A little backstory on how this bizarre mess came upon our desk: Yours truly was surfing eBay Motors for a project vehicle when, on a whim, in went the words “Isuzu Rodeo” to the Search bar.

Instantly, this little gray turd pops up. Just a year newer than the author’s own Rodeo, the 1993 2WD version sports a decidedly glaring feature that sets it apart from fellow compact SUVs.

Summed up in a word, it’s this: “electric.” That’s right, someone took the crummy failure that is the Isuzu Rodeo, and managed to make it even worse; or, at the very least, he made it hilarious.

The owner confesses to not being very good with “electric smarts,” but even the most engineering-challenged among us can tell that nothing about the electric conversion (which took place recently, at 160K miles on a 163K-mile vehicle) did anything to make the Rodeo more practical, functional, or reliable. Let’s start with the source of the electric power.

“It has 20 [6V] golf cart batteries, the batteries are 15 months old, and one 12V [operates the] lights and such. Has a built-in charger, 110V, should have a 20 amp circuit.” Are you sold on this car yet? No? Then consider its operating range, which might put you over the top: a scant, useless 15 miles.

And after those 15 white-knuckle miles–the top speed is 55-60 mph–have been used up, you can look forward to a ten-hour recharge time. Whew doggy, that’s just all kinds of utility, ain’t it, folks?

With four days to go before the listing (no. 301097584832) ends, the pitiful Rodeo has attracted some attention and even a few bids from a handful of people. It’s now reached a bidding high of $610, though the reserve has not yet been met, and it has a Buy It Now price of $3,500.

We wish the best of luck to the seller, but his grand vision of recouping the losses spent on replacing and maintaining the car’s motive source may be nothing but fairy dust. What do you guys think? Is there anyone here insane enough to want to drive this thing?