Just a curiosity question for those with Troopers...

On our 2002 Isuzu Trooper, the spare tire cover does not have the "Isuzu
Trooper" lettering that every other one I've seen has. If I remember
correctly the sheet of paper the dealer had when we bought the Trooper new,
the paper was an import statement saying when and where it entered the US.
If memory serves, it came in through Norfolk VA in August of 2002. That
would tend to put it towards the end of the production run I'm guessing...?
Anyway, just curious if anyone else has (or has seen) a Trooper w/o the
lettering on the spare tire cover. I'm wondering if they ran out of letters
and just stopped putting them on at some point.

Another interesting point - I was talking to a guy in the parts dept at St.
Charles Isuzu when I was pricing a new hard-shell cover like that for our 94
Trooper (the vinyl one came apart when we had to use the spare). He said at
one point they had a bunch of them for a good price (of course I missed
them) - apparently they tire cover was put on after they were imported into
the states. So, they had some leftovers to get rid of. I also seem to
recall hearing in the early Trooper days (1991 and before) that they came
into the US w/o the rear seats to be classified as a "truck" and therefore
had a lower import duty to be paid or something like that (supposedly).

Anyway...enough rambling from me... :-)

Wesley

I'm with you on that one...seems nobody makes a plain-vanilla rugged
SUV-type vehicle any more. Heck, can't even really find a base small pickup
like you once could...

Wesley


"BuddyWh" <root (AT) localhost (DOT) > wrote

True about the optional seat on older Troopers. I'm on my fourth
original-style Trooper (86, 90, and two 91s), and all of them had the
rear seat as an option. I love how easy it is to remove, too: only four
bolts and it's out, creating tons for cargo space in the rear.

My current 1991 XS just turned over 100,000 miles and runs great. But,
the rust is getting bad and I need to address that. It's still worth it
to me, though, as nothing else on the market has the basic utility and
low cost of ownsership as the original Troopers. Note that 89-91
Troopers with high miles still go for several thousand dollars on eBay.
If they still made them today I'd buy a new one, even without all the
modern bells and whistles. The 92+ Troopers, while nice, were a radical
change in concept from the original Trooper. Plenty of luxury, but not
enough utility. Sigh.