A friend of mine has a contact within the ranks of Isuzu.
While I was in Los Angeles last week, I made a quick phone call to my friend (back here in PA) , and he set up a brief and casual meeting for me.
I met with this friendly gentleman, and got to see the ill fated VX-2 (not the roadster) up close and in person.

We spoke a little about Isuzu's future. I mentioned our board, and expressed the concern of the many dissappearing dealerships.

I also mentioned the shrinking size of what Isuzu is offering in their line up. I told him that some of us were questioning about Isuzu's consumer vehicle future in the US.

He said that, as far as he knows, there is no intention at all to pull out of the US market. And in fact have some new offerings coming down the road (pun intended)

He then told me about the next new SUV on the books and that it just recently got the green light. But the only solid details that he had on it were that it was based off of the successful '190' platform in Asia. And that initially it was initially scheduled for a fall 2005 release, but now it was pushed back to Jan, 2006 due to some additional engine options that are being tested and investigated (possibly both a V6 and V8 - and mentioned DuraMax diesel)

He isn't a PR guy, he deals with the reality of 'parts and service training'. And therefore is kept in the loop of what is on the horizon when it finally gets the green light, since he ultimately will have to support it.


Now onto a less knowledgeable Isuzu person that I recently ran into:

I had an interesting run-in at the Philadelphia auto show this past Wednesday. (a whole 2 days after my other meeting)

And the guy I spoke to there, was trying to tell me that the 4153 VX's (a number I gave him) 'that were to be' manufactured for the US market, only amounted to about half of that.
Gee... isn't our color chart (broken down by model year) directly from the ranks over in Japan ? (Right Anita?)

He also tried to tell me that there were only 2 model years starting with 1997.

Lets see.. what do all of our 1999/2000/2001 owners have to say about that?

Now.. if he had explained that in 1997 there was one run for the European market, and in 1999 there was the run for North America... I might have put mor faith into what he was telling me.
-- Irony? He is from the offices in LA and travels the auto show circuit preeching his knowledge.