Junkyard Find: 1982 Isuzu I-Mark Diesel Sedan

For the 1981 model year, Isuzu begin selling cars in the United States through its own dealerships. That’s the kind of history I look for in the Ewe Pullets of the land, but the early P’ups and I-Marks are nearly impossible to find nowadays. At long last, here’s a second-year I-Mark that currently resides in a car graveyard in northeastern Colorado.

Other than some onesy-twosy Bellels and Belletts brought into the country during the 1960s, the first use of the Isuzu name on U.S.-market cars came on some of the “Buick Opels” sold here during the mid-to-late 1970s.

The first Isuzus to cross our shores in large numbers were Fasters with Chevrolet LUV (Light Utility Vehicle) badging. These small pickups first arrived as 1972 models, with LUV sales continuing until the homegrown S-10s hit showrooms as 1982 models (for that one year, LUVs and S-10s were sold side-by-side in Chevrolet showrooms).

In Isuzu’s homeland, the T-Car was sold as the Gemini. Today’s Junkyard Find is an Americanized Gemini.

Though the I-Mark was sibling to the U.S.-market Chevette (which stayed in production all the way through the 1987 model year), it was available with sedan and coupe bodies we never got on the hatchback-only Chevette.

The Gemini-derived Impulse arrived here as a 1983 model.

The final Isuzu-built cars for the U.S. market were 1993 models: the Isuzu Stylus and the Geo Storm (which was a rebadged Gemini Coupe aka Piazza Nero aka Impulse).

After that it was all trucks for Isuzu in the United States. As a final insult to the storied brand named after one of Japan’s most sacred rivers, the last passenger vehicles bearing the Isuzu brand in this country were rebadged Chevrolets: the I-Series (Colorado) and Ascender (Trailblazer).

Isuzu still sells big commercial trucks here, so the Isuzu in America story’s ending isn’t entirely sad.

Today’s FPS subject is only the second T-Body I-Mark I’ve managed to document in a boneyard, after this final-year-of-production ’84 sedan I found in 2019.

I think today’s car is more interesting than the ’84 for two reasons: it’s two years older and it has a diesel engine.

The 1981-1984 I-Mark was available here with a naturally-aspirated 1.8-liter diesel engine, but found few takers. The one in this car was rated at 51 horsepower and 72 lb-ft of torque.

Because the T-Body I-mark was a mechanical twin to the T-Body Chevette, the same diesel engine was available in the Chevy (and its Pontiac 1000/T-1000 twin) for the 1981 through 1986 model years.

The I-Mark Diesel was available with an automatic transmission, but this car has the base five-speed manual (the 1982 I-Mark Coupes had a four-on-the-floor manual as the base transmission).

This car’s MSRP would have been $7,405, or about $26,305 in 2026 dollars. Meanwhile, the cheapest possible Chevette Diesel four-door that year started at $6,606 ($23,466 after inflation).

The original buyer didn’t want to squander money on frivolous extras, such as a passenger-side mirror.

It was sold new at Fisher Chevrolet-Isuzu in Boulder. Fisher is still selling cars in Boulder, but they are Hondas and Acuras now.

These old CU Boulder parking stickers suggest that this car spent its first few years as a student’s ride.

It traveled just over 150,000 miles during its life, which is pretty good for a cheap subcompact of its era.

Air conditioning? Hardly. But it does have Isuzu’s amusing “hair and boots” symbols on the vent/heat controls.

The Audiovox KVX 620 AM/FM/cassette deck was sold through the early 1980s, suggesting that the penny-pinching original buyer saved money by skipping the $343 ($1,218 today) factory unit and going aftermarket.