The 5th Generation Isuzu: The End An Era

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The 5th Generation Isuzu: The End An Era

The curtain closed on the current chapter of the legendary 5th generation Isuzu KB bakkie as the last unit rolled down the line at General Motors South Africa’s Struandale plant in Port Elizabeth at the end of November. The first Isuzu was built in South Africa in 1979 and this, the 5th generation of Isuzu’s tough one tonne workhorse, was first launched in the South African market in August 2004 reaching average sales of 1326 units per month with over 140 060 units sold in its generation’s lifetime. The Isuzu KB has been delivering for business, fleet and individual private owners throughout South Africa with over 12 % market share driven by a comprehensive range of over 20 locally engineered model derivatives in its eight year lifecycle.

“Building the last unit of the 5th generation Isuzu KB was an emotional feeling. Obviously there is some retrospection that we are leaving some history behind us but also an understanding that we need to continue to evolve and stay ahead with competitive product,” says General Motors South Africa Plant Manager, Clayton Whitaker.

The 5th generation Isuzu KB showed it had lost none of its predecessors’ legendary toughness when it took on the challenge of eradicating Angola of illegal firearms and ammunition as the vehicle of choice for the Special Forces units involved in Operation Mandume in 2007. With this tough mission accomplished Isuzu then turned its sights on the 72 hour speed and endurance records set by its main rival a few years before. The Isuzu 72 Hour Endurance Race took place at the Gerotek Test Facility’s Oval outside Pretoria in 2010. At the end of the 72 hours the leading KB 300 D-TEQ bakkie had completed 12 243.385 kilometres at an average speed of 170,047 km/h over 72 hours smashing the previous distance record by 722.721 kilometres. The Isuzu KB 300 D-TEQ rewrote the record book for its class and set new overall records for diesel bakkies over the 72 hour endurance event. The KB 250 D-TEQ fared equally well with the KB 250 beating the previous class record of 11 024 km (previously held by a 3.0 litre diesel) by 471 km with a new record distance of 11 495.567 km.

GM South Africa employees are extremely proud of the vehicles they produce and are particularly excited about the Isuzu KB. “The guys are extremely proud of the vehicles they build and the successes they have achieved. Isuzu is an iconic brand in South Africa and the new generation gives us the opportunity to build on this brand loyalty,” says Isuzu General Assembly Manager, Bentley Hiscock.

“We are quite excited about the next generation of the Isuzu KB. I really like the aggressive styling and clever engineering of this vehicle,” says 6th Generation Launch Manager, Patrick McCarty

Quality Manager, Andy Alexander added, “The current Isuzu KB is testimony to a tried and tested product quality recipe. Having pleased both fleet and individual customers, it has lived up to its heritage of a tough and reliable bakkie. Just recently a competition was run where the winning Isuzu KB with the highest mileage had clocked just over 1 000 000 kilometres. There is no better way of proving the quality of a product than this and the Isuzu KB has done this impeccably. We at GM are extremely proud to be associated with a brand of this stature which in its final days of production has still managed to achieve a 1st position for both the Petrol Single Cab and Diesel Single Cab as well as a second place position for the Diesel Double Cab in the latest Ipsos Quality

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About General Motors:

General Motors, one of the world’s largest automakers, traces its roots back to 1908. With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 217,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in some 140 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 34 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, FAW, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM’s largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy. GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. General Motors acquired operations from General Motors Corporation on July 10, 2009, and references to prior periods in this and other press materials refer to operations of the old General Motors Corporation. More information on the new General Motors can be found at www.gm.com.