The inexpensive, small, light pickup would be great. Ford used to have the F-100, and the Ranger (early Rangers, they got fat after a while), GM the S-10. Keep the towing and payload down a bit and they'll be able to make them cheap. They'll sell like hotcakes. We don't all tow 6000 pound boats around.
I suspect that the crash standards are one of the reasons that they can't make a truck like the old F-100 or the original Ranger any more.
Every auto market in the world, except the USA, has smaller, cheaper, light-duty pickup choices.
Mitsubishi L-series, Ford Ranger (not the ones we get here), VW Amarok, and Toyota Hilux are big sellers around the world.
There is still a huge tax on imported trucks, making those small trucks too expensive. Building them in the USA is out because of production cost for a low-margin vehicle - same reason not many small cheap cars are made in USA.
Price a Basic Honda Ridgeline at your nearest dealer.
I bought one a few years ago using this connection. I saved thousands of $’s with no hassle. I actually got a great lease deal and bought the pickup a year later after driving it for a year.
http://dealers.car.com/2017/honda/ridgeline/
New cars have engine designs that used to be found only in Formula 1 cars to meet pollution and mileage requirements. Plus the 8 - 9 speed automatics.
This has to adding somewhere between $5000 - $10000 in costs for the engines and transmissions to new cars, if not more.
It also makes them impossible to repair when they break down: they'll have to be re-manufactured.