FCA Proposes a Merger with Renault

wilber1 wrote:

ShinerBock wrote:
Toyota and Nissan sold trucks with the chicken tax and they are still here because they sold 4wd extended cab trucks with long beds unlike the others who mostly sold 2wd regular cab trucks with short beds.

They are still here because they build them in the US and are not subject to the tax.

Toyota and Nissan(Datsun)built trucks overseas for decades that were subject to the chicken tax. It wasn't until the fifth generation design that the Toyota pickup(now called the Tacoma) was finally built in the US. Toyota was selling enough of them, especially the 4wd variants to justify building an assembly plant in the late 80s. My 84 Toyota was built in Japan.

The reason why the other makes did not build an assembly plant here was because they were not selling enough of their trucks to justify it. If the chicken tax did protect the big three like you say, then it did a piss poor job at it since several foreign trucks were sold in US market while the chicken tax was in place and the only once that stayed where the ones that were selling what the people wanted.