Doc Holliday said:
We have three Isuzu NPR's that are gas. They have been good trucks, just under powered when loaded down.
Of the the three 2- are WDR trucks and one is a Fire packout truck so no one spends extened time in them unless we are doing lots of water work. Not smooth riders, can't even tune the radio while moving, in fact I'm still missing my left nut from the last time I drove one.
You can see the road real well, parking is nice they turn real easy.
I personally couldn't see working out of them daily unless you like roller coaster rides.
the last place I worked, it was in 2002 had trucks just like the ones above richard posted, I personally have over 100k miles of experience driving gas NPR trucks, the place I worked at had 5, they replaced a few as time went on, so I have driven models that ranged form 1992 the oldest to 2002, in all likely close to 10 different NPR's what I am saying is I have driven them extensively.
my opinion is they are the junkiest vehicle I can ever imagine. the 350 ci chevy while a great engine, sucks moving 12000 pounds around all the time, the motors will only last to at best about 110k after that they blew up, because you have to drive them wide open most of the time. the transmissions is another story, I personally never saw one last beyond 35k, it was pretty much like clockwork 35k and the trans was toast. I grenaded several rear ends as well, the reason being I would get stuck on ice or snow in the winter, and need to rock the truck back and forth, the spinning of only one wheel caused the spider gears in the rearend to explode. 2k later the rearend would be fixed. so even the rear ends are weak.
look at the interior panels and notice the gaps and just pathetic fit and finish of the interior, next grab the AC control slider you know the one that switches from defrost heater, or vents that blow in your face. move them back and forth semi quickly 10 times. I can almost guarantee this will brake something inside the dash if its not already broken, I don't care if the truck is new unless they have drastically changed things.
the other thing is don't plan on getting more than about 6.5 mpg with the gas engine, I checked all the trucks and they all got about the same mileage, We did have ONE diesel model it was a '92 model IMO this was the best truck, however the dipshit techs had no clue how to drive a diesel, they never cycled the glow plugs on starting, most people thought it was a smoky noisy truck, it would not accelerate as fast as the gas trucks, but it would run better out on the highway and best of all got about 16 MPG!!!!!!
ask yourself why did they keep buying NPR's well the owner was never around any of the trucks and never asked us what we thought of them. I once saw them spend 20k on a truck in repairs between 110k to 135k miles before finely they gave up on it. 2 engines, 3 transmissions and numerous other repairs. the owner isolated himself from the people actually doing the work and didn't have a clue as to how good or BAD the equipment was.
if you have to have a COE box truck like an NPR make darn sure its a diesel the diesel NPR's may be better trucks I think they might very well be, however if I was to want a COE truck I would look at UD or Mitsubishi. I never liked sitting in that beer can of cab, I can't imagine the trucks being very safe in a front collision. the only thing good I can say is the trucks are easy to drive and can be maneuvered easily.