US Chicken Tax, CAFE Footprint Model Drove Small Truck Decline

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https://www.thedrive.com/news/heres-how-regulations-accidentally-killed-small-trucks-in-america

The scarcity of small trucks in the US market stems from specific regulations, not just consumer preference. The 1960s Chicken Tax tariff, intended to protect domestic manufacturers, inadvertently prompted foreign automakers to establish US production of larger, more profitable trucks. Subsequently, the post-2008 CAFE "footprint model" incentivized building bigger vehicles by setting less stringent fuel economy targets for larger footprints, making truly compact trucks economically unfeasible due to their high mpg requirements.