The main reason we don't have moderate size pickup trucks in the US is because of a trade war dating to the early 1960s.
At the time, chicken was considered a delicacy in Europe, and priced accordingly. US chicken farmers were able to undercut the prices of the local producers to the extent that Europe applied a high tariff on US-origin chickens. This is the infamous "chicken tax" - look at Wikipedia for all the gory details.
In retaliation, the US applied a 25% tax on imported trucks (from anywhere), and all the producers of moderate size trucks had to leave the US market because their products simply weren't competitive any more. VW type 2, gone, a collection of Japanese trucks, gone. After NAFTA, Canada and Mexico were exempt, but the tax stands for trucks from everywhere else. We have no moderate size trucks here because there is no competition for US automakers in this market segment due to the 25% duty. Consequently, US automakers are quite happy to concentrate on the high end of the big pickup truck market, which also happens to be the most profitable for them. This is the same situation as in the 1970s when Detroit made crappy cars because they could get away with it because there was nothing better around - obviously, that changed big time.
We have much better domestic cars now because Detroit figured out pretty quickly that the Japanese cars were better, cheaper, more durable, more economical to run, got better gas mileage and were just plain better built than the local product. If they wanted to sell cars, Detroit simply HAD to build better cars - and to stay alive, they did (mostly).
There are a number of ways around the chicken tax - Ford Transit vans are shipped over as cars with seats, rear windows, and rear seatbelts, then converted here into vans. The Subaru Brat had a pair of rear-facing seats in the bed so it qualified as a "car" and was exempt (for a while). VW built their Rabbit truck in Pennsylvania. Mercedes sends the Sprinters over as "kits" for final assembly locally.
So if we want to see smaller trucks in the US of A, the chicken tax needs to go away so Detroit has some competition in this market segment. As long as the 25% duty remains on imported trucks, we are going to have more of the same huge, expensive vehicles from domestic makers.
I'd like to see something slightly smaller than the new Ranger - I like the $20K base price, I want a single cab, not a crew cab, and I want it to be able to carry a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood FLAT. If the Ranger is successful (and it is looking that way), GM and Stellantis (or whatever they call themselves these days) will jump on the bandwagon as well.
And happy new year!
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
