It has been announced that Toyota will be allowed (oh, thank you massa!) to sell the Scion KEI-01, which is a tiny truck, in the United States – but only to "fleet users" and even they won't get much use out of it, since it will be limited to 25 MPH (like the ridiculous Fiat Topolino, which is a golf cart made to look like a Fiat 500).

The only tiny cars Americans who aren't "fleet users" are allowed to buy are useless cars, like the Topolino.

It's annoying, isn't it?

Just across the Southern border, there are a plethora of useful small cars. The other day, I profiled one of them – the MG3, which is a Chinese-made small sedan that sells for about $13k.

Trucks, too.

I have previously written profiles of the Toyota HiLux Champ as well as various $15k-ish Nissans and Fiats and VWs. How about the Renault Kwid, which is a small crossover you can pick up in Mexico for about the same $13k that the MG3 sells for?

So it is not the case that only the Chinese can make useful little cars that cost thousands less than the least expensive new cars Americans are allowed to buy. The people who do not want Americans to be able to buy useful little cars want them to think it's the case. It is a distinction worth harping on. It is something like the endless prattle about how Americans must accept endless war in the Middle East because Iran Can Never Be Allowed to Have a Nuclear Weapon. The same one they've been telling Americans the Iranians were just weeks or months away from having for the past 30 years.

Just stop it already.

Now, what's interesting about the case at hand is that Toyota is bringing back the Scion brand. It's interesting because it implies there will be more Scions coming – maybe some of them not useless cars. Scion used to offer whole lineup of them.