1998 Isuzu Hombre

With all the upgrading, upscaling and upleveling going on in the truck business these days it would be easy to ignore the fundamental premise of why someone might want a pickup in the first place: To haul stuff around, be reliable and not cost too much money. It's this back-to-basics concept that defines the Isuzu Hombre and its mission. Not the fanciest, nor the most powerful, nor the most loaded with options, the Hombre offers honest truck-hauling at an affordable price. The Hombre is a new model on the market, but that doesn't mean it will take time to work the bugs out. The Hombre is built by General Motors, in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is, with some exceptions, a mechanical twin of the Chevrolet S-10 and GMC Sonoma compact pickups. That means it's a proven commodity. Even though it's mechanically the same as the S-10/Sonoma, it has a different look, as the Isuzu designers have given the Hombre its own front-end styling treatment. It's also contented differently, with an option list that's reined-in somewhat from that offered on the GM models. Put this together and you've got a sensible, reliable pickup that won't rip the seams out of even a modest budget.