alt Hacker Newsit is deeply ironic that a toyota hilux pickup truck - an actually practical pickup truck - does not meet US "standards" but the pedestrian killing, inefficient, wasteful, and expensive "pickups" from US auto companies somehow do.
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petcat • today at 5:17 PM
Toyota has not attempted to certify the Hilux in USA because they already sell the Tacoma, which occupies the similar market.
Nobody has said the Hilux can't be sold in USA. Toyota simply hasn't tried.
The Hilux issue is a bit more complicated as a result of the "chicken tax" of 25% on imported light-duty trucks. Toyota made the Tacoma for the US market and built it here to avoid that tax, and now the economics of the Hilux don't make sense for them to import even if it met safety/emissions standards. It would certainly kill the market for the Tacoma.
Edit: My poor phrasing certainly did read that way though, I should have been more clear.