Minneapolis Street Sighting: Isuzu Axiom

This will be my second time breaking my "No Modern Cars" rule this week, and its for a good reason. Isuzus themselves are fairly rare now, much less the Axiom. GM has a history of ruining brands it attempts to take over, and Isuzu is no exception. I could write a book on what GM did with Isuzu, and it's quite sad. Unfortunately, when left to their own devices, well, the company themselves lacked a styling department as evidenced by...this.

When the Axiom was introduced in 2002, it was thought of a futuristic SUV; problem was, in 2002, aside from decidedly retro cars, nothing with insanely outrageous styling sold well--and the only outrageous styling on this otherwise-bland SUV was the front fascia; all the openings and grates just seemed out of step with the rest of the design. That, combined with a relatively high price of entry really hit hard, and the Axiom was pulled after just three slow-selling years on the market. It doesn't help the this "new SUV" was built on what was then a nearly thirteen year old chassis. While that may work for the Mustang (because it has a cult following), the same trend spelled doom for this newcomer to the just-emerging luxury SUV class.

To add insult to the truck's death, its replacement was the Ascender; I really think that if Isuzu wanted to succeed, they would've developed a firm business plan instead of hamfisting designs together, slapping a retail price on said design, and calling it a new vehicle. This is what ultimately drove them down. That, and the ties to GM, who severely limited their funding so designing new vehicles was out of the question.

All complaints aside, the Axiom is a relatively generic vehicle from the turn of the millenium; vehicle design as a whole was not quite cohesive, and the Axiom reflects that. Almost too bluntly; it appears the front fascia and rear fascia were designed for two different vehicles.  Aside from this jarring front end design, the rest of the Axiom looks.. well.. stale. And it is. It was a concept vehicle from the late 1990s that should have stayed such. Nevertheless, Isuzu needed a vehicle to compete with newer vehicles out (redesigned Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer), and the Axiom let them have out. The public wasn't amused--and neither was Isuzu. They lost money on every one sold.

I am happy I shot this Axiom, because, well, they're getting pretty scarce here. No, I don't like them, and I probably never will, but the Axiom was the last vehicle Isuzu sold that wasn't a clone of anything else--and that's not a bad thing perse.