Recaro seats, remote-reservoir shocks, full-time AWD with low-range, DOHC 24 valve V6, and the looks and handling that exceeded the truck-based competiton of that time... This is a truck I would not mind having.
have one in 'Dragon Mica Green.' Cool trivia... Isuzu made 5000, as they had always planned. They wanted to get them to market fast. So, rather than take the normal route of ordering steel presses for the body panels (long - 1.5 yr.? - lead time), they ordered CERAMIC presses/molds, which are much cheaper and a fraction of the lead time. These are only good for about 5000 fenders/doors/hoods/roofs etc. It was a concept vehicle or halo car from the start, and didn't stop at the 5000 number due to waning demand. It was just the original plan by Isuzu.
I remember seeing one of these in person when they were brand new in 1999 and I thought it was the coolest looking vehicle on the road. It looked way futuristic.
What are you talking about..? This started the trend of goofy looking, impractical BMW X6 craze. Now everything looks like this. Bulbous, soft, round and just plain weird. Why cant boxy be seen as “traditional” instead of “outdated.” Now we have the Ford EcoSport. I’d say this looks similar
Nah. The defining characteristic of modern CUVs is that they are simply tall hatchbacks with big wheels, while this is an actual body on frame SUV with off-road abilities. It's a three door "leisure" SUV, actually an extremely 90s concept. Back then a lot of manufacturers experimented with sporty compact SUVs (e.g. Nissan Trail Runner, Toyota RSC, Fiat Bravo Enduro), but only Isuzu had the guts to put one of these concept vehicles on the road. As a result, it is still fresh looking and unique.
As much as I believe that suvs/cuvs are practically oversaturating the market, however, this vehicle was ahead of it's time. Too bad Isuzu ditched us when they had a chance to try again today...
The main ingredient missing from most SUVs nowadays is BODY ON FRAME! This had it, Ml 320 had it, Discovery had it. They sure as hell don't make em like they used to.
I'm always amazed that this vehicle existed in the 90's, and isn't more reknowned for the design being completely anachronistic, capturing the look of cars, especially crossovers, three even four generations later, with a very streamlined silhouette, rounded edges, visible skid plate, smoothly integrated two toned bumpers, spoilers and fenders. Most concept cars barely ever get even the next gen right, and yet this existed back when cars where shaped like boxes with disjointed body parts with chintzy square or completely round lights
My favorite SUV of all time, but it was expensive for it's size. $28,000 in 1999 would be $43,000 in 2018, for a vehicle that's 163" long (about the size of a Kia Soul), and it weighed almost 4,000 lbs!
Can't really compare it to modern cars though since stuff like that didn't really even exist at the time. Still expensive but it's important to consider what it competed with (or lack thereof).
Still looks timeless styling compared to the today’s small SUVs. Wish Isuzu still made vehicles in the USA market. They still do in Asia and South Pacific I think.
My wife and I saw one of these in Des Moines, IA right when they came out and it had a vanity license plate that read "MCCOOL". Since then we've always referred to them as a McCool
my cousin worked at the Isuzu dealer on Merle Hay Road when these came out. He said that customers liked the size and performance but hated the look. I guess they sold several of them to a dealer out of state.
My brother test drove one in 2001 when he was shopping for a car, but it was too expensive ($35k) and he ended up with a Mazda Tribute for about $27k. Super cool vehicle. Way ahead of its time. A genuine classic, from Isuzu! (on second thought, come to think of it,another reason we didn't get the Vehicross is because we literally couldn't get into the back seats. It was impossible.)
I think this one failed as it cost $30k... it looks like it should cost $15k - and I like the looks, but this doesn't look like it's a $30k vehicle, which is like $45k today.
A couple years ago I had a neighbor with one and he really liked it, but had the plastic trim painted satin black and reinstalled because it would fade to grey no matter how often he treated it to try to maintain the color. If you think it looks bad with the black trim it looks worse faded.
The Isuzu VehiCross is what RX-7 is to Mazda...... unique timeless fast and powerful hand-made in small numbers rare radical and will always have a place in to every modern day Isuzu lineup
I have one in 'Dragon Mica Green.' Cool trivia... Isuzu made 5000, as they had always planned. They wanted to get them to market fast. So, rather than take the normal route of ordering steel presses for the body panels (long - 1.5 yr.? - lead time), they ordered CERAMIC presses/molds, which are much cheaper and a fraction of the lead time. These are only good for about 5000 fenders/doors/hoods/roofs etc. It was a concept vehicle or halo car from the start, and didn't stop at the 5000 number due to waning demand. It was just the original plan by Isuzu. Oh... I don't have the numbers in my head, but while the later FJ Cruiser had a pretty short wheelbase, the VX is a few inches shorter still.
Wow, $29k for that? Damn, I thought it was gonna cost in the $16k range - no wonder it didn't sell, it just looks cheap. Cool, but cheap. Man is that priced way too high when it's meant to appeal to 20-somethings who were probably only making $29k a year at the time.
I never understood Isuzu. I owned a '93 Isuzu pickup, and an '86 P'up in the past..great trucks. By '99, Isuzu had given up on a much successful pickup run (at the height of the small pickup craze), and went with rebadging the base model S10/Sonomas as Isuzu pickups, but for some reason, dedicated resources to come up with the VehiCROSS. Then they further went on with rebadging the Envoy as their own. Hell, I think they even traded their Rodeo with Honda in exchange for the early Odyssey. Quite a odd bunch of moves for a company that basically invented the small pickup (LUV) which Chevy sold as their own. Basically, from the mid 90's to the early 2000's, the VehiCROSS was the only original idea Isuzu came up with, as they whore'd everything else away. No wonder they had to pull out of the US market.
What if Isuzu bring this back? and turn it into a super SUV and be their halo model too to rival these: -Porsche Cayenne -Lamborghini Urus -Ferrari Purosangue -Mercedes-AMG GLE63 Coupe -BMW X6M -Audi RS-Q8
@@alexyoungberg5232 Yeah, Trooper based, funny thing is that the reintroduced Amigo replaced it.... I guess the VehiCROSS' big price tag was a put off.
