Junkyard Find: 2006 Isuzu I-280 Pickup
Published: August 19th, 2019
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Some guys dream of finding a Blower Bentley or Hemi Super Bee in a dusty barn. I get excited when I find an obscure example of badge engineering in a big self-service junkyard.No Suzuki Equator— yet— but here’s something just about as rare: the Isuzu-badged version of the Chevrolet Colorado, found close to Pikes Peak in Colorado.
Vehicle manufacturers like to name their products after beautiful and/or romantic locations. When you see a Ford Granada, for example, you’re supposed to imagine a lovely Andalusian city. The Subaru Tribeca conjures up images of a focus group-approved rich-hipster neighborhood on Manhattan Island. Isuzu USA opted for the name of the notoriously traffic-jammed freeway that connects San Francisco with San Jose for their truck.
Yeah, I know, it’s really just the European-sounding designation for an I-Series pickup with the 2.8-liter version of the GM Atlas engine. I think Isuzu should have stuck with the P’up name for this truck, but nobody contacted the Murilee Martin Image Consulting Corporation on the subject.
These trucks didn’t exactly fly out of Isuzu showrooms; I’d been searching for an I-Series for years and I drove an hour to Colorado Springs just to photograph this one.
Naturally, I brought along one of my many old film cameras (in this case, a 1969 FED-2 from the USSR) and shot the Black Ice Car-Freshner Little Tree within this rare truck.
If Isuzu bothered to advertise the I-Series in the United States, those ads didn’t make it to YouTube. Here’s the Thai version, still built in Louisiana but known as the D-Max.If you like these Junkyard Finds, be sure to visit the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™ for all 1,700 of them.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Almost bought a NEW Isuzu i-280 in 2006 instead of a used 2004 F150 Heritage. Long term I think I made the right choice.
Might have been a better choice for you but the Isuzu was still not a bad choice especially with sizeable discounts. The Isuzu I series are the identical truck to the Colorado and Canyon made in the same plant and there have not been any major issues with either of those trucks. I have a 2008 I-370 which has been a good solid truck. I doubt this truck was junked because of mechanical issues. Looking at the body there is just enough damage to make the insurance company total it rather than fix it especially since it is 13 years old. It could have had high mileage which would make its value nearly worthless regardless of its condition.