Personally, I am happy to see this finally happen (but I still will believe it when i see it). As a person who has been writing the "big 3" and "Toyota" for more than 30 years, about their trucks, it makes me very happy to see this come to fruition. I am sure my writing to them many, many times had nothing to do with it though. I heard from a GM employee that the military asked for a truck that they could use in the rocky sandbox's of the world. True or false, IHNI ??? Just an FYI, out of all the times (at least 10-15x) that I wrote them, NOT ONCE did I hear anything from the big 3. I did include my address & phone # in all of them. One night at dinner, the phone rang. My wife took it & said "it's for you". It was a woman named Sue from Toyota Motor Co., inquiring about the vehicle I asked them to make avail in the US. I told her "simple, people want simple- solid axles, lock out hubs, diesel engine & a stick shift". I told her if they made them avail, they would fly off the lots. She listened, thanked me for my input & then said "due to gov't regulations, we can't ship those vehicles to the US. They have to meet crash test standards, emissions standards, blah, blah, blah.
So, as the proud owner of a 2008 Dodge Power Wagon w/G-56 stick shift THAT GETS 8-10 MPG, I am happy to see this come out & see it as a "mini-Power Wagon-ish vehicle that could tow my 3500 lb camper in a pinch, yet still get 25 mpg when solo. Win-win. Competition makes for a better end product, eventually. Maybe Toyota will step up their game, maybe Ram will as well. Time will tell.