We don’t often have a lot of Isuzu news here, but the least-loved Japanese marque had some nice designs before completely falling out of the passenger car market altogether. The I-Mark was one of the first cars in the US to be branded an Isuzu, which came to the US market in 1981. Prior to that, Isuzu-built cars had been sold by GM’s Opel division through its Buick dealerships thanks to a panicked attempt to get small cars into the the lineup after the 1973 Oil Crisis. That crisis also prompted a huge influx of diesel engines into the US, since diesel fuel returned better mileage and cost less than petrol. The I-Mark coupe is a looker, and now that Isuzu has announced plans to abandon the passenger vehicle market altogether, this will soon become one of the many forgotten but quaint relics on the roadside of failed automakers. Here’s an Opel-badged version for comparison.
This two-owner car on eBay appears to be completely stock except for a tow bar in the front. According to the description, many of its miles were accumulated behind the first owner’s motor home. This is believable, as the interior wear doesn’t indicate 195,000 miles of occupation. It came from Arizona too, which means no salt but lots of sun. No top-down photos of the dash and rear parcel shelf are available, but there don’t seem to be any sun-baked cracks on either, nor on the vinyl sections of the rear seats. The auction has ended early implying that the seller cut a deal outside of eBay, so we don’t know the price it sold for, but he was looking for $3500 to BuyItNow. Thanks to David for the tip!
[Source: Motoring J Style]
