Patriot Pulse

Ford Just Gave Australia A Ranger Americans Can’t Touch

Stephen Barnes image via Shutterstock
Stephen Barnes image via Shutterstock

Americans are obsessed with pickup trucks.

Ford's trucks dominate sales charts year after year as truck buyers demand toughness, reliability, and capability.

But there's one problem that should make every truck lover furious – we can't buy the trucks the rest of the world gets.

Ford updates the Ranger with features Americans won't see

Ford just announced updates to the 2026 Ranger for the Australian market that make the American version look like the stripped-down base model.¹

The updated Ranger gets a new Wolftrak edition finished in Traction Green with lime accents and a tall sports bar that gives it an aggressive stance.¹

Australia also gets to keep the 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel that pumps out 247 horsepower and a massive 443 pound-feet of torque.¹

Meanwhile, American truck buyers are stuck with just two engine choices – a base 2.3-liter four-cylinder or the performance-oriented twin-turbo V6 in the Raptor.

The global Ranger comes in configurations Americans can't touch, including single cab-chassis models perfect for commercial work and a Super Duty version designed for serious hauling.²

They even get them in South Africa.

Twenty-second anniversary of the torture test that showed why Hilux is the preferred truck of CIA-armed factions everywhere

Toyota's bomb-proof Hilux faces the same problem – it's legendary worldwide for being indestructible, beloved in places from South America to the Middle East, and Americans can't buy it either.

It seems, in fact, the easiest way might be to secure a Langley contracting gig somewhere else on the globe.

In an infamous 2003 torture test for their BBC series Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson & James May drove a 1988 Toyota Hilux down a flight of stairs, drowned it in the ocean, hit it with a wrecking ball, and burnt then dropped it from a block of apartments set for demolition, and the brute still drove after it all.

No kidding! Top Gear dropped their already Hilux 22 years ago today, and Americans still can’t readily get our hands on such beasts.

The real kicker? This isn't about safety standards or emissions. It's about chickens.

A 60-year-old tax over poultry keeps tough trucks out of America

In 1963, France and West Germany slapped tariffs on American chicken because U.S. factory farms were dominating their poultry markets.³

President Lyndon Johnson retaliated by imposing a 25% tax on four products – potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and light trucks.³

The tariffs on everything except light trucks were lifted years ago, but the "Chicken Tax" on imported pickups never went away.³

That 25% tariff plays a huge part in making it financially infeasible for Toyota to sell a foreign-built Hilux in America and forces Ford to build a different version of the Ranger for the U.S. market instead of just shipping over the global model.

Toyota used to sell the Hilux in America under the name "Toyota Pickup" until 1995, when they replaced it with the Tacoma built in North America to avoid the tax.⁴

With a little factory re-tooling, automakers like Toyota and Ford could – and almost certainly would – produce largely the same trucks here if the market demanded, albeit at an inflated price – union boss man still gotta get his cut.  

The Chicken Tax was supposed to protect American poultry farmers, but it became permanent protection for big automakers.⁵

Should the Chicken Tax disappear tomorrow, it might be enough to entice automakers to introduce something closer to the foreign models.  

But you can bet there’d be a lot of pressure for “market research” suggesting that American markets will continue accepting third-rate quality as long as it looks bougie/boujee or whatever the kids say.

The sad part is they probably wouldn’t have to “cook” said research.

American truck buyers pay the price while automakers rake in profits

Without foreign competition in the truck market, Ford, GM, and Stellantis can charge whatever they want.

Truck prices rose 5% to 6% per year while car prices only went up 2% annually after the Chicken Tax took effect.⁵

The Detroit’s Big Three and other large automakers have zero incentive to innovate on smaller, more efficient trucks because they have the market locked up.

That's why compact trucks like the old Toyota Pickup and Nissan Hardbody disappeared – the Chicken Tax killed them.

Foreign automakers who want to compete have to spend billions building factories in North America just to avoid the tariff.

Toyota, Nissan, and Honda all had to construct U.S. assembly plants because importing completed trucks would make them too expensive to sell.⁶

The irony? Ford itself has used loopholes to dodge the Chicken Tax by shipping Transit Connect vans to America fitted with rear seats, then stripping them out after clearing customs.⁷

Mercedes-Benz actually disassembled completed vans in Germany and shipped them to South Carolina where they reassembled them to qualify as "U.S.-made" vehicles.⁷

The protection racket continues while American buyers get fleeced

The only pickup currently sold in America that pays the Chicken Tax is the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster, which costs $86,900 compared to $71,500 for the SUV version.⁸

That $15,000 price gap shows exactly what the Chicken Tax does to truck prices – and that's on top of an already expensive luxury vehicle.

Trucks built in Mexico or Canada under USMCA trade agreements avoid the tax entirely, giving established manufacturers with North American factories another massive advantage over potential competitors.⁹

American consumers end up with fewer choices, higher prices, and less innovation while Detroit automakers rake in massive profits protected by a 60-year-old trade war over poultry.

The Cato Institute called the Chicken Tax "a policy in search of a rationale" back in 2003, but Congress won't touch it because the automakers' lobby is too powerful.³

So while Australians get Hiluxes and updated Rangers with V6 diesels, special editions, and work-ready configurations, Americans are stuck paying inflated prices for whatever Detroit decides to build – all thanks to chickens nobody remembers.

¹ Thanos Pappas, "Ford Updates 2026 Ranger To Fight The New Hilux But Drops A Key Engine," CarBuzz, November 25, 2025.

² CarExpert, "Americans laughed at the Ford Ranger Super Duty, now they want it," November 25, 2025.

³ Wikipedia, "Chicken tax," October 17, 2025.

⁴ JDM Export, "Is It Illegal To Buy A Toyota Hilux In The US?"

⁵ Jonathan Smoke, CNN Business, "Chickens. Pickup trucks. Trade war?" April 20, 2025.

⁶ Ridgeback Bodies, "Why is the Toyota Hilux banned in the US?"

⁷ Wikipedia, "Chicken tax – Ford Transit Connect and Mercedes-Benz loopholes," October 17, 2025.

⁸ CarBuzz, "What Is The Chicken Tax?" April 13, 2025.

⁹ Cars.com, "How Trump's 25% Tariffs on Automobiles, Automotive Parts Will Affect You," April 29, 2025.

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