If you’re one of those shoppers who has been waiting patiently for a Toyota pickup truck smaller than the Tundra and without a Tacoma badge, you might have to keep waiting. While a small Toyota pickup truck is almost a done deal for the American market, other international shoppers will be able to get a small-ish Toyota pickup with a new lease on life soon. 

International market Toyota buyers can pick up a refreshed version of the brand’s most popular small truck– not Americans

Have you talked to a Toyota truck fan recently? I mean a serious fanatic. If you have, they’ve likely mentioned one name, a forbidden fruit, in the course of one of those conversations: Hilux.

Unfortunately for those American Toyota truck superfans, buyers in markets like Australia and South Africa are getting ready for a new version of the beloved midsize pickup truck as it enters its ninth generation in some places. Recent spy shots show the new Hilux wearing a new fascia and a revised interior, but familiar dimensions and looks elsewhere, per CarMag. 

Sure, it’s not “small” in the way that the unibody Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz carry their comparably diminutive dimensions. But the midsize, body-on-frame platform is still the smallest production Toyota truck Americans have been able to buy for quite some time. 

Of course, this isn’t a new development. American vehicle buyers have had access to the midsize Toyota Tacoma for three decades. But not the Hilux. They’re both midsize trucks, but the Hilux has a reputation among international shoppers for being a reliable, nearly indestructible option. Hell, it even serves as something of a do-it-all military workhorse in some of the world’s most disputed warzones. 

Fret not, though, star-spangled truck seekers. Recent developments suggest that the automaker is hell-bent on selling a compact pickup truck in the United States. And it’s the right time to do so.

Last year, the Ford Maverick dominated the compact pickup truck market, with 131,142 units sold. That’s a rather significant increase from the 94,058 units of the previous year. However, it was also enough to leave its principal competition, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, in the dust. The stage is all but set for a Maverick versus Toyota showdown in the near future.