Anyone who knows anything about the Isuzu Trooper will know that this car is a great example of "badge engineering".
Depending on where you lived in the world, and what exact trim/spec you were buying, the Trooper had a few different names.
Here is what the Isuzu Trooper has been sold as at various points in time:
- Isuzu Bighorn (Bighorn was the Japanese Domestic Market name for the Trooper. In New Zealand where I live you see many more Bighorns than Troopers as the country is flooded with used Japanese import cars)
- Acura SLX
- Chevrolet Trooper
- Subaru Bighorn
- SsangYong Korando Family
- Honda Horizon
- Opel Monterey
- Vauxhall Monterey
- Holden Jackaroo
- Holden Monterey
- Caribe 442 (in Venezuela)
When researching for this site, I knew about the Bighorn (as my family has had one of these for about 15 years and 250,000kms) as well as the Honda Horizon and Holden Jackaroo/Monterey, as these were somewhat common sight on New Zealand roads.
However, I never knew that the Trooper was sold as a SsangYong, nor that it was sold as a Subaru Bighorn:
What the Trooper was sold as depends greatly on the market to which it was exported new. For example, the first Trooper my family had was an Isuzu Trooper (it was sold new in New Zealand, and even sported what I believe was a long-range fuel tank as in the 1980s in NZ fuel stations could be few and far between in some parts of the country).
Our second Trooper was actually a Bighorn, as it was a JDM model, originally sold new in Japan and then imported to New Zealand.
In some markets the car was available as multiple options, e.g. in America you could have the Isuzu Trooper or an Acura SLX.