucks are Isuzu trucks on sale!

Junkyard Gem: 2004 Isuzu Axiom

Though the final Isuzu-badged car sold in the United States was the 1993 Isuzu Stylus, Isuzu did very well selling trucks here during the remainder of the 1990s. Things still looked pretty good for Isuzu as the new century dawned, but by then everybody had upped their truck game and many of the competition's offerings made Isuzus seem old-fashioned. Isuzu cooked up a distinctive new body for the Rodeo chassis, arranged to have it built at Subaru's plant in Indiana, and called it the Axiom. You won't see many Axioms today, but I found this last-year-of-production example in an Oklahoma City car graveyard recently. As we all know, the decline and fall of Isuzu in North America accelerated quickly as the 2000s progressed. The VehiCROSS was interesting but just too weird and it got the axe after 2001. The increasingly antiquated Trooper held on through 2002, the Amigo (aka Rodeo Sport) through 2003, and that left just the Axiom and Rodeo to hang on by their fingernails into 2004. By 2005, the only new Isuzu-branded passenger vehicles sold in the United States were two rebadged Chevrolets: the Ascender (Trailblazer) and i-Series pickup (Colorado). In early 2009, Isuzu announced that it would be departing, presumably forever. You can still buy new Isuzu commercial trucks here, of course. The 2004 Axiom had MSRPs starting at $24,849 for the S trim level with rear-wheel-drive and going up to $30,499 for the upscale XS with all-wheel-drive. That's about $40,703 and $49,958 in 2023 dollars. Joe Isuzu was brought back after a decade of retirement to pitch the Axiom. Note that Joe's brag in this commercial is how much cheaper the Axiom was than the Volvo Cross Country. This truck is the cheap Axiom S 4x2, which still seems well-appointed. The 2004 Axiom's 3.5-liter V6 engine made 250 horsepower and 246 pound-feet, up from 230 horsepower and 230 pound-feet in the 2002-2003 Axioms. The power improvements were the result of the switch to gasoline direct injection fuel delivery for the '04 Axiom. Isuzu was so proud of the system that it applied these badges. The only transmission available was a four-speed automatic. The Axiom was introduced to the American public as the SPYMobile in the 2001 film "Spy Kids." The body and interior of this one appear to be nice enough for a 19-year-old vehicle, so we can assume that it showed up in this place as the result of expensive mechanical problems. We'll get to the Joe Isuzu ads in a moment.