By: Jeffrey Ross
Autotropolis.com
After increasingly slow sales, Isuzu will be the third major manufacturer to end production this millennium. Isuzu, which first began selling cars in North America in 1980, will meet the same fate that Plymouth (2001) and Oldsmobile (2004) did due to decreased sales.
Isuzu Motors has officially announced that on January 31,2009 it will end retail sales of passenger vehicles in North America after 29 years. In 1999, Isuzu saw one of its strongest years in North America selling over 100,000 vehicles, but as of 2007, sales fell to just 7,098 units, according to the Automotive News.
The dagger for Isuzu was the reliance on vehicles from General Motors. The only passenger vehicles currently sold under the Isuzu nameplate are rebadged versions of the GMC Envoy and GMC Canyon, called the Isuzu Ascender and Isuzu i-series pickup truck, respectively. There were no plans to revise or continue these vehicles, which led many to speculate that Isuzu was packing its bags.
At one point, GM owned as much as 49 percent of Isuzu and in 1998 the GM/Isuzu collaboration produced a powerful and successful diesel engine for commercial and light duty use, the Duramax. Isuzu won’t completely pull out of North America as its commercial line of trucks do quite well.
Being exact replicas of their GMC counterparts, current Isuzu owners need not worry as these vehicles can still be serviced and maintained at General Motors’ dealerships. Domestic Isuzu dealerships will not have such a luxury. According to Reuters, backing out of the U.S. market will cost the company $37 million.