1985 Subaru BRAT. Take That, Chicken Tax!

When I was a kid, I remember seeing this truck with its bizarre plastic jump seats in the bed, and thinking, "They've got to be kidding." Yeah, they actually were kidding. Subaru's expectation was not that Americans were clamoring to ride in hard plastic seats in the back of pickup trucks.

Those seats are back there to beat the Chicken Tax. As we discussed in my post about Volkswagen Type 2 trucks, in 1964 in response to a European tariff on American poultry the US introduced retaliatory tariffs including a 25% tariff on light trucks. By bolting seats in the bed, Subaru was able to classify the BRAT as a passenger car.  By the way, BRAT is an acronym for, "Bi-drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter."

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