Automaking is a regional sport. Different regions have different climates with weather and terrain conditions to consider as well as any one region’s general design preferences. Certain regions require provisions to ensure compliance with a myriad of specifications that must be met. After the governing bodies have all been satisfied, it’s up to manufacturers to tweak and modify the design further until it’s presented in a marketable package the local market is prepared to spend money on.

When all is said and done, many cars of the same model in one area look drastically different in the next. Some models don’t even translate over while others are merged with different models to make something completely new (like a Mercedes El Camino). Most of these little things you’ve never heard of before, and for good reason – there’s no need for you to have heard of them before. They have their cars, you have yours.

As far as trucks are concerned, we’ve pretty much got all the bases covered for the next, like, forever. Engine technology is soaring sky-high and the fusion of economy and power are coming together like never before. We were always leading the pickup game anyway – but the century of evolution has left most of the developed world in our dust. Pickup trucks are known to take some strange forms in other places around the world – closer to three-wheeled golf carts in some cases. But it’s not because they can’t build super-duty trucks; they just don’t feel the need to.

20 Mitsubishi L200

Some people ask why we don’t get these models when they see one they wish they had the opportunity to own, but the truth is you just think you want to own one of these. I’ll give you two reasons why I know you don’t. One: it’s a Mitsubishi (and a truck…at the same time). Two: it’s a truck that is a Mitsubishi (still, at the same time).

The problem is not with the actual truck itself.

The problem is that the “truck” is, according to Mitsubishi Motors’ website (and I quote): “Simply the best pick up on the market.” (Their “best-pick-up-on-the-market” is out there bragging from the mountain tops about three-tons of towing capacity while Ford, Chevy, and Dodge all hover around three times that – fighting for the same title.) Bad move, Mitsubishi.

19 Isuzu D-Max

After that last one, you should be getting more and more thankful that you’re here – and not there (wherever “there” may be) – if you have any sort of affinity for all the things a truck was meant to be. The more-refined rest of the world likes to treat the automobile as if it were some contraption invented to convenience our lives and glide around silently in aerodynamic cohesion with the wind. The D-Max boasts the same anemic three-ton towing capacity, but according to an Isuzu digital publication is “all you need for any adventure.” Some folks in the Isuzu PR department have never made a sizable Home Depot-run, apparently. You’ll be lucky to build a dog house with what you can cram into the back of that truck.

18 Mercedes X-Class

Relatively rare and a new-comer to the pickup game, one truck aims to be a cut above the rest – with the barest-possible minimum-effort. That’s right, you don’t get on top by putting long, arduous hours of unwavering labor into development – you get on top by using a proven two-step process. Step 1: Be Mercedes and sit on almost a century of public awareness and business branding. Step 2: Select an already-proven platform, steal the chassis and panels and make a few tweaks here and there. What you’re actually buying when you sign on the line for the X-Class is a rebranded Navarra, which is nothing more than a foreign Nissan Frontier with Mercedes badging – and Mercedes price tagging.

17 Mazda BT-50

Since 2006 the BT-50 has been raging on the roadways of strange and far-off lands, causing local commotion while we are none the wiser – and we don’t need to be. Here, we do things just a little bit differently. What you’re actually looking at is a Mazda Ford Raptor. (Not really.) But this is their “bro” truck – as hard to the core as it gets. There’s just no need for them to drive big trucks, and if they do, driving can be a hassle where road networks aren’t as accommodating to larger vehicles (we have it pretty good here).

16 El Binzomino

Maybe Mercedes is onto something with the ripping-off of successful designs. After all, R&D isn’t cheap. What is cheap, however, is a half-attempt; and when you already have a solid platform, you’re halfway there.

Just mash an El Camino-style bed on the back of a passenger sedan to end up with a type of Mercedes you would have never even dreamed of – but one with little chance of survival in the states.

Elsewhere, where they highly value prestige and elegance; one could get away with a Mercedes hybrid such as this. Any state-sider with enough credit to buy a Mercedes doesn’t need mini-truck utility balled up into their luxury sedan.

15 Nissan Navara

You know that there’s something wrong with the space-time continuum when people are buying snake oil by the chassis – right there on the Navara website you’ll find the proud proclamation that the Navara is “The Tough Pickup.” I don’t know what all they mean by tough – but their advertisement has an orange Navara is sitting on a trail up a beautiful mountain with cyclists unloading their bikes for a leisurely trail ride. If that’s tough for the Navara, I’m not sure I’d even order it with a towing package...but pool guys love to hook their cleaners off of them.

14 Peugeot 504

It was the early ‘70s and the oil crisis was restricting vital oil supplies on a global scale. Manufacturers were forced to accommodate the new automotive operating climate with offerings of economy and efficiency as the cornerstone of their design.

This global incident transformed virtually all commercial automobile production available to the general public, and the 504 line was to remain economized indefinitely thereafter.

Like many other places, diesel power is a common propulsion method, and both gasoline as well as compression-ignition models were available in displacements from 1.8L to a whopping 2.7L V-6 spread out amongst six different engine options.

13 Zhongxing Terralord

If you’ve ever read directions originally written in a foreign language before being translated to English, you may recall being confused by some of the odd grammar it sometimes translates into. It just doesn’t always translate over all that well.

When China-based automaker ZX Auto established a new model truck, they did so by ripping off the Toyota Tundra in traditional Chinese style with a truck with absolutely zero shame.

Why would they not though? The Tundra is a great truck and they’re smart to replicate it – but I still have beef with the name. Terralord? Really? LORD? I’m assuming this translates roughly into something akin to "king of the land." More accurately though, it’s a Harbor Freight ratchet in a snap-on box.

12 Foton Tunland

Foton Motors makes the budget-minded Tunland and they know better than to even step foot on our soil with this. It’s about the ugliest pickup truck you could build – using the parts from the ugliest cars and crossovers you currently build. But even though this Sally-minded jalopy looks as if it takes design cues from a crossover, you should know it has a Cummins before you go and add it to your list of things to laugh indiscriminately at. That’s right partner, a 2.8L turbo diesel. We can laugh at it for just about every other reason under the sun, but at least it is packing a little bit of heat behind that camel toe-looking grill on its face.

11 Kawei K1

Borrowing ideas and “sharing” in the auto industry is common practice, but the K1 is just downright shameless. Right down to the minute contours of the headlights, it rips Ford off harder than Firestone as China hones the platform into their version of the legendary F-150.

It looks good on the outside, and it’s a diesel with a manual gearbox – so far so good, right?

A diesel-powered F-150 with a foreign price tag and a manual transmission should be an easy home run! Unfortunately, as with everything else there, the devil is in the details; a closer look reveals the 107hp 3.2L diesel is out-powered by 77hp compared to my naturally-aspirated 2.5L Mazda 6 and the interior is nothing like Ford’s stateside version.

10 Wildtrak Ranger

Here’s another one you won’t see despite the Ragner’s return to the states in 2019, the Wildtrak-spec isn’t to be tamed within the contiguous 48 unless you go get one from the outback or another region where they roam. The sales brochure always has the “Built Ford Tough” slogans plastered everywhere – that’s pretty standard stuff. Here though, for the Wildtrak, it’s claimed to be tested in -40° at altitudes of almost 15,000’ above sea level. To what extent they performed this testing is unclear, but it’s interesting to note that Celsius and Farenheit actually converge at the -40° where it was tested. Despite stringent European “Stage VI” (whatever that is) emissions standards, the 2.2L Duratorq TDCi engine delivers roughly 160hp – nothing to preach from the hilltops about, but it’s still a just a Ranger, after all.

9 Subaru Sambar

Here’s a little gem that comes from our friends across the Pacific – and one that they weren’t nice enough to share. The quaint, little Sambar likely has no place on our big, fast roads; but that doesn’t mean we don’t still want one.

The Volkswagen Transporter was never released in large quantities here, but it was almost the same thing – just a whole lot cooler.

Maybe that’s why we never got a chance at the Sambar, but it’s been stamped out and slapped together on foreign assembly lines since 1961 and is the first of the Kei trucks to feature a cab-over design. (It was in production until 2012, but the last of the Sambars are nothing you want any part of.)

8 UAZ 452

Unless you’re very well-cultured, you’ve likely never heard of UAZ, but they’re one of the greatest little trucks you’ve never known about. First of all, Uaz is from Russia – so you should already have an idea where we’re going here. The fact that it’s from there may be misleading though – the Uaz 452 is a tiny little truck. Still, it’s stout enough to tackle just about everything you can throw at it and look awesome doing it. Uaz has been doing off-road trucks since the ‘40s, so you know they know what they’re doing – and Russia has some of the most brutal terrain known to earth, perfect for cool little photo-ops.

7 Tune Kei: Hello Special

Everybody has their “thing.” You get a thing, he gets a thing – we all get a “thing.” Some guys have a thing for power boat-towing torque – some guys have a thing for burning rice in a hot pink dress. Now, before you go laughing at this weird little truck that’s wrapped in the most feminine color we’ve been raised to accept, stop and think about the brilliance; Oda-san, resident of the beautiful little Japanese countryside, saw an opening in a market for which there was no occupant – the kei truck-tuner market. Capitalizing on this, he pimped out this little bad boy in the brightest color that would grab everyone’s attention and started a tuner outfit focused on these super-mini pickup trucks. You may call the Hello Special a joke but I call it a genius marketing move as Oda-san just gets in where he fits in.

6 Suzuki Carry

Debuting in October 1961, the Carry hit the stage ready to get dirty with some good old-fashioned work. It was no accident that the little cab-over was geared strictly for utility; it’s styling and sex appeal reflected this by the unspectacular silhouette it drew. Starting out as more of a mini-SUV before the crossover was ever imagined, the 1965-model year saw a pickup bed installed in place of the extended roofline and a kei-legend was born that would carry Suzuki into the new century. Still just as unflattering as they were when they first came out, they never tried to be anything they weren’t – it was only ever just a tiny, cab-over work truck that was built to be really good at what it did (and get you no dates ever).

5 Late-’80s Ford Falcon UTE

A name may have very different meanings from person to person depending on who you ask. To most of the people I know a Falcon is Ford’s baby muscle car that went head-to-head with Chevy’s Nova from the early’60s. As things happen, the model would eventually fizzle out in the states – but that didn’t stop the persistent Falcon from continuing on. We wouldn’t even recognize it in its new form, but the overseas version was outfitted with an El Camino-style bed behind a single-rowed passenger compartment and, as a standard feature, you can find the unmistakable ‘80s styling in no short supply here.

4 Modern Ford Falcon UTE

So, what’s a UTE anyway? I didn’t know either but when I found out, I was glad I didn’t have the misfortune of living where I would even need to know such things. Apparently, our buddies overseas call this thing a UTE as an abbreviated term for “utility.”

Since “utility” is our word of the day, what better way to add utility onto something than to follow the pickup truck’s methodology and throw a bed in the back?

They call them trackbacks and other cute names for cars that don’t have the raw sack to be called a pickup truck, but these trackbacks are very well suited to moving around things like potted plants and taking aluminum cans to the recycling center.

3 Ford Ranger

It’s coming back – and it’s nothing like the little mini truck you remember when it rolled off the assembly line for the last time way back when. Although absent from the states, the Ranger has been playing abroad and evolving just out of our peripheral awareness with the European influence working diligently over the years to keep the model cutting-edge (for a Ranger anyway). It’s been gone since 2011 and we’re going to have to domesticate it again; the prospect of re-introducing the Ranger into its native land alongside trucks like the Raptor mean speculation is already circulating of a Raptor trim package in the works. We don’t need another mini truck on the market in my opinion, but I’ll gladly roll a red carpet out for a mini Raptor.

2 Toyota Hilux

If you’re wondering why this Toyota looks vaguely familiar (but can’t pin the déjà vu) you may have played with radio control cars when you were younger. Tamiya is a large producer of RC cars and components. This Hilux has been outfitted to showcase them in full-size fashion with a shiny, new set of decals – it even simulates the antenna mast. When the Hilux isn’t pretending to be a toy, it’s acting like a big truck (as big as a mid-size truck can act, anyway). The line evolved from the same, familiar mini-truck body style we remember from the ‘80s, but the regional treatment ensured it evolved a bit quicker than its state-side counterparts (after all, it’s one of the only trucks they have).

1 Unimog

The Daimler Unimog is one of the saddest trucks that never got to see the land of the free. Whether it would have been accepted by the truck-buying consumers in the states is anybody’s guess – it looks very European. Like it or not it’s badder than we’d know what to do with.

The Unimog was actually sold under the Freightliner name here but you’ll never see them around and most of them that live domestically have been imported by single dealerships in small quantities and private parties.

Despite their rarity, that doesn’t stop them from being used as military weapons platforms and participating in the Dakar Rally as well as other harsh, off-road races. If there’s one truck you can’t have but must know more about, it’s a Unimog – weapons or no weapons – it’s Terminator-endorsed. (Seriously.)

Sources: ford.com, edmunds.com, mitsubishi-cars.co.uk, toyota.com, mazda.com.au, jalopink.com, nissan.co.uk, speedhunters.com.