1998 Isuzu Amigo 4x4 review from North America

After having had it for 2 weeks I 180'd it in the rain and bent the rear axle. Only worked this out 2 years later after repeated problems with brake rota noises. 30,000 miles the clutch went on the highway. Cost $1,100 to fix! Great. Alternator and starter went 2 weeks later. Had multiple problems with the clutch switch failing which made the whole car useless as without it engaging you couldn't start the engine. Very frustrating that a $90 part could criple a 20,000 dollar car. The Soft top became very fragile in the 2 years I owned it. The shattered in the cold New England winters with the merrest of pressure. Then towards the end the baffles came off and then the manifold regularly came loose. The gear box then plaid up by refusing to go into reverse. Thank god a trans flush fixed it, but that was the end of the line. I had to suck it up and fork out for a new one. The engine really had lost any of its perfomance ability to as it aged. Really started to struggle up hills on freeways etc. Must have blown 6-7000 dollars on it if not more over 4 years. Not relaible. Now got a Honda Element.

When I got this car I wanted nothing else. I loved it. Fantastic lines and looks. Great versatility. I loved the fun nature of it. The SUV aspects for the winter snow and the soft top for the summer. What more could you as for. Wellll reliability. If I had had less problems with it I would have kept it. It was my baby. There was nothing nice than driving on the American open road with the top down in the summer. I wish it had a little better design for hauling stuff though. Especially in the winter, having to unzip the back window when you needed to get something like a tv in sucked. It really hurt my fingers as the canopy really shrank a lot in the cold. It was cool having a rare car too. You don't see too many of them about. People would stop and ask me what it was, especially in summer. But the rareness cost me at the repair shop as there are zero rebuilds and parts (because they don't sell a lot) are very expensive.