Toyota and the Taliban

For decades, the Japanese brand has been known for its ruggedness, durability and dependability. It’s never been an innovative company, except perhaps for the Prius, but overall, the vehicles it put out work. ISIS seem to know that as well as the Taliban. 

I figure these two groups aren’t very good at maintaining vehicles, they might be able to refuel them, inflate tires and occasionally change oil, but their ability to care for their set of wheels was pretty much limited to that. Both have been using 4x4 like the Toyota Hilux pickup truck, the overseas version of the Toyota Tacoma or “Tac” as my grandson would say, and the Toyota Land Cruisers.

We’ve seen them spreading mayhem during the ISIS campaign in Iraq, Syria and Libya, and more recently in the hands of the Taliban during its reconquest of Afghanistan with their truck beds loaded with heavy weapons and cabs jammed with its disheveled, bearded terrorists. 

Toyota is uneasy with that unwanted, but effective publicity and would love to disengage itself from these modern bandits. In fact, the company has long worked to distance its association with terror groups and has publicly supported a US Treasury Department investigation into how some of is vehicles end up into the hands of terrorists. 

Toyota has also announced a new policy it launched the 2022 version of the Toyota Land Cruiser, the company’s longest-running model. After it went on sale in Japan on August 2, priced at around $46,500, the car manufacturer announced that anyone buying one had to sign a contract promising not to resell the vehicle within a year. 

This certainly won’t stop the export of gently-used Japanese vehicles, through the Sea of Japan, to Vladivostok, the world's capital of the Japanese car second-hand market, and some rogue dealers will maintain a brisk business and keep clients happy whether they are Taliban or other terrorists. Another war-related hypocrisy...