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by EricE 1430 days ago
It keeps being brought up because there is a pent up demand for them.

Safety standards are BS. If Mazda can and does keep the Miata complaint with safety standards while preserving the bulk of the original Miata soul, then these other manufacturers could do the same with mini trucks.

The real problem is they don't have to. Bigger vehicles have better profit margins, and the chicken tax limits competition. Repeal the chicken tax and you'd see plenty of entrants. Mahindra was even making serious motions of bringing the parts in and assembling here in the US to get around the obnoxious chicken tax but ended up not following through :( They had all the certifications they needed - even from the EPA, so it's far from impossible to have a modern mini truck if the government didn't have their thumb on the market.

Heck Ford has had to do screwy things to try to get around that dumb tariff: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-ford-tariff-c...
1 comments
waiseristy 1430 days ago
I think you overestimate this pent up demand. The Santa Cruz sells like shit. The Ridgeline is right there by it

New players don’t come into the US truck market with mini-trucks because they simply don’t sell

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Ancapistani 1429 days ago
Both the Santa Cruz and the Ridgeline are unibody. The 1st gen Tacoma was body-on-frame. HUGE difference.
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waiseristy 1429 days ago
What? How? They have strikingly similar towing and payload. There’s nothing wrong or different about a unibody. It’s actually preferable in a lot of ways for small trucks
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Ancapistani 1429 days ago
Similar towing a payload? A quick search shows a 2017 Ridgeline as having a rated 5,000 pound towing capacity compared to 6,800 for a Toyota Tacoma and 7,700 for a Chevy Colorado. I wouldn’t call that similar. Plus, unless you get the AWD version, it’s front wheel drive! I certainly wouldn’t want to pull a heavy trailer up a hill in the snow with a front wheel drive vehicle.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a unibody - but it is absolutely different. People who buy trucks in the US typical don’t want a unibody vehicle. As a result, the Ridgeline and Santa Fe are seen more as “big cars with an open cargo area” than as trucks.

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waiseristy 1428 days ago
You were talking about the 1st gen tacoma... And now you bring up the 3rd gen...
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