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Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

economist.com

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Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#291

Post by ryukoposting »

voisin wrote: post #92

I wish the actual story was “US manufacturers announce line of small, Japanese style pickup trucks” Importing adds friction both up front and for ongoing sourcing of parts and maintenance. Just give us some options for local pickup trucks utilizing existing repair facilities! Instead everyone bitches about truck drivers having such large vehicles, when that’s all that’s on offer here!

It's probably not possible due to the same safety standards that led to huge grilles and high beltlines in every new car.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#292

Post by anfilt »

simonsarris wrote: post #77
lapetitejort wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People haul kids and dogs in the beds of their trucks?

Many new trucks can fit three car seats. What was once the truck bed is now a smaller truck bed and a second row of seats. Aka a "full size cab".

More like open air hatch back, I don't understand why people want such short truck beds. You can't even sleep in the truck bed anymore on a lot these trucks.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#293

Post by jccalhoun »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #43
Syonyk wrote: post #17

The local Mahindra dealer also seems to be doing a brisk business with their Roxors - they're almost literally a 1950s Jeep with a modern diesel engine in them. It's the same market niche - small, off highway use, utility vehicles. And at least out here, you're allowed to run around on the roads at least some with them to get between fields.

I presume you're not in USA - I can't imagine being allowed to import the Mahindra copy-paste Jeep into USA. Those clones are so blatant... Wish they added some more Indian flair to them. I can't believe jeep still bothered to enter the Indian market with that on the roads!

Mahindra was originally going to release a vehicle that looked a lot like the original Jeep but Jeep fought them and they changed the looks of it (Kind of reminds me of a Rivian now) https://jalopnik.com/the-2021-mahindra-roxor-looks-like-a-ha...

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#294

Post by throwawaytruck »

Lots of light duty truck hate in this thread. I'm a rural American who has to plow their own 1k plus foot gravel driveway. I have a used light duty truck and a homestead plow for this purpose. If I didn't have to plow, I would love to have a little buggy like one of these for around the farm. I actually strongly dislike trucks,but you really need one for farm and homestead work! My dream would be something like this that has four wheel drive and a 2k plus pound bed capacity.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#296

Post by ajcp »

jdmichal wrote: post #158
asciimov wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously miss compact trucks, like the Mazda B-series, Ford Courier, Ford Ranger (before it became a mid-size in 2019). These kinds of trucks might more to your liking. Sure they aren't as small and cute as the imports, but your local auto store can still get you parts for them. They are fun to drive, fairly fuel efficient, and are capable of hauling material from the home center. I learned to drive stick, and how…

The MY2022 Maverick is what the new Ranger should have been. And the Hyundai Santa Cruz also was introduced in MY2022. Finally some steps in the right direction, at least.

I really like the cut of those new Santa Cruz. Every time I see one I'm like "yeah, that's the stuff"

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#297

Post by KennyBlanken »

eduction wrote: post #217
nyx wrote: post #29

The 25-year import rule here, which bans Americans from importing vehicles from other countries unless they're 25+ years old, is just awful for those of us who would be interested in driving small, efficient foreign cars. It would be great to live completely car-free, but absent major changes to how we plan our cities, it's just a sad reality that cars are a necessary ingredient to life in the vast majority of Americ…

You can import new tiny cars and drive them all you want on a farm or private grounds, you just can’t take them on roads if they don’t meat road safety standards. Even the advocate highlighted in this article (Economist) admits his would probably be a “death trap” on a busy highway. Maybe the US should create separate standards for city streets and roads with low speed limits, that could be a good way to bring down v…

> You can import new tiny cars and drive them all you want on a farm or private grounds, you just can’t take them on roads if they don’t meat road safety standards.

If they don't pass emissions, they cannot be legally imported. It doesn't matter whether you want to use them on private property; that private property is still within the US, and subject to EPA regs.

People think the same thing about not having to register their snowmobile, ATV or whatever if they're hooning around on their farm or private property. Nope. State environmental cops will happily step onto your property, chase you down, and cite you.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#298

Post by jjoonathan »

llanowarelves wrote: post #255
asveikau wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the standard conspiracy theory was that they started making them larger to avoid environmental regulation (which is pretty ironic). Here's the first google result for "large cars regulation loophole", looks like an interesting read: https://www.wired.com/story/the-us-wants-to-close-the-suv-lo... Edit: prior HN discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35609521

Thanks for the links. Why is the phrase "conspiracy theory" used for that though? Sounds like it's a value-judgement free decision from manufacturers to follow the incentives from the policy as we'd predict: way cheaper and less work to make those (now pretty popular) vehicles bigger than R&D and re-tool factories to make smaller and/or more efficient. It would need to be made more efficient to get smaller otherwise…

It's value-judgement free if they had no hand in crafting or maintaining the loophole, but undermining popular policy with a loophole is a very common strategy for dodging regulation. If that's the case here then they aren't simply honest corporations just trying to sail the sea of incentives, they are more like a schoolyard bully who has grabbed an environmental cause by the hand and is doing the "why are you punching yourself?" maneuver.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#299

Post by tomcam »

woooooo wrote: post #206
seizethecheese wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out US history during WWII. Auto manufacturing was even pivoted to airplanes. Things must be more specialized now but I assume it could still happen quickly. My personal belief is this also explains American bias towards planes over rail.

Every country's history in WW2. Even Italy had tanks made by Fiat.

One of the scariest things I’ve ever heard about WWII

I kid!

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#300

Post by jaredklewis »

nostromo wrote: post #210
deelowe wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That rule ain't changing unfortunately. Regulatory capture is STRONG with automotive and the US sees it as a matter of national security (car makers would be pivoted to other ares in times of war).

This isn't necessarily regulatory capture or protectionism. Half of all cars sold in the US are imported. Toyota, a Japanese company, is the most popular brand of car sold in the US. So, yes, you can import cars all you want, they just need to follow US safety and emissions standards. These cars do not meet those requirements, so you can't import them. If you didn't block them as imports, we'd have lots of people jus…

If it’s about standards, how come 25+ year old cars are ok?
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