Doylestown Auto Repair

Junkyard Gem: 1998 Isuzu Oasis

Audi Repair Shop Doylestown
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When I’m crawling through a big self-service wrecking yard (as I do at least once a week) in search of

interesting discarded vehicles

, the top of my “look for” list always includes weird and obscure examples of badge engineering, the weirder and more obscure the better. So far the Nissan-made

Suzuki Equator

has eluded me, but I

have

managed to shoot such junkyard badge-engineering oddities as the

Mitsubishi Precis

(

Hyundai

Excel),

Acura SLX

(

Isuzu Trooper

),

Saab 9-2X

(

Subaru Impreza

) and

Saturn Astra

(Opel

Astra

).

Isuzu’s

dire need for a

minivan

in the late 1990s led to a deal with

Honda

to sell the first-generation

Odyssey

as

the Oasis

(even as the Trooper became the

Honda Passport

). Few bought the

Oasis

, but I found one in a Denver yard a few months back.

Junked 1998 Isuzu Oasis

Pure Honda throughout, down to the VTEC badges on the engine. This is the 2.3-liter F23 four, rated at 150 horsepower for 1998.

Junked 1998 Isuzu Oasis

Sold new in Denver, will be crushed in Denver.

Junked 1998 Isuzu Oasis

Though Americans bought many a

Geo

or

Chevy

built by Isuzu during the 1980s and 1990s (not to mention the big-selling Isuzu-made Chevy LUV truck of the 1970s), the Isuzu brand never really caught on over here. By 2009,

Isuzu was gone

.

Junked 1998 Isuzu Oasis

The first-generation Odyssey was well-made and efficient, but it was designed for the Japanese home market and thus was too small for most American van shoppers in 1998 (most of whom were moving to SUVs around that time, anyway). You could fit a lot of people and gear in this small-footprint machine, but that was more important in crowded Japanese cities than in sprawling American suburbia.

Junked 1998 Isuzu Oasis

Collectible? Not at all. But an interesting piece of

automotive history

.

I can’t find any Oasis ads online, so let’s watch a JDM commercial for the first-gen Odyssey, featuring the Addams Family.

from Autoblog http://bit.ly/2IOjqUO