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Isuzu truck concepts include honeycombed ‘toaster on wheels’

Isuzu took to its hometown auto show to highlight its work in developing next-generation transport trucks, showing eight vehicles and four powertrain systems at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show. The most notable of the bunch are a pair of concepts: the FD-SI, a light-duty delivery truck designed around principles found in the insect kingdom, and the Elf EV, an all-electric version of its light-duty workhorse featuring a large-capacity battery with rapid-charging capability. From a design perspective, the FD-SI will get all the attention — much of it probably of the bemused sort. In truth, it looks like a futuristic toaster on wheels, a rolling box structure fitted with honeycomb patterns on the side panels and a glass cab windshield that seems borrowed from a heavy-duty construction crane. It turns out the honeycomb motif is no mere design whim; Isuzu says its designers focused on the "group intelligence" of insects and tried to apply that principle to the delivery vehicle. So the honeycomb exterior is replicated in the cargo space as hexagonal tube-shaped boxes, which the automaker says is a good compromise between strength and storage space. Inside the cab, the driver controls and seat have all been centralized, with the steering wheel retractable, to encourage smoother operability and more comfortable living space for the driver. "We want to support the drivers, the front-line people of "Transport," with unconventional ideas," Isuzu says. The Elf EV, on the other hand, is a zero-emissions, low-vibration delivery truck powered by a lithium-ion battery that'll take the vehicle at least 100 km, or 62 miles, on a single normal or fast-charge. It sports a 4x2, rear-wheel drive transmission with independent suspension in the front and leaf suspension in the rear. Here's a quick list of Isuzu's other Tokyo offerings: A 6x6 all-wheel-drive truck, featuring single wheels on all axles, built for rough terrain such as areas hit by major natural disasters. 80th anniversary editions of the Giga heavy-duty truck, geared with a remote monitoring system to transmit vehicle data for remote analysis to ensure safe driving; the Forward medium-duty truck, which boasts 10 percent higher fuel economy than its 2015 version; and the internal-combustion version of the Elf light-duty truck, which is sold in the U.S. as the N-Series.

Cars with the most reckless drivers are full of surprises

Insurify is a site for comparing auto insurance quotes. Because insurance shoppers need to submit information like the vehicles they're driving and the infractions they've compiled while driving those vehicles, Insurify has quite the database of correlations tying certain models to a habit of breaking certain laws. When the site's data analysts decided to compile a list of the top ten models for reckless driving citations in the decade from 2010 to 2019, the ranking contained a few wild entries. The Dodge Challenger making the countdown will surprise precisely zero people. But the Saturn L200? First, a definition: USLegal.com defines reckless driving as "driving with a willful or wanton disregard for safety. It is the operation of an automobile under such circumstances and in such a manner as to show a willful or reckless disregard of consequences." So this list is a caution about particular drivers more than the cars. For a baseline, according to Insurify data, for any random model, 15 out of 10,000 people who drive that model have picked up one citation for reckless driving. Back to that Challenger, then. No shocker for being here, but it's actually number 10, with 44 out of 10,000 Challenger drivers nabbed for a willful disregard of consequences on the road. That's better than the first surprise entry, the Saturn L200, a sedan only on sale for six years, with the least horsepower on the list, and out of production since 2005. The data set put drivers of GM's extraterrestrial sedan at 45 reckless pilots per 10,000 drivers. There are two pickups on the list, the only modern one being the Ram 1500 at eighth, with a rate of 46 in 10,000. Somehow, drivers of the third-best-selling pickup in the U.S. outrun the overwhelming numerical superiority of the best-selling vehicle in the States, the Ford F-150. The other pickup is the Chevrolet K1500 at number five, with a rate of 56 in 10,000. This is not only the oldest vehicle on the list, it went out of production in 2002, before any other vehicle on the list. Between the trucks, the Volkswagen CC slotted in at seven with 47 in 10,000 reckless driving chits, the Cadillac ATS slipped into sixth with 48 in 10,000.  The top four is a bag of unexpected. The Nissan 370Z is the first hardcore sports car on the list at number four, with 61 in 10,000 Z drivers flaunting their Fairladys in the face of Johnny Law.

Junkyard Gem: 1994 Isuzu Rodeo 4WD

After a decade in which Isuzu-built Chevrolet LUV pickups, Isuzu-engined Chevrolet Chevettes and Isuzu Geminis with confusing "Opel by Isuzu" or "Buick/Opel Isuzu" badges, Isuzu finally began selling Americans its vehicles with Isuzu badging in the early 1980s. There were Isuzu cars, sure, but the P'up pickup and (starting in 1984) the Trooper SUV showed that Isuzu was likely to rake in the most yen by selling trucks on this side of the Pacific. The three-door convertible Amigo appeared here in 1989, but it was a little too small and silly to sell much among the suburban-commuter set. For the 1991 model year, a five-door Amigo sibling showed up: the Rodeo. The early Rodeo is getting quite rare today, but I was able to find this fairly clean '94 in a Denver-area self-service yard a few months back. These trucks, which were based on the same chassis as the P'up (known as the Isuzu Pickup after 1987) sold well in Colorado. You could get the first-generation Rodeo with rear-wheel-drive, but the four-wheel-drive version made more sense if you wanted to slog through snow and mud in the Rockies (or just feel safe when crossing a parking lot dusted with the white stuff). This truck has true four-wheel-drive, not what eventually became known as all-wheel-drive, but at least the higher trim levels had automatic locking hubs instead of the manual sort that forced you to stop and kneel in the mud to switch. Americans loved automatic transmissions nearly as much in 1994 as we do today, but they cost a lot more relative to manuals back then. This truck has a five-speed manual. The MSRP on this truck was $19,249, or about $39,075 in 2022 dollars. If you wanted it with an automatic transmission, the price went up to $20,349 ($41,310 today). The air conditioning in this one cost an additional 850 bucks (1,725 bucks now). The engine is an Isuzu 3.2-liter V6, rated at 175 horsepower. This truck was built at Subaru-Isuzu Automotive in Indiana; Subaru eventually bought out Isuzu's share of the joint venture and now only Subaru models are built there. Just to add another manufacturer to the mix, Honda sold rebadged Rodeos with Passport badges (and rebadged Troopers as Acura SLXs). This one was well-cared-for, looking clean for a machine with close to 200,000 miles on the clock. We can assume that some costly mechanical ailment finally sent it to this, its final parking place.