Isuzu
The company was founded in 1934 as a joint undertaking by Ishikawajima and the truck section of DAT (the predecessor to Datsun). Torao Aramaki was the talented young engineer, who built the first big air-cooled
Diesel engine. In 1970, he became the president of the Isuzu Motor Company.
| Ranking in 1970 |
| Toyota |
| Nissan |
| Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) |
| Isuzu |
Although the Japanese motor industry was otherwise showing an upward trend and Isuzu was the fourth largest, but because of their particular focus on the truck sector and a fairly saturated market in Japan, they
were no longer particularly successful. They were worried about the exploitation of their manufacturing capacities.
Attempts to break into the motor car sector, had been made over and over again, e.g., with the manufacturing under licence, of the English Hillmann Minx and the purely Japanese successor to that, the Bellel-2000,
with which they were not particularly successful. Even the styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro couldn't change the situation. The 4,5 meter long four door saloon was simply a bad seller.
Somehow it seemed that Isuzu was not recognised as a motor car manufacturer. Also the attempt at producing such vehicles abroad failed. They decided to go into a merger. There was already a tie-up with
Mitsubishi, they however, were interested in going into a partnership with Chrysler in the USA. In the meantime we know that at that time, Isuzu's connection to General Motors was established.
The Americans were interested in the Japanese market. They were stopped from directly getting a foot in the door by the strong Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Thus
merging with Japanese companies was the only possibility. Indeed, the merger between GM and Isuzu was at first, blocked by the MITI.
One year later however, it did come to GM having a one-thrd participation in Isuzu. The fact is, that for almost the whole of the following time, the Japanese company didn't bring the Americans much luck. Their
president, Aramaki didn't have much good fortune either, shortly afterwards he was replaced by his predecessor.
It wasn't for the lack of trying to establish themselves in the motor car sector. Apart from the somewhat larger saloons, pick-ups and later on off-road vehicles, there certainly were studies in the direction of two-seaters
and sports cars, none of which broke through to the surface. That which remained in memory from 1974 to 2000, was the Gemini, a vehicle which looked similar to the Opel Kadett (GM Chevette), which however, had
an Isuzu engine.
In Europe (Germany) one heard about Isuzu, when in 1991, a 1,6 litre Diesel engine for the Corsa appeared and the Rodeo spin-off, the Opel Frontera was born. The Diesel engine of the former was rated
considerably higher than Opel's own engine, the very successful early sales of the latter only dropped because it was slapped together by the IBC-Vehicles company in the vicinity of London.
Since 2006, Isuzu is no longer a GM-subsidiary, so it wasn't sold because of the financial crisis. Toyota and Mitsubishi now hold a small amount of shares. In Germany, Isuzu offers, among other vehicles, the D-Max, a
good towing vehicle for heavy trailers, disguised as a pick-up or an SUV. Have a look at the video below which compares it with the VW Amarok.
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