Too bad Toyota won't make a commercial van here stateside to compete with the Transit / Express etc. I know the chicken tax is probably the reason why but I'd love a work van that could last 73 years just rotating the tires and changing the oil.
Aftermarket flatbeds are moderately popular on HD pickups, but they usually don't have those nice fold-down sides like traybacks (one notable exception is the [rental trucks from Home Depot or similar](https://i0.wp.com/rightfootdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220319-PXL_20220319_202653095.jpg?ssl=1)), and they're rare on half-ton or lighter models.
It may just be because compact (now mid-size) trucks became more lifestyle than work-oriented vehicles in the '80s and '90s, so looks became more important than sheer utility. Compare the [single-wall beds with external tie-downs](https://forum.ih8mud.com/attachments/img_1053-jpg.821170/) that were common in the '70s and early '80s to the [smooth-sided double-wall beds](https://barnfinds.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/toyota-pu-rear-2-e1633972960212.jpg) that became the norm in the latter half of the decade.
In other markets, if you buy a single cab mid-size truck, the bed is now double-walled, but [still has the tie-downs](https://salexport.com/vehicle/102832/images/R110124-2022-Toyota-hilux-30816.jpg) (if it even offers a "tub" bed at all).
also another vehicle the US will never see that we actually want, but they keep trying to see us on a luxury off-road vehicle that isn't suitable for a thing more than mall crawling.
please stop Toyota if you aren't going to commit to bringing something useful and utility based to the US.
No one likes a tease damn it.
Sales metrics don’t lie. Hardly anyone that said they want a Spartan, purely utilitarian truck as a personal vehicle will actually go out and buy one. If the market exists and the margins are high enough, they’ll make it.
I assumed they weren't bothering with it because to bring it up to US safety standards it wouldn't be cost effective and they'd have to build two versions of it. one for the US specific market and one for the rest of the world.
Could be a bit of both. That being said, the upcoming North American Land Cruiser seems to be as minimal as you can get while maintaining safety standards. Curious to see how it’ll perform. The base trim (1958) apparently is specifically being marketed for being barebones
The whole automotive industry needs to recalibrate what is compact, midsize, and full sized.
No way a vehicle that wide is compact, it’s midsize at best.
Feel dirty posting a Jalopnik link, but I think most others I can find are blacklisted - looks like a cool little truck, probably never coming to the US (it's built in Indo for developing markets and doesn't weigh 9000 pounds, so there wouldn't be much of a market in the US anyway) but fingers crossed it travels south to Australia.
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