Zeitgeist is a term that gets bandied about when people try to sound smarter than they actually are. So it’s no surprise that I’m going to use it here.
But there was a bit of a zeitgeist as far as cars went at the turn of the millennium. SUV’s were hot! Little one’s, monster one’s, military one’s. Everybody seemed to want that oversized monster in the driveway. We were still feeling the afterglow of the mid 90’s economic boom and we wanted that big car but we also bought into that rugged outdoorsy image that we were convinced could be bought at the local dealership.
6 Years out of college and I’m finally making decent money. It was 1999 and I was ready for a small spending spree. SUV’s were the big thing and I was ready for mine
I didn’t want those tiny ones like the Geo Tracker or the Suzuki Sidekick. Those were for the teenagers going to the movies on a Saturday night. I certainly didn’t want a Suburban as I had no kids soccer team to pick up and take to get pizza. So I went the middle way and chose the Isuzu Rodeo with a shiny black glossy paint job.
My family was outraged. “Those things are overpriced!”, “They flip over easy!”, “What about gas prices?” Every reason under the sun not to get one.
But I had made up my mind. It was a handsome design that Isuzu had come up with. Refined from the days of the old Isuzu Trooper and Trooper II. When Honda wanted to sink its claws into the SUV market it borrowed the design and slapped a label on it calling it the Honda Pilot.
For its size it could carry a massive amount of cargo. Chairs, tables, boxes, anything you wanted. It was soon a family and friend favorite for moving stuff.
The height advantage over normal cars was impressive. It almost seemed you were floating high over the surrounding traffic and it had allowed me to wade trough the worst of tropical storm Allison.
Isuzu however had made two blunders. Or rather they made one and I made one. They installed a 139 hp V4 engine in the S model I bought, and I was dumb enough not to notice.
This engine struggled with the weight and was almost paralyzed when the air conditioner was on. It was a bad, bad idea. The truck lacked acceleration. I called it the “black bomber” because after years of small cars that could zip in and out of traffic like jet fighters, this handled like a plodding old bomber.
On top of it there had been bad luck. The Rodeo was and is a reliable design and if you look online or in newspapers you will still find old Rodeos with high resale value. However I blew two head gaskets in 7 years of owning it.
Don’t get me wrong I still loved the old Rodeo, but after 7 years it was time. So I began 6 months of research looking for the next car.
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