Since the Hilux Champ is a truck, it would also be subject to our longtime enemy here at Jalopnik, the Chicken Tax. So you’ve got to add another 25% to the tariff total, bringing it to 62% of the original base price. At that point, you’re pushing $23,000, which is still fairly affordable compared to other work trucks on the market but not nearly as inexpensive as that initial $14,000 price tag. That isn’t the final price Toyota would have to charge, though, because it would also have to re-engineer the Hilux Champ to meet U.S. crash regulations, while also giving it an engine that complies with U.S. emissions regulations.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the Hilux Champ is unsafe. But the U.S. hasn’t done a great job working with the rest of the world to coordinate crash regulations, so a truck engineered to pass one country’s tests could still need a lot of work to pass different tests in the U.S., and the cost of doing that would get passed onto customers.
On the other hand, Toyota could dodge both the Republican tariffs and the Chicken Tax by building a compliant version of the Hilux Champ in the U.S., but that would, at the very least, require expanding a factory to give Toyota the space to build it, if not necessitate a new factory altogether. Based on what Toyota execs said at the RAV4 reveal, that isn’t something Toyota is interested in doing when Trump will only be president for a few more years. Even if it were, we’re talking years of factory construction, a massive investment and higher labor costs that would, once again, be passed onto customers. And in the end, it would still have to import many of the components, since the auto industry runs on an international supply chain, and Trump’s tariffs would drive up that cost, as well.
There’s also no guarantee that, even after a massive investment in a factory, as well as the necessary re-engineering required to sell the Hilux Champ here, there would be enough demand for a truly cheap, basic work truck. Still, it’s nice to think about the possibility of getting a $14,000 Hilux Champ, even if it will never actually happen.
