i dont know about you guys but when i see war on terror news clips you see afghan fighters in tacomas, taliban in toyotas. and you see the color white alot. why do you think they have chosen this model, if you have seen what ive seen?? also was listening to a fighter on the news talking about how if they want an order of toyotas they would contact someone in al quida (however you spell that god awful name) whats your guys thoughts, and dont say they choose not to drive ford because they hate america. lol

 

Toyotas are renowned for their reliability and have a reputation in third world nations all over the world, not just Afghanistan. Ford, Chevy and Dodge are not as reliable. Many of the vehicles you see are a decade old or more. Replacement parts are easier to aquire.

There is an entire industry in the US shipping stolen 5-10 year old Hondas and Toyotas to poor countries South America and Asia. If Honda made a light pickup, it would be everywhere as well.

White reflects heat. Most third world nations are very hot.

 

Don't forget fuel mileage. US trucks are not light sippers, and when travelling across the desert, you want all the mileage you can get.

Have you all noticed the number of GM products in Iraq? One news footage had a late 70's stepside Chevy pickup in it. The emergency vehicles are Chevy's and many of the passenger cars are Oldsmobiles.

Israel seems to be in love with Ford. Same with Brazil and Argentina.

Mexico is a die hard Dodge country. Most Mexicans I know want a Ram pickup or van.

 

i will vouch for the posts above.

in my travels throughout the world, toyotas and there look alike counter parts (what ever companies that make them) thrive throughout the world.

and in poor places, they drive whatever they can get their hands on, its not a matter of politics to them, heck, even al-zaqari was filmed wearing new balance shoes!

plus toyotas are small, it would be quite a challenge to fit an f350 through some of those roads and cities.

from what i seen, america is really the onyl country with a light duty truck indistry, every other place either has small cars and trucks or for heavy work, big 2 1/2 tons or 5 tons doing it. no inbetween.

 

It's because each group could only afford 1 truck.....

 

In other parts of the world all you see are land rovers, in mexico city everybody drives a vw bug, an old one at that, in europe you see alot of ford products. They don't look like ours, but they say ford on them.

 

In the eighties, Lybia decided to invade Chad. Chad was not know for having much of an army. It's all desert where the fighting took place, and the winning combination was the Chad army driving 4x4 Toyota pickups with fifty caliber machine guns on a tall tripod in the bed. They turned the Lybian army around in five days.

 

I'm sure thier sucess was due to junk japanese p/u trucks. I've messed around with toyota trucks and for the life of me I don't see where thier all that great, I'd rather have a ranger anyday and they look better, There's a guy on the ranger board who has a 1st generation ranger with 350,000 miles on it with no major repairs, I'm on my 5th ranger since 84, I wheel them hard, all most to the point of abuse at times, I haven't had any problems, rangers are one tough little truck. To hear people talk, you would think toyota is the only truck in the world, I wouldn't hit a dog in the butt with one !!!!!!!!!

 

OK, OK! I will call Chad's Minister of Defense and tell him to change over to Rangers without delay!

 

If they weren't so tight they could afford land rovers like everybody else in africa ha ha. Speaking of, is ford ever gonna bring the defender 90 over here again ? That would be fords answer to the jeep wrangler and it has a simular heritage and reputation, you can get them all over the word except here. Steve Erwin (God rest his soul) was even driving one in Madagascar grinding gears has he went. I remember them as a kid watching Doc Tari and old Tarzan movies, they are a tough little truck.

 

The older Toyotas are cheap to buy, easy to fix, and replacement parts are readily available. The USA OEMs do not cater to 3rd world country markets.

In many 3rd world countries, steel beams in the door, emission controls, air bags, seat belts, etc. are not required equipment. Being able to go down a rutted dirt road day after day without breaking in 1/2 and being able to be held together with tape while getting good gas mileage is. Small trucks from Toyota and Suzuki fit the bill.

> in mexico city everybody drives a vw bug

Because of safety regulations and such, Mexico was the last country in which the VW bug was made. Towards the end of its run, besides the USA, there were other countries that would not allow its import either.

Diesel or lack of it kills the market for many USA made trucks. Isuzu is known for its small diesel pickup trucks. I drove one back in the early 80s when I worked at a Chevy dealer and except for lack of space in the cab, it certainly outshined anything Ford or Chevy offered.

 

Toyota too has sold many diesel pickups on the world market.

 

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhttttttttt

see here
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/3...ighlight=hilux

 

The ranger has the diesel in south africa and other places around the world. I think yoda just flooded the world at one time with alot of 10 cent trucks, it's economics, not which truck is the best, not that yoda's aren't good and so are zukes, I had a sammy for a while, one tough little 4x4, it only had 60 hp, it was hurting in that department. A land rover will cost you a few bucks, even in the 3rd world, where as yoda's and zukes are a cheaper buy for your average terrorist. They also know that chances are there gonna catch a sidewinder anyway and there expendable.

 

A land rover will cost you a few bucks, even in the 3rd world, where as yoda's and zukes are a cheaper buy for your average terrorist.
I can tell you now - in the 3rd world country I live in they aren't any more expensive. In Africa Land Rovers and Toyota's are usually 50/50...


As for why the Taliban uses Toyota's here are the reasons:

1. Access - how many dealerships with SuperDuties do you think are over there???
2. Reliability - say what you want, I doubt there will EVER be a truck produced that was as reliable as the 80's Toyota Hilux's with a 2.2 or 2.4l diesel. And this is coming from somone who doesn't like Toyota's.
3. Ease of maintenance/parts. Given that few people own a vehicle - getting parts can be an issue, as can finding someone to fix it. If everyone drives the same thing, makes it a LOT easier. You will notice that Toyota's are the pick for carting your machine gun around - 70's Mercedes trucks for carting everything else (the only thing that would give a Yota a run for its money in the reliability stakes).
4. Neighbouring countries have a lot of Toyota's - meaning buying one across the boarder is no huge issue (Ford only started selling in India in the last 10 years for example)