A Japanese car company (more of a truck company, actually) that's been selling stuff in America since 1971. All their early stuff was branded as Chevys and Buicks; Isuzu didn't start using its own name until 1981.
Made semi-decent cars
like the I-Mark, Stylus, and Impulse (better known as the Chevy Spectrum and Geo Storm), trucks
like the P'up, and SUVs
like the Trooper, Rodeo, Amigo, Axiom, and VehiCROSS. Occasionally sold stray clones
like the Hombre (Chevy S-10) and Oasis (Honda Odyssey).
Isuzu as we know it died in
2004, the point when its own products vanished and the company was reduced to selling copies of the Chevy TrailBlazer (Isuzu Ascender) and Chevy Colorado (Isuzu i-series), two of the biggest pieces of
crap on the market. This torturous product starvation, plus the sudden consumer realization that SUVs are for retards, eventually caught up with Isuzu, which will pack up and leave America in
January 2009.
Isuzu's
gone, but oh well, we've still got
Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi,
Subaru, and Suzuki.