“Hi, I’m Joe Isuzu and I used my new Isuzu pickup truck to carry a 2,000 pound cheeseburger.”
What you are looking at was up until late 2008 sold as the Holden Rodeo. This strange tale of mirth and woe extends out in all directions so a brief history lesson is in order.
In 1918 the Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering Co and Wolseley Motor Company started to build motor cars. In 1934 this entity changed its name to Isuzu after a nearby river. In 1971 when BMC was comprehensively shooting itself in the head, it on sold Isuzu to GM. For the last 37 years, Isuzu has been progressively buying itself back and then on selling to Toyota and Mistubishi. Now in 2008, General Motors has shot itself in the head and has divested itself of Isuzu to Toyota and Mitsubishi.
Holden who was sourcing the Rodeo from Isuzu, found that Isuzu who owned the name, immediately withdrew the rights over it. Holden in the interim have rescuplted the from of the car and have rebadged it with the name from a similar sized truck in the US, called the Colorado. Isuzu for their part have set up their own dealer network in Australia and are selling their own car under the name D-Max. http://www.isuzuute.com.au/ Presumably Holden will just continue the stock that they have run out of them.
After the latest acquisition by Toyota of 5.9% of Isuzu, they took over the factory in Thailand and it is expected that a diesel-electric light truck powertrain Will be made available in next-generation versions of both Toyota’s HiLux and Isuzu’s D-Max beyond 2010.
Finally, once this year’s Holden Colorado and Isuzu D-Max are retired, the GM-Isuzu divorce will be all but complete save for a few leftovers in New Zealand and maybe some other agreements in places like Brazil, Korea and elsewhere in Brazil.
I don't suspect that Holden are too worried though. It could just mean that their existing Ute may have to go from being pitched to a sporty market back to a working one. It is just possible that we may even see a diesel Ute and as a result a diesel Commodore. And don't think that a diesel car will be a new thing for Holden, they already sell a diesel Astra and all the way back in 1975 sold a diesel Gemini and that was made by... wait for it... Isuzu.
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