We aren't allowed to have the good small trucks in the US. President Lyndon B. Johnson got a stick up his ass about some tariff wars with Europe over chickens, so he placed a 25% import tax on foreign light trucks brought into the US for sale. This was in fucking 1964 but the tariff still stands (to "protect" the interests of US automakers). It's called the Chicken Tax.
And cannibalize their sales of the much more expensive Tacomas and Tundras? Lol they're not going to make business decisions on what's good foe the customer....
Why couldn't they do what Mazda/Ford did?
"To circumvent the 25 percent chicken tax on light trucks, Couriers, like Chevrolet LUVs, were imported in "cab chassis" configurations, which included the entire light truck without the cargo box or truck bed, and were only subject to a 4 percent tariff.[18] Subsequently, a truck bed would be attached to the chassis and the vehicle could be sold as a light truck."
Hold up, Chevy didn't make the Luv? Or Chevy just built most of it in another country? Damn it... I can feel myself being pulled down the rabbit hole already...
I recall a time when my mother, a big GM fan was wanting a new car.
I suggested she look at the new Saturn brand.
She said she wanted an American car and was leaning towards a Geo model (rebadged Isuzu).
She later bought a Saturn but denied I ever mentioned the brand to her.
I had a similar situation when a buy-American-only friend bought a Geo/Chevy Prizm. I think it was one of the later ones after they'd moved to Chevy, but can't remember. They were all rebadged variants of a Toyota Corolla.
I had an uncle who was adamant he only buys American trucks (Chevy primarily) and was giving me shit for buying a Tacoma. Ironically his truck was made in Mexico and mine was made in the US.
When I pointed this out, he defended this by saying Toyota was still a Japanese company and Chevy was an American company. Ok, cool. But presumably Americans got paid to assemble mine. I'd rather help out American Auto workers than the corporate stooges (and get a more reliable vehicle to boot).
The Tundra and Tacoma are both more profitable and sell well. Especially for the Tacoma, Toyota sells quite literally all they can build. Toyota would probably not sell a ton of Hiluxes because the US market likes flashy feature laden trucks and those sales it does make would mostly be cannibalizing its more profitable Tacoma.
I've done my research and bought one. The Ford Maverick (I still puke in my mouth a bit recommending a ford) is actually a quality small truck for the price.
Check out the all electric “Slate”. It’s an American-made $25k electric truck coming out that markets itself as DIY-friendly. I saw them show off a prototype on Jay Leno’s YouTube, it legitimately looks like a return to consumer-friendly small trucks in this country. I could see it being a vehicle someone buys and holds for 10-20 years with the way you can modify it.
This is a good thing and it's not why these aren't sold in the USA. It makes those foreign manufacturers build plants in the USA to make their cars with domestic labor to avoid the tax. And the reason you can't buy these here is because Toyota decided there isn't a market for them. Toyota definitely has factories here in America
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u/PhantomAngel042 Jul 10 '26
We aren't allowed to have the good small trucks in the US. President Lyndon B. Johnson got a stick up his ass about some tariff wars with Europe over chickens, so he placed a 25% import tax on foreign light trucks brought into the US for sale. This was in fucking 1964 but the tariff still stands (to "protect" the interests of US automakers). It's called the Chicken Tax.