Minneapolis Street Sighting: Isuzu VehiCROSS 4WD

I love Japanese vehicles, and I tend to make that known here on The Automotive Way; unfortunately, around Minneapolis, most of the Japanese vehicles I see are of the garden variety-- typical Honda Civics, Toyota Camrys, and the occasional Suzuki Swift, and for light trucks, the standard of my sightings is the typical Toyota Tacoma or Nissan Frontier that has somehow escaped being hacked into a minitruck.

As a young child, I was fascinated by oddball Japanese makes, and I still am. Isuzu is a make I have always wondered about, because when I was growing up, I noticed that a vast majority of their products had been rebadged for other brands--or were in-fact cheaply badge-engineered versions of vehicles sold by other makes. Case in point, the Isuzu Trooper and Acura SLX, and the Chevrolet S10/GMC Sonoma and Isuzu Hombre. But what happens when Isuzu churns out a vehicle nothing like anything else available? The result is this--the VehiCROSS.  Although the mechanicals are pure Trooper, the styling is all its own. And it looks--well, see for yourself. I like these, but many potential customers found the styling quite polarizing; as a result, production was extremely limited, and the VehiCROSS is a scarce find today.

I have seen a scant ten or fifteen throughout my life, and most of the ones I've seen have been silver like this one; they also came in black, white and yellow, with green and red being even more rare than the normal colors.

I adore this example; yes, its quite dusty, and yes it could use a good wash, but I applaud the owner for not letting it rust. All the appropriate trim and badges are in place, including the much-gone 4WD badge on the tailgate. I am sad that this example suffers from suburbanitis and it will never see a dirt road in its life. Then again, I haven't seen this one since I shot it nearly three years ago, so I don't really know what became of it.

I like these, and because they're quite scarce, I'm glad I shot this. I haven't seen it since, and I haven't seen another VehiCROSS since. I would love to find another one someday, and do a better shoot of it.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Toyota MR2 Spider

I've written about Toyota quite often here; I love the company's old philosophy for making good, fun, driver's cars, and other carmakers did too. Hell,Lotus built off the "MR" idea for their Elise/Exige duo, and the idea of building a small, lightweight, fun-to-drive car still rings true today--for Lotus. The Toyota MR2 has been around since 1985, and died in 2007 after a drastic change in 1999. When the third-generation car came out in 1999, the hardtop died, and the MR was turned into a convertible. It was also marketed as kind of a poor-man's Boxster, and used a high-revving 1.8L four used in the contemporary Celica and Corolla. In its favor, the little guy only weighed a smidgen over 2000 pounds; while not an overly quick vehicle, Toyota's MR2 was not slow by any means.

 As the years wore on,and US crash regulations hindered vehicle styling more and more (raising bumper height and ride height requirement, adding stricter door re-enforcements, etc.), the MR2 gained a raised ride height, a weight gain,and an increase in MSRP, thus making the choice between this and a Boxster even easier. In 2005, when the MR2 earned its last year for US sales, there was talking of Lotus bringing over the Elise, which--well-- why have the MR2 when you can have a Lotus?

In any event, these cars are still coveted today, and the aftermarket potential is quite broad; back in 2004 and 2005, when the import-tuning scene was at its peak, the MR2 was a hot choice; there were even examples featured in 2Fast 2Furious, as well as Tokyo Drift. Recently, though,  I have not seen a nice one around.

While I do quite like the MR2 in general, this one leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.While I generally approve of JDM-style modifications, I am not quite a fan of everything done on this example. I adore the white and black combination, and the Panda license plate is quite cute.

The overall appearance, with its little stickers and one-too-many badges clinches it for me. If the owner left off the stupid sticker, the TRD badge, or the JDM front badge, it would be nearly perfect.

I don't see these much anymore despite being relatively new. I liked these when they first came out, and I still do. For that reason alone, I hope I can shoot a cleaner or at least, less molested example.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Ford Econline

I just now realized; despite claiming that the Econline is a "rare beast" in my parts, I've featured my fair share of them over the years. Not surprisingly, a majority of the ones I've featured have been either rustbuckets, or aging daily drivers that need to be restored. I have never featured a custom Econoline until now.

During the 1970s, long before minitrucks, and pavement-queen hillbilly trucks roamed the streets, a different  kind of custom truck scene was in full-swing" the custom van era.  Vanners would buy the latest and greatest from America's top-three brands (Chevrolet, Dodge, and Ford) either fully customized from the dealer, or they could buy a stock van and do it themselves? But what about the beginner vanning enthusiast? That's where vehicles like this one come into play.  I'm no expert on paint styles and decal styles, but the Ansen wheels and raised white-letter tires suggest that this Econoline has worn this scheme for at least forty years--if not more.

So, will these custom vans be looked at like hot rods are today? Only time will tell, but I can already see a jump in custom vans on the streets. Presence? Yes. Common?  Not quite.

Sporting what I assume is a factory color, and period-correct tape stripes, this seems like it'd be more at home in a California home video than parked on a deserted sidestreet in the middle of the snowiest city in America. But rest assured this one doesn't get driven in the winter.

As I explained up top, these tapestripes could've been applied sometime in the early 1970s; same thing with the choice of rolling stock.  While I don't really approve of the painted-over chrome, it kind of suits the 1970s feel this owner was going for (or has kept); believe it or not, I can see this van parked next to a 1967 Cougar or 1964.5 Mustang done up the same way.

I am glad I shot this one when I did, though, because I haven't seen it in quite awhile. Here's hoping that a) its still on the road and b) that it still looks like this, patina-be-damned.