What Happened to the Chevy LUV?

The Chevrolet with "MADE IN JAPAN" on the door

The tailgate said CHEVROLET in raised block letters, painted black on every color. The plate in the door jamb said "MFD BY ISUZU MOTORS LTD" and "MADE IN JAPAN". GM's 1972 specifications book codes the assembly plant in the VIN as Fujisawa.

LUV stood for Light Utility Vehicle. GM had bought about 34 percent of Isuzu in 1971; chairman James Roche signed the agreement in Tokyo on 16 July 1971. On 18 March 1972 GM chairman Richard Gerstenberg announced that Isuzu-built pickups would go on sale through selected Chevrolet dealers on the West Coast the following week.

Popular Science explained why GM did not build a small truck at home: its small-car plants were running at capacity and their unit bodies did not suit trucks. "The answer was to buy them in Japan."

What the 1972 LUV was like

• Engine: Isuzu 1.8-litre (110.8 cubic inch) overhead-cam four, two-barrel carburettor, 75 horsepower and 88 lb-ft
• Gearbox: four-speed manual
• Brakes: drums with power assist as standard
• Front suspension: independent, with torsion bars; leaf springs at the back
• Bed: about six feet long, all-steel, with eleven wire hold-down eyes and a tailgate held by two chains, with separate latches on each side
• Cab: two seats; the transmission tunnel made three-abreast impossible

Popular Science timed it at 21.4 seconds from 0 to 60, called the oval instruments "weird", and noted the heater controls were hidden if you used the ashtray. In a 1974 Popular Mechanics survey owners averaged 21.5 miles per gallon, named the rough ride as their top complaint, and 76.1 percent said they would buy another. One North Carolina fleet foreman wrote: "The Luv is built just like the trucks of the 1950s."

The spare tire hung under the bed on a chain, lowered with the jack handle through a hole in the rear panel. The optional Mikado package added a three-spoke wheel, bright upholstery and carpet.

The truck that crossed the ocean in two pieces

Since the 1963 "chicken war", a complete imported light truck paid a 25 percent duty. A cab and chassis paid only about 4 to 5 percent.

The LUV was built to fit that gap. GM's 1972 specifications book orders the trucks "shipped in two major component parts": cab-chassis units without beds, and pickup boxes "in shipping packs", six boxes of one color to a pallet, four packs to a 40-foot container. The gas filler neck and all the rear lights travelled in the box pack. A temporary customs "incomplete vehicle" notice was stuck inside the windshield. The bed, mirrors and some options were fitted in the United States.

The Ford Courier and Japanese-brand pickups were imported the same way. In May 1980 the U.S. Customs Service ruled that a cab-chassis without its bed was an unfinished truck, dutiable at 25 percent, from 21 August 1980. Automotive News estimated the change would add 600 to 900 dollars to the price of a LUV or a Courier.

LUV sales by year

In 1979 the LUV was the third best-selling imported light truck by registrations, behind Toyota and Datsun.

What a LUV cost new

Chevrolet's price pages list the truck "at point of entry", before destination charges and dealer-installed options.

In 1979 the Mikado trim cost $199 with a bench seat or $310 with buckets, and air conditioning $525.

Why the LUV disappeared

The usual answer is "the S-10 replaced it". That is true, but the S-10 was itself the result of rules written years earlier.

On 12 December 1977 NHTSA, under administrator Joan Claybrook, proposed light-truck fuel-economy rules that limited how far "captive import" trucks, built abroad for American companies, could count toward a carmaker's domestic average. The notice said one purpose of the law was "to encourage the domestic production of automobiles which are currently imported by the major domestic automobile companies", and that the standards from 1982 would assume GM, Ford and Chrysler sold small pickups built in the United States. Separate counting of captive imports took effect from the 1980 model year.

So from 1980 a fuel-efficient LUV no longer helped GM's domestic truck average, and from August 1980 it paid 25 percent duty. In December 1980 Automotive News reported that GM's new S-10, to be built in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Dayton, Ohio, would "eventually replace the LUV". Chevrolet's general manager, Robert Lund, said each LUV model would be dropped as the matching S-truck arrived.

The S-10 went on sale for 1982. In the first three months of 1982 Chevrolet sold 8,826 LUVs against 23,905 a year before; its truck sales manager said the drop was "anticipated". The S-10 sold 177,758 that year. The 1982 LUV, offered with gas or a 2.2-litre Isuzu diesel, was the last.

600 new LUVs crushed in Tampa

About 600 unsold 1982 LUVs sat on a low dockside lot in Tampa, Florida, waiting for East Coast dealers who no longer wanted them. After heavy rain, inspectors found severe rust underneath. In December 1983 GM had them crushed into nine-inch chunks and shredded. They were worth about 5 million dollars. A Chevrolet spokesman said selling them cheaply would "jeopardize Chevrolet dealer integrity", and that selling the parts would cost more than destroying the trucks.

After the LUV

From 1981 Isuzu sold its own version of the truck, the Isuzu P'up, through its own American company, with the same diesel engine as the LUV. GM kept part of Isuzu for 35 years and sold its last 7.9 percent in April 2006. One of the buyers was Itochu, the new name of C. Itoh & Co., the trading house whose managers had signed the LUV's 1972 specifications book. Captive-import trucks faded out: by 1994 neither GM nor Ford sold any. The 25 percent duty on imported light trucks is still in force.

If you have a LUV, search for parts with the VIN and the model details on the door plate, and say which year: the LUV changed through the 1970s, and the last models came in gas and diesel versions.