Rare Rides: A 1986 Izuzu P'up, Coming With Length and Turbodiesel

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

Today’s Rare Ride is from the period in the Eighties when many compact pickup trucks were available to the North American consumer. While most of these vehicles were Japanese, some covered their origins with American badges. Others wore both Japanese and American branding, albeit at different dealerships.

Wouldn’t you LUV to check out this P’up? Ugh.

What North Americans called the P’up was called the Faster in its home market. Isuzu brought its first Faster compact truck to Japan in 1972. The new model was a replacement for the brand’s outgoing compact pickup, the Wasp. And like the sedan-based Wasp, the Faster was also based on a sedan: the Florian. The midsizer offered up its doors and front end for the Faster, which qualified as a compact under Japanese law (for lower taxation).

General Motors had a new 34 percent stake in Isuzu, so it ordered Chevrolet badges for the Faster, called it a LUV, and put it on sale immediately. Isuzu did not have a market presence in North America at the time.

A second generation of Isuzu’s successful Faster bowed for model year 1980. Through the generosity of General Motors, this generation spread to other brands and markets, and was badged as the Chevrolet Stallion, Holden Rodeo, Lincah, and Raider, and via Bedford as the KB. In North America it was still the LUV, but Isuzu dealers also sold the truck as the P’up. The move coincided with Isuzu’s entry into North America as a fully fledged brand.

Naturally with such a global product spread, there were many varieties of Faster. With two doors it was sold as a standard and extended cab pickup, and as a chassis with cab. It was available with three or five doors as an SUV, and also had a four-door crew cab option. Adding to the breadth of options, short- and long-wheelbases were available. The truck’s overall length in shorty guise was 174.2 inches, which grew to 191.3 inches in long format.

Engines ranged from 1.6- to 2.3-liters if burning gasoline, and were of 2.0- or 2.2-liters of displacement if diesel. In its first and second generation, gasoline power available to North American Isuzu truck customers remained the same: 1.8-liters, 75 horsepower. When the second gen arrived for model year 1981, it brought with it an optional turbodiesel motor, the 2.2-liter. An ample 58 horses were available. Four-wheel drive was optional on North American LUV/P’ups, but only on the short-wheelbase models.

1983 brought a change to the P’ups fate in North America, as General Motors introduced its new S-10 and S-15 trucks. The LUV disappeared, leaving the P’up to continue alone. The 2.2L turbodiesel engine from the P’up lived a second life though, as a seldom-selected engine offering in the S-10 and S-15 through 1985. The P’up was succeeded in 1988 by the Indiana-made “Pickup,” which continued on through 1996, whereupon it was replaced by the S-10 clone called Hombre.

Today’s Rare Ride is a stunningly well-kept blue/blue P’up from 1986. The hood scoop reminds you it has the D. And check that quality Caprice Classic steering wheel. Subject to a body-off restoration, the P’up asks an optimistic $11,500.

[Images: seller]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • April L Tutich April L Tutich on Sep 20, 2022

    We have one of these '86 diesel pups and looking for parts, specifically rocker arms right now. Any advice?

  • Robert Amee Robert Amee on Sep 05, 2023

    I was the owner of this truck in 2016. I sold it in 2017 for $7500. This is top model for this year. LS =AC, Ps, Cloth interior. And no there is no such thing as these are common in SoCal. I have 2 more I’ll be selling and they are the LS version Space Cab AC Ps Turbo. Every mint Jdm Truck in SoCAL are either exported or bought buy collector.

  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
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