Thailand
As the world's second largest manufacturer of pickup trucks, aided by punitive excise taxes on passenger cars, pickup trucks have long been extremely popular in Thailand: between 1987 and 1996, 58 percent of all cars sold in the country were pickup trucks.
Pickups are used extensively for shipping and transport, notably the converted songthaew (lit. "two-row") minibus that forms the backbone of public transportation in and between many smaller cities.
Thailand is also the world's second largest market for pickup trucks, after the United States; 490,000 pickups were sold there in 2005. During 2011, despite the industry suffering from earthquake and tsunami in Japan and later followed by widespread severe flooding in Thailand, a total of 893,988 pickup trucks were manufactured in Thailand while domestic sales reached 328,219 units. Sales of the one-ton pickup trucks during the same year commanded 42% of the total market share. Toyota was the top pickup truck seller, having sold 121,888 units of the Hilux Vigo, followed by the Isuzu D-Max with 113,884 units in second place and Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 40,523 units.
Pickup truck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Our trucks are big, clumsy and are able to tow and push alot of weight. But are not suited for roads that were designed first for carts and later modified to fit cars. If you want a utility vehicle that can maneuver, these small size trucks can go places our trucks would be squeamish about.
Just look at the Toyota hilux, or the Ford global ranger...trucks that the big 3 don't want to sell here because it would cut into their big truck sales.
I for one think its time to challenge what people think a truck can be and how big they need to be to get the job done.
I would love a HiLux. I will settle for an ecodiesel.
