5 ms·

Blame (at least in part) the chicken tax for distorting the market: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

baddox 7y ago
Light trucks abounded in my experience long after that tax. I thought the big change was that, starting maybe around 2000, full-sized trucks started getting nearly the same fuel economy for casual driving as compact trucks. I always suspected it was that, combined with the overall trend for preferring larger vehicles, that caused the relative decline of compact trucks.
toast0 7y ago
I don't think that makes that big of a difference. This just means you need to build the trucks in a NAFTA facility, and everyone has one of those. It doesn't explain why the Ranger and the S10 were stopped. I think the manufactures like building the bigger trucks cause they make more $$$, and most buyers are willing to take a bigger truck if the smaller ones aren't available. But, having owned a regular cab Ranger I bought new and now a regular cab S10; they're lovely vehicles as long as you don't need to carry people. Amazing visibility; no fiddly bits, and you don't have to worry about curbs or parking stops.
- gamegoblin 7y ago
  I don't know enough about the topic, so take this with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't be surprised if the market for small trucks isn't big enough to justify a NAFTA facility, but the 25% tariff on imports is enough to make importing light trucks (which are immensely popular in a lot of the world) a non-starter. That is, consider a bare-bones light truck with MSRP of $18K. After the tax, it becomes 23K. You can get an F150 for 28K, so in America you might as well get the bigger truck. Whereas if it were $18K vs $28K that would draw some of the market towards the smaller imported truck. And if some of the market is drawn towards the import, domestic makers might be forced to compete (e.g. with the Ranger).
- theluketaylor 7y ago
  The real reason small trucks are dead in america is the bizarre way the CAFE standards are written. In the 2008 update the fuel economy target is based on the vehicle 'footprint', so bigger trucks have lower targets. This led to a bloating of all trucks. It also killed off small trucks as the cost of compliance was just too high.

baddox 7y ago

Light trucks abounded in my experience long after that tax. I thought the big change was that, starting maybe around 2000, full-sized trucks started getting nearly the same fuel economy for casual driving as compact trucks. I always suspected it was that, combined with the overall trend for preferring larger vehicles, that caused the relative decline of compact trucks.

toast0 7y ago

I don't think that makes that big of a difference. This just means you need to build the trucks in a NAFTA facility, and everyone has one of those. It doesn't explain why the Ranger and the S10 were stopped. I think the manufactures like building the bigger trucks cause they make more $$$, and most buyers are willing to take a bigger truck if the smaller ones aren't available. But, having owned a regular cab Ranger I bought new and now a regular cab S10; they're lovely vehicles as long as you don't need to carry people. Amazing visibility; no fiddly bits, and you don't have to worry about curbs or parking stops.

gamegoblin 7y ago
I don't know enough about the topic, so take this with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't be surprised if the market for small trucks isn't big enough to justify a NAFTA facility, but the 25% tariff on imports is enough to make importing light trucks (which are immensely popular in a lot of the world) a non-starter. That is, consider a bare-bones light truck with MSRP of $18K. After the tax, it becomes 23K. You can get an F150 for 28K, so in America you might as well get the bigger truck. Whereas if it were $18K vs $28K that would draw some of the market towards the smaller imported truck. And if some of the market is drawn towards the import, domestic makers might be forced to compete (e.g. with the Ranger).
theluketaylor 7y ago
The real reason small trucks are dead in america is the bizarre way the CAFE standards are written. In the 2008 update the fuel economy target is based on the vehicle 'footprint', so bigger trucks have lower targets. This led to a bloating of all trucks. It also killed off small trucks as the cost of compliance was just too high.