From Automotive News (Trade magazine). These guys study and live auto trends. Shortened version, just showing where Isuzu stands. Need to bring back the Rodeo in a diesel and hybrid version....or even an (ugh) much lighter car-based frame and the 4-cyl engine.
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Now that the proposed alliance between Renault-Nissan and General Motors has fallen through, industry watchers are handicapping the marriage prospects of other companies.

To be sure, there is no unanimity on this. Chrysler group CEO Tom LaSorda told Dow Jones Newswires that he does not expect any major alliances. LaSorda predicted that automakers will launch some minor joint projects and perhaps some regional alliances involving marginal companies such as Isuzu Motors.

But I disagree.

There are just too many medium-sized players out there that eventually will have to find a partner. Does anyone really believe that Fiat S.p.A, Suzuki Motor Corp. or Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is going to remain independent for the next five years?

Those carmakers ranked 11th, 12th and 13th in the world in 2005 sales, according to the Automotive News Data Center. Their sales ranged from 1.3 million at Mitsubishi to 2.0 million at Fiat. That's a lot more than 17th-place Isuzu's 630,000.

Yes, I know it was posted earlier. Here's full details.
Article below
more business side of it

Toyota buys a way into diesels
James B. Treece Automotive News / November 13, 2006 - 1:00 am

Wanted: Diesels
What: Toyota buys 5.6% stake in Isuzu for $375 million
What Toyota gets: Access to Isuzu's 800 diesel engineers. Toyota is too reliant on hybrids for fuel-saving technology.
What Isuzu gets: Help from Toyota on alternative fuels and advanced powertrains

TOKYO -- In late July, Katsuaki Watanabe picked up the phone. For the second time in nine months, the Toyota Motor Corp. president was ready to open his wallet and buy his way out of a problem. In October 2005 he had purchased an 8.7 percent stake in Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. from General Motors for about $315 million. Toyota plans to use the Subaru plant in Indiana to build Camry cars. This time he called Yoshinori Ida, the president of Isuzu Motors Ltd. His proposal: Combine forces on diesel engines and alternative drivetrains.

"I was really surprised" and "puzzled" by the call, Ida says. Toyota rarely pursues other automakers' technology. But the more Ida thought about it, the more it made sense. Toyota desperately needed what Isuzu had: diesel expertise and diesel-manufacturing capacity.

Watanabe's call to Ida has paid off. Toyota has purchased 5.6 percent of Isuzu. For approximately $375 million, Toyota now has access to Isuzu's army of more than 800 experienced diesel engineers. These same engineers developed GM's successful Duramax diesel engine for light trucks in the United States.

Wanted: Diesel expertise

The timing of the call was the result of Isuzu's availability and Watanabe's growing awareness of Toyota's shortfall in diesel expertise. In April, GM had sold its final 7.9 percent of Isuzu to raise about $300 million, after having held partial ownership of Isuzu since 1971.

"We think we need to strengthen our diesel capabilities," Watanabe says. "We anticipate the growth of diesel engines going forward." Several events led him to that conclusion. Despite Toyota's efforts to promote hybrids, Europe remained unconvinced. European buyers prefer diesels, which offer improved fuel economy at lower cost than hybrids. Diesel's share there has been climbing for years. In the first eight months of 2006, diesel engines powered more than half of all passenger vehicles sold in Europe. Toyota's diesel offerings are adequate in Europe. But the automaker is not in the forefront of clean diesel technology.

At this spring's Geneva auto show, several European carmakers started talking seriously about diesel hybrids. A few weeks later, Toyota launched its hybrid-powered Lexus GS 450h in Japan. Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president for powertrain r&d, was primed to brag about the hybrid powertrain's extra performance. Instead, Japanese reporters began grilling him about Toyota's plans for a diesel hybrid. Takimoto responded like a deer in headlights. Hybrids use one or more electric motors and an internal combustion engine to power the wheels.

Flanked by Honda

In May, rival Honda Motor Co. flanked Toyota on diesels. Honda promised to sell a diesel-engine car clean enough to meet gasoline-engine emissions levels in North America and Japan within three years. Watanabe was left mumbling that Toyota is working on clean diesel engines, too, but isn't ready to say when the engines will come to market.

Toyota and Isuzu negotiated for three months. To cement their relationship, Toyota was willing to buy a stake in Isuzu. Toyota didn't have a specific number of shares in mind, says Watanabe, when it began talking to Isuzu's largest shareholders. By Nov. 3, the two companies were ready to unveil the broad outline of their deal. The two companies plan to combine their diesel and alternative drivetrain efforts.

"Isuzu's diesel engines will now be mounted on Toyota cars," Ida says. He won't say which cars, or which markets, will get the engines. That will be decided later, he says. The two companies will study the following areas for possible collaboration:

* R&d, and then production, of small diesel engines, led by Isuzu.
* Joint r&d of emissions control technologies and devices for diesels, led by Isuzu.
* Environmental technology, including that related to engines and alternative fuels, led by Toyota.

Diesel hybrid?

While the deal addresses Toyota's diesel shortcomings in the near term, it also positions Toyota to reclaim the green mantle from clean-diesel leaders. Says Watanabe, "In the future we may come up with a diesel hybrid as well." Toyota will buy 100 million shares of Isuzu stock for about $375.0 million from trading houses Mitsubishi Corp. and Itochu Corp. The stock purchase was to have been completed Friday, Nov. 10.

Toyota certainly can afford it. In the six months ended Sept. 30, its operating profits rose 35.1 percent to $9.27 billion. Indeed, according to Takeshi Suzuki, Toyota's senior managing director for finance, one of the company's challenges is finding ways to return more profits to shareholders.

After the purchase, Isuzu's largest shareholders will be Mitsubishi Corp. with 9.7 percent of the stock, Itochu with 7.2 percent and Toyota with 5.9 percent.

Two modified Isuzu pickups to be displayed at SEMA.

http://www.isuzunewsbureau.com/download.php?id=357&type=file

Vehicle Brand Loyalty
Automotive News / December 11, 2006 - 1:00 am

LOS ANGELES -- Nearly two-thirds of Toyota owners stay with the brand when they buy a new vehicle, according to J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 Customer Retention Study.

Toyota nosed out its sister brand, Lexus, to finish on top of the study, which was released last week. Lexus retained 63.2 percent of its customers in the past year, compared with 63.9 percent for Toyota, the study says. Honda was third at 60.3 percent.

The industry's retention rate dropped to 47.9 percent this year from 49.6 percent in 2005, Power said. Suzuki boosted its rate by 15 percentage points, to 43.9 percent. At the bottom of this year's survey were Isuzu (4.7 percent), Mazda (26.8 percent) and Pontiac (27.8 percent).

---Of course, it's very tough to replace a Rodeo when they don't make new ones.

And if you didn't know: The MPG calculations are about to change!
Details on the revised EPA gas mileage ratings for 2008. Basically, every mpg rating is coming down across the board. Who knew?
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061211/NEWS99/61211032

Mazda makes awesome vehicles. I own one. Mazda's vehicles are on the top charts everywhere around the globe - Europe, Russia, Asia.

For Isuzu, it's an honor to be in the same group with Mazda.

Customer loyalty survey on Isuzu... is that something like measuring the respiratory capacity of a coma patient? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

If Isuzu actually sold passenger vehicles in the USA, it sure would be easier to buy a new one. We're looking for something big enough for our critter but capable of decent mpg. I spent some time in an Isuzu Crosswind in the Philippines... that might work if only they brought it here.


Don't even get me startedon how badly I'd like an Isuzu downsize Duramax DI diesel. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" />

Randii

http://www.isuzu.co.uk/fuel_economy/fuel_economy.htm

opps didnt work, click on "3.0litre Rodeo in ground-breaking fuel economy run." on right hand side of page

I don't understand this negative advertising. All my years in America have taught me that MPG is like golf--lower is better.

Who would want a pickup truck with a 3 liter engine that gets 52 miles per gallon? It's outrageous.

You know, as we keep trying to clean up the air, a vehicle that gets twice the gas mileage (although I don't know many people who's pickup gets 26 mpg) is another way of saying it emits half the pollutants over the same distance. But that's just me thinking again.

From 12/18/06 Automotive news
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Consumer vs Commercial plant

Visions of a truck plant in North America dance in the head of Isuzu Motors Ltd. President Yoshinori Ida. But Isuzu dealers who sell to consumers, rather than delivery fleets, should not expect any holiday cheer from the news. Here are three reasons their Christmas stockings will remain empty.

1. Ida dreams of a factory building medium-duty trucks, most likely the 3- to 4-ton N series. He confirmed that he wants a plant during the launch of a redesigned Elf, as the N series is known in Japan.

2. N-series sales in North America must climb to about 50,000 a year to make a plant viable. After 20 years on the market, Isuzu's commercial-truck sales now are about 30,000 a year, including sales in Mexico.

3. Isuzu's business plan centers on medium-duty trucks and diesel engines. Isuzu's U.S. dealers want more pickups and an SUV.

Isuzu continues to go the way of snowmen in June. Its U.S. sales through November are down 29.6 percent to 7,977. That puts it halfway between Jaguar and Bentley and a tad less than one-tenth the size of Hummer.
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From the Toyota President:

Q: How soon will we see Isuzu's diesel engines in Toyota vehicles? Will it happen first in Europe or North America?

A: We haven't decided that yet. But we are hoping that by the end of this year, we will be able to arrange an agreement with Isuzu in terms of how we would like to conduct joint r&d or joint production or contract production.
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And an interesting side-bar:

200,000 cars and trucks were damaged when Katrina soaked New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi in 2005. At the time, those vehicles had their titles branded as flood- or storm-damaged. Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 damaged vehicles were moved to other states, according to a recently released survey by Experian Automotive. Forty-five percent of those vehicles were given new titles that do not indicate their flood damage, and that percentage will grow over time. The NADA and other groups are pushing the National Salvage Registry again this year.
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Titles washed away: 17 states do not record the "salvaged vehicle" title designations for out-of-state cars and trucks.
Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont
Note: Minnesota does not carry forward "salvaged vehicle" designations for cars and trucks that are more than 5 years old.
Source: National Automobile Dealers Association

New Trooper projected for Europe

This vehicle does not look bad. I suppose that some lift kits for GM Canyon/Colorado must fit this vehicle (although, I have no idea what kind of the rear suspension - coil or leafs - it has).