Safety standards are BS. If Mazda can and does keep the Miata complaint with safety standards while preserving the bulk of the original Miata soul, then these other manufacturers could do the same with mini trucks.

The real problem is they don't have to. Bigger vehicles have better profit margins, and the chicken tax limits competition. Repeal the chicken tax and you'd see plenty of entrants. Mahindra was even making serious motions of bringing the parts in and assembling here in the US to get around the obnoxious chicken tax but ended up not following through :( They had all the certifications they needed - even from the EPA, so it's far from impossible to have a modern mini truck if the government didn't have their thumb on the market.

Heck Ford has had to do screwy things to try to get around that dumb tariff: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-ford-tariff-c...