🏎️ Max Finds the Wonkiest SUV You've Never Seen

Gm. It is Monday.

It’s summer & you are reading the most entertaining written automotive content on the whole internet.

What a way to start the week.

Friday we got a little romantic about a 911… I’ll admit I teared up a couple times writing about it. It’s called PASSION. If another automotive newsletter author isn’t getting watery-eyed at a car he loves, he shouldn’t be competing against me.

Anyways, since we collectively bought a $145k car on Friday,

I figured today we go for something a little more ‘bang for buck’… but unique nonetheless.

It’s a car that was 20 years ahead of its time, and is gaining steam in the collector community…

HERE IT IS: A 1999 Isuzu VehiCROSS

But What Makes The VehiCROSS So Cool?

• Its Styled Like A Baby Vampire Goat

• It Was Surprisingly Innovative

• Kanye Drives One? For Some Reason

Today’s Edition is brought to you by eBay Motors

But First, the Highlights…

Sometimes car companies take a shot in the dark and do something wild. Isuzu did that with the VehiCROSS. Weirdly, I think they pulled it off. Given only 6000 were made,and that this one has low miles, I’m thinking its going to get near $20k on auction!

Though, saying out loud that ‘someone is going to pay 20k for an ISUZU thats almost 25 years old and covered in plastic’ does make me… question myself. We shall see!

• 🌏️ Driven around the world: 2.7x

• 🎼 Song to Get the Vibes Right: Run This Town - Jay Z, Rihanna, Kanye West

  • This will make sense later, I promise

• 🏇 Can beat 215 horses in a fight

• 💰️ Predicted Price: $18,989

• 📆 Auction Ends: Friday, June 30th, 2023

Its Styled Like A Baby Vampire Goat

Obviously we have to cover the VehiCROSS’s weird ass look before we dig in any further.

HEAR ME OUT on the goat thing.

You’re going to have an epiphany when you see it.

Exhibit A: The VehiCROSS

Exhibit B: A Non-Vampiric Goat

SO, first tip off is the strange headlights on the VehiCROSS. They have these strange lil nubs on the top, like the goat’s little horns:

Very, undeniably, horn-like.

NEXT: The vampire fangs. Check out the grill on the VehiCROSS - it literally has a design feature frequently referred to as ‘titanium fangs’.

Now… with some state of the art image editing, lets visualize what that lil goat would look like as a vampire:

Told you, simply uncanny.

It’s not only the front of the VehiCROSS that is strange though, the rest of the car is effectively wearing plastic pants.

It evokes the famous ‘if a dog wore pants’ question:

The plastic cladding surrounding the VehiCROSS was meant to both look rugged (it does, IMO), and prevent the driver from having to worry about scratches when taking their Isuzu off-road.

I’m not sure how well it did at the ladder, this sticker doesn’t exactly make me believe the plastic was very… resilient:

In any case, the styling was intentionally unique. It was meant to be a look into the future… though given it still looks strange today and that Isuzu hasn’t even sold cars in the US since 2009, they may have been a little too early on the design queues here.

But the styling is not the only thing Isuzu thought was going to be ahead of its time…

It Was Surprisingly Innovative

The VehiCROSS was built by Isuzu to be their “Halo Car”.

Brief aside… WTF is a Halo Car? It’s basically a car that a manufacturer makes to draw attention and interest to the brand to increase sales of other models. It’s generally not a big seller, and often is built with tech that will eventually make its way into the rest of that manufacturers lineup. A few Halo Car examples are: The Chevy Corvette, Acura NSX, BMW i8, and so on.

Anyways, Isuzu KNEW the VehiCROSS wasn’t going to be a big seller. It only sold 6000 of them. But to make it worth their while, they used it as an opportunity to both design the exterior boldly, and give it some unique and creative features to demonstrate to the world what they could do.

At the time, they were mostly known for rugged, utilitarian vehicles, and the rest of the SUV market was pretty homogenized.

Companies like Ford and Chevy would make the Explorer and Trailblazer to compete with the likes of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and others, but in reality they all were VERY similar in feature set, look, engine power, etc.

The VehiCROSS had some shit that no one else had.

First, remember those headlight horns? They aren’t just to make the car look mean.

In fact, they were used to indicate more clearly to people sitting in the car whether one of their headlights was out. The horns would light up as ‘running lights’ when your headlights were on, and they were easily visible from inside the car.

No more getting pulled over for a blown bulb, or staring into the reflection in the car in front of you to try to figure out if your lighting is working as it should.

Legitimately clever!

Next, the fancy ‘Torque on Demand’ (TOD) system Isuzu put in this sucker.

TOD was an ahead of its time approach to managing traction in various driving systems.

Basically, it was electronic & automatic 4WD.

In normal conditions, the VehiCROSS would let the car propel itself as normal in 2WD (from the rears).

BUT! If it noticed any loss of traction in those rear tires (like if you were flooring it on an on-ramp or blasting through some snow banks) it could instantly send some power to the front wheels or whichever tire had the most grip at the time.

Though this is reasonably standard today, in the late 90’s this was actually a big leap forward in 4WD tech!

Last!

The VehiCROSS was one of the first cars in history to get a backup camera from the factory.

When you look at the back of it, it becomes apparent pretty quickly why it needed it…

Doesn’t seem like it has the best visibility out the back.

Final clever feature honorable mention:

An air vent specifically for your crotch!

Kanye Drives One? For Some Reason

For a dude who has said ‘What you think I rap for, to push a fuckin’ Rav 4?’, pushin’ an Isuzu is an interesting choice!

Actually though, given other celebs like Kendall Jenner are known to drive another quirky, previously cheap(ish) SUV: the G-Wagon Cabriolet

And those G-Cab’s are now WELL OVER $200k…

Seeing Kanye driving one might be the first indicator that these VehiCROSS’s are about to go to the moon dogecoin style.

(NOT FINANCIAL ADVISE (though its def implied you shouldn’t take financial advise from a dude that bought a mouse infested car)) but yeah this thing might be the greatest investment automotive investment of the decade.

BUY IT.

And remember…

MaxFindsCars.com is not, technically, free! By subscribing, dear reader, you have agreed to tell your friends about it.

In fact, I believe the contract specifically stated you had to each subscribe 100 of your closest friends, colleagues, enemies, exes, priests, pets, & sugar mommas. I’ll have to check the fine print to be sure, but you all may as well get started spreading the word in the meantime.

That's a wrap for today. New Editions come out every Monday & Friday! While you wait, go out and drive! And if you want more, be sure to follow Max’s Twitter (@maxjzin)

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