The Chronic Need for Small Trucks

Have you ever wondered why you seldom see any small pickup trucks in recent years? And the few you do see are older ones—1980’s and earlier. Why don’t automakers make and sell any new ones? Today, we see huge hulking gas-guzzling behemoths with big 4-door cabs and often puny 4 to 5 foot beds that won’t haul very much. They are utterly impractical for most farmers, contractors, handymen, and anybody else who needs an inexpensive utilitarian truck to carry stuff around.

Of course automakers do make the small trucks that we actually need. Toyota makes the $12,000 (MSRP) HiLux Champ and the $8,000 IMV Zero. They are sold in countries all over the world, EXCEPT in the United States. WHY are U. S. citizens deprived of these essential economical vehicles?

This tragedy originated with an obscure action called the “Chicken Tax”—a 25% tariff imposed by France and Germany in 1961 to balance our advantage of producing and selling chickens during the previous two decades at lower costs than they could produce their own.

In 1963, our vindictive President Lyndon Johnson retaliated with his own crazy ideas. He imposed punitive tariffs—not on anything related to chickens—but on brandy, dextrin, potato starch, and LIGHT TRUCKS—crucial necessities for multitudes of people to produce our own goods and services. It was a tragic blow for America’s economy.

But the UAW and the American auto manufacturers supported the idea; it eliminated some of the competition from cheap imports.

For a while, existing inventories satisfied current needs. With the imports restricted, our own automakers built and sold similar trucks over here, but at a higher costs. Some of the foreign makers found loopholes—like bigger cabs with extra seats and even placing rear-facing seats behind the cabs to classify them as passenger vehicles.

As years passed decade after decade, thrifty people resorted to buying and using older and older vehicles, but as they eventually wore out and got wrecked and scrapped, the need became more desperate. By the year 2020, supplies had literally dried up.

So where does the chicken tax stand today? It has been repealed long ago. So were the taxes on brandy, potato starch, and dextrin. But the wicked tariff on light trucks still poisons our economy.

Now why didn’t Donald Trump take action against it? Yes, he got caught sleeping at the switch on this one.

Today we have an even bigger threat against small trucks—the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandate—first imposed in 1975, two years after the infamous 1973 OPEC oil embargo. Its goal was to reduce fuel consumption, enhance energy security, and reduce toxic emissions. It imposes minimum miles per gallon for all vehicles based on their “footprints” (The number of square feet the vehicle occupies). The most extreme part of this regulation means smaller vehicles must meet greater efficiencies than larger ones. And finally, every year, the limits become more and more extreme.

From 2020 through 2026, the minimum mpg allowed for the smallest trucks has jumped from a difficult 41 mpg up to an essentially impossible 54 mpg. We won't be getting any new ICE vehicles with that much economy when we figure in other mandates that keep adding more weight.

The limits on the smallest trucks have become so extreme that manufacturers are unable to make them comply. The end result is that everybody is obligated to buy and drive larger cars and trucks that consume more fuel with more lenient limits—precisely the opposite of the “pie in the sky” goal of consuming less fuel and reducing emissions. Can you scream “HYPOCRACY?

The limits are still rising and may soon exceed the practical means to build anything at all. In future years, they might become impossible. Look at the chart.

What should our government do? The solution is ridiculously simple. REPEAL this stupid mandate and let a free market determine the optimum fuel efficiency. You can bet your bottom dollar that efficiencies will increase to their practical limits and consumption and emissions will minimize.

The final coup de grace against small trucks comes from our government “Safety Nazis” who impose additional extreme limits onto small vehicles. Besides paying a tariff, we Americans have essentially been slapped with an outright BAN. We can’t import small trucks, and we can’t even build and use our own.

The EPA and safety bans are still standing strong. If I had been President Trump, on the day of my inauguration, I would have issued an executive order to REPEAL all government mandates that restrict the manufacture, importation, sale, and use of these essential vehicles. This should be a top priority for the DOGE right now.

However, we do have a silver lining in our dark cloud of punitive over-regulation. If we had ELECTRIC small trucks that were simple and inexpensive, we could kill the emission mandate, since emissions are zero from electric vehicles. Overall fuel consumption would also diminish by about two thirds. Safety mandates like flimsy crumple zones could be replaced by sturdy bumpers (that can actually take a bump when needed) equipped with cameras and radar that can apply braking and warning sounds whenever a careless driver or pedestrian should run in front of it. Tesla has already incorporated this feature in its cars, robotaxis, Cybertrucks, and semi trucks.

But American auto makers are not making small inexpensive electric trucks either. All of them are only building big, expensive ones—including Tesla. If Elon had been REALLY smart, he would NOT have started out with the huge, complicated, expensive, over-frilled, trouble-prone Cybertruck. Instead, he would have followed Ford, Volkswagen, and Toyota with a small, basic, simple, inexpensive, minimalist electric truck that would be quick and easy to manufacture in large quantities and that large masses of people could afford (See my October, 2024 article for my suggestion for Tesla). Elon and all others must focus less on the classes and more onto the masses.

Simplicity and durability would be paramount—optional A/C, mechanical locks and hand crank windows—similar to the Model T, Beetle, HiLux Champ, and IMV Zero. The chronic demand from the American people would sell millions. The huge volumes would quickly generate profits of millions of dollars for all automakers.

And yes, we MUST get government out of the way to make it happen.

SOURCES

1. Shooting Cars, The Chicken Tax - What It Is & How It Changed Pickup Trucks Forever! YouTube, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B62jsodgKtY

2. CAFE Fuel Efficiency Mandates, YouTube, April, 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYTsOxjwGNs

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