2001 Isuzu Rodeo LS from North America - Comments

I bought my car brand new in 2002. I loved the look of the car. It was beautiful. then I got it home. I have replaced the oil, oxygen, parking brake and brake sensors numerous times each. Luckily it was still under warranty then.

At about 60,000 miles my air pump went out. It was replaced for $600 from the dealer. Then a month later the new air pump punched a hole in my radiator because of a screw that was not tightened all the way down. Of course they didn't cover that, so I had to put a new Radiator in. That cost a few hundred dollars. A year later that radiator went out too. I replaced it again for a couple hundred dollars.

My car has no working interior lights, no working rear windshield wiper or defrost. I have tried replacing fuses. That did not work. There is some sort of electrical short. The parking brake light however seems to work well because it has been on for a year and they can't make it turn off. They will replace the sensor which lasts a week or so and then it is right back on.

Now the transmission has gone out. It began with a slight miss. Sometimes it would not like to come out of park, or it would randomly slam to a screeching halt while you were driving because it was somehow sliding into park from drive. I took it to be looked at, they said there was nothing wrong and sent me on my way. Now a month later my transmission is burned up. I have no working car ant yet I still make a hefty car note and they want almost $3000 for a new transmission. I will never buy another rodeo.

The car has some serious manufacturer defects.

It is unreliable and expensive to fix when something does break.

Perhaps this is why Isuzu is down to 1 re-badged vehicle in the US.

You guys need to put the blame on Chevy in regards to the transmissions. The auto's in these Rodeo's are the 4L30-E which is a GM transmission, not Isuzu's design.

And personally, if Chevy would've kept to themselves, and kept their own uncharted inventions to the "Chevy" vehicles, Isuzu wouldn't have such a bad name.

I don't know how you guys have a 2001 Rodeo and shelling out all this money if you are the original owner. I am the original owner and bought it December 2000. It is now 2007 and still own it because it came with a 10 year 120K mile powertrain warranty. Only 5 year 60K for 2nd owners. Anyways, it's been decent for me. I haven't had to shell out much money and that is why I keep it. Fuel pump went out once, there is a cheap stock plastic cover on the transmission that makes the tranny go into limp mode, but after they replaced it twice they put an aftermarket aluminum piece that fixed the issues. Rear wiper stops working because the bolt that holds it together gets corroded on the outside. I just put some WD40 on it once in a while and take a wrench to losen it up and then tighten it back up and then it works again. The engine did consume oil a little bit and then found out my EGR was plugged up. They wanted me to pay for that, but I just took the EGR out and took some brake cleaner and cleaned it up and it has worked good ever since and that was like 15K miles ago. I now have 100K on the SUV and it drives great. It seems people just like to complain a lot when they have to shell out some money. Point is your going to have issues with whatever car you buy eventually. If you use some common sense and try figuring it out yourself once in a while you would save yourself a lot of money. Dealers make a lot of money and charge you ridiculous amounts of money to fix something. THe only really hard thing that was replaced was the starter. You have to remove the downpipe of the exhaust in order to get the starter out. And you have to bring the Rodeo in to get a tranny flush down as it requires a special machine to do it. Besides that it hasn't been so bad.

I own a 2001, 5 spd tranny. I have had no major problems and have followed factory maintenance schedules. The only problem I have had is a loose drivers side window gasket, which I am too lazy and cheap to fix. This vehicle has been off road and driven round trip coast to coast, without failure. I have just switched to synthetic oil and the Rodeo is fine. The plugs have never been out of the vehicle, in 40,000 miles and the average mileage, with the V6, is about 17 mpg. I also drive motorcycles and that is why the mileage is low. I like the Rodeo and will keep it for at least 10 years.

I purchased a 2001 Rodeo in nov. 2004 from a dealership.

It had 45k on it. at 63k the tranny went! NOT COVERED!!!

2,400 for new one. Then over a six month span I noticed my brake light was on. Then my fuel I gauge wasn't registering., then the light for the clock on the dash went out. then the rear wiper stopped working. The passenger side seat belt locks so you feel strapped to the seat instead of being comfortable. Prior to the tranny going I also had the same problem as listed above with the shifter not wanting to come out of park. I had to replace all the shocks. And you still feel every slight bump with a vengeance! The truck has been at the mechanics since Thursday trying to track down the source of all these glitches. And just like any glitch, He said He'll either find the source of the short, or possibly it's a loose wire going to the dashboard grid. Worst case is the computer needs to be replaced by the dealer! Re-programed by the dealer! and costing about 1,000$$$$!!! Needless to say there's still a 9k note on the @!*!~! truck! NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN!!!