Owner: Kyle Knoll
Purchase price: $800
Years owned: Two
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Found on: Craigslist
My parents bought a 1988 Trooper two weeks before I was born. I came home from the hospital in it. Twelve years later, I learned how to drive it. And since then, I've pretty much never had anything else.
When my parents' Trooper was in an accident, I salvaged the engine and put it in another one that I bought myself. I still own it. But then I started hearing about this mythical beast: the two-door. Isuzu basically took the four-door, cut 14 inches out of the center, and shoved it back together. It's super rare. In '89, only 800 were imported to the United States. One day, when I was looking around online for anything Trooper-related, I saw one for sale. I bought it from a family out in Albuquerque, selling it because it had stopped running. I had to spend a few grand for another salvage engine, then install it, but I didn't care. I was just so lucky to get my hands on one.
It has a tight steering radius, and the short wheelbase and big tires give it high ground clearance. I take it all around Arizona—climbing trips, backpacking, off-roading, and just daily driving. I work on it myself as much as I can. In the Southwest, junkyards are a huge thing, so you can find Troopers that are almost 30 years old that still have quality parts. A friend's dad owns a shop, so I can go down there on the weekends and put it up on the lift for standard maintenance. And if something starts sounding different, any minor problem, I can diagnose it from experience. I've been around them since I was in the womb.
This appears in the June 2017 PM.
