Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as being argumentative. I thought you were saying that "passenger vehicle" were affected. The tax always applied to "light trucks" not manufactured in north america. What changed over time is the definition of a "light truck". Isuzu and other manufactures were able to skirt the system by adding beds stateside and cargo seats (BRAT) overseas.

It is my understanding that Isuzu skirted the regs by classifyig their SUVs as "passenger vehicles" until 89. I've heard that the seats were added to skirt the Chicken Tax, but I cannot understand how that would have worked given.

Also, the "country of origin" affected by this tariff almost changed during the fair trade intiatives. At one time, there was a very heavy lobbying effort to exclude Thailand and South Korea from this list. Unfortunately for Isuzu, this legislation did not make it through.

Given my business, I've bumped into this piece of legislation alot. For almost 20 years, I've been working with upfitters to work around the tax. I'm actually about to liquidate a couple dozen of the infamous Sprinters with seats and welded in sheet metal.