Italianese Classic: 1978 Isuzu 117 Coupe XC
Toyota got into the miniature pony car game with their 1972 liftback restyle that looked suspiciously like a 69/70 Mustang, but there was another Japanese company building fastback styled 2+2 pony cars way back in 1968 — yes, from the company that time forgot, Isuzu. Find this 1978 Isuzu 117 Coupe XC here on eBay offered for $21,150 buy-it-now or make-offer, located in Orlando, FL.
The 117 Coupé was released in 1968 with a gorgeous Giorgetto Giugiaro design and available gas (and diesel!) inline-4 cylinder powerplants. This car dates from the post 1977 styling facelift that added square headlights along with a number of other minor trim changes that had been added over the years. Anyway you cut it, the 117 Coupé is a good looking car with a cool pedigree offered at a reasonable price.
Under the hood is a 2.0 liter single-overhead-cam 8-valve inline-4 that puts out something like 135 horsepower in JDM spec. The seller doesn’t explicitly mention if the car has been federalized or what it will take to import it, but it looks clean.
On the inside you are treated to a set of high-back bucket seats up front with cloth inserts and a very basic 1970s dashboard.
See another 117 Coupe for sale in the USA? tips@dailyturismo.com
why would anyone want to store and keep one of these, when the factory was only able to sell the odd one in NA, that does not make it valuable to me with such a small engine, RHD wich is insane in today's traffic in North America. Best to sell it in GB or Australia.
135 hp is great from a 2 liter . This would be mine in a flash if I had too much lunch money. Very cool….
I need to update my definitions of cool and reasonably priced…I am clearly out of it!
@ Anonymous,
If everyone's automotive taste was the same, we'd prob'ly all be driving Camrys.
My personal taste runs more toward the pre-facelift models; I bought & built this in a kit (Tamiya?) when I was a kid.
Loved it then, love it now. These, the original Toyota Corona and an encounter with a Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) Bongo made me realize that the Japanese were about to take over the world…
It's rather cool that Isuzu just built the Italian shape and didn't trowel on a bunch of 'surface excitement'.
Looks kind of like a coach built (retouched) Austin Marina GT from the same era.
Giugiaro recycled his Fiat Dino design on this one.
I like it but it looks like it needs some HGH.
21k will but some pretty muscular cars
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awesome car
i had one in jamaica,in the late 80's