Similar competition (Nissan Frontier, Ford Ranger, etc.) would start at around $35k these days.

I think you should try and make the case that its not special. Considering a $21k new gas truck doesn’t exist currently.

Depends on the truck. Pickups in the US can get very expensive very quickly, they’re basically luxury vehicles and they retain their value better for some reason I haven’t really looked in to. Budget trucks are not as plentiful, $21,500 is a pretty competitive price.

The main reason is scale and support, here in ukraine we bought all 21k pickups in europe, it is very hard to sustain tham at same time, so if you have any enterprise you'd want a park of SAME vehicle, so for single buy - yes, it will your beloved hilux for rest of your long life. but if you want 100 pickups, 1000? and parts are scarse now. and than you can even customize them. but even in retail you will have extra support and guarantee for new pickup. Steering rack is just unabtainium here, so there will be every other part for 20 year SUV/Pickup soon.

There are golf carts/lsv's that cost 15k-20k these days and a fiat 500 is 25k iirc, for perspective

My current daily is dual-fuel (petrol and LPG) and cost £250, but I got quite a good deal on it.

I tow quite heavy things with it, taking 3500kg trailers a long way off road.

This is an appealing price point for the US market for what it is. I suspect outside of the US you'd need to be a little cheaper still, I hear there are various kinds of trucks under $10k in India for example, though I really have no idea about their size or specs.

Sure, a Tacoma with 100k miles on it already...

Except it’s supposed to launch in 2029 at the earliest?

Ford Maverick starts at $28k, and they're running about $3k in incentives at the moment. So it's a competitive price but nothing too wild versus what we have already.