Okay, here's my last flog of the horse carcass regarding this: First off, the only "myth" referred to is that the 3.5L engine is prone to premature failure. I have never disputed the fact that there have been some unfortunate failures within our community. What I take issue with is the assumption that these failures are of an abnormal number for a production automotive engine. The poll here indicates 47 failures out of approximately 5000 VX's produced, which if the 3.5L engine were unique to the VX would indicate a 1% failure rate. ONE PERCENT. Now, during the three years of US-destined VX shipment Isuzu produced 292,435 light trucks which is documented in their corporate production plans. I haven't been able to locate the actual number of 3.5L engine used in that number, but it will be among the vast majority as this group includes the Trooper, Rodeo, Rodeo Sport, pickup trucks and similar models. I'm not including the Axiom as it was introduced after '01 and in this example I'm only including production numbers for 1999, 2000 and 2001. So, if just for fun, we say one-third of that three year production (97,478 vehicles) was equipped with the 3.5L engine (and I'll include the VX production in that number to make your odds better) then the total failure percentage from our community poll drops to .05% failure rate. We're just playing with very conservative numbers here, but needless to say if we had the actual unit number of 3.5L engines produced for vehicles you'd find that any documented failures attributable to flaws/defects would be well within production norms.

Does that make it suck any less for those who have had their engine puke? Most certainly not. But my only concern with this assumption that the 3.5L engine will self destruct is that the potential VX owner will find themselves ill-informed based on flawed data. Hopefully this will be my final and last attempt to point this out, I will no longer oppose that viewpoint. The floor is yours...