They do not come in all form factors. Compact trucks are missing.
> If manufactures killed of the truck you want, it's because they apparently can't find 1,999 other people to buy that trim.
If that were true, Ford wouldn't have stopped selling the Ranger in the US. They stopped making them in December 2011.
Yearly sales [2] were
2005 120,958
2006 92,420
2007 72,711
2008 65,872
2009 55,600
2010 55,364
2011 70,832
2012 23,848
Canadian sales were about 20k a year, with 2011 and 2012 combining to hit 20k-ish. [2]
If it's not sales, and it's not competition (because all of the competition stopped servicing this market, too), it's because CAFE forced us to buy bigger or older trucks.
[1] https://carfigures.com/us-market-brand/ford/ranger#year-sale...
[2] https://carfigures.com/canada-market-brand/ford/ranger#year-...
The Maverick is a compact truck. It's slightly shorter and somewhat wider than the Ranger.
It's specifically only the 2-seat compact truck form factor that's missing.
Substitute "car" for "truck" in that statement, and you have exactly the justification Ford and GM had for not building the first minivans in the late '70s.
Ford even had all the detailed market research that said you could move ~700K units of such a vehicle per year; but disbelieved it, "b/c if that were truly the case, GM would've made those already."
Hal Sperlich took that information with him to Chrysler after Henry Ford II fired him, and the first thing he did at Chrysler was to convince John Riccardo to develop the K-car, which provided the parts Sperlich would need for the minivan a few years later. Despite the staggering profits generated by the first minivans, it took GM another six years, and Ford another ten to begin selling a competitive product.
Point is, don't assume every addressable profitable niche is actually being addressed.
Americans collectively purchase over 1 million trucks a year. They come in all kinds of different form factors from work truck with unpainted bumpers to 700HP supercharged dune runners, there are massive couches on wheels with interior made from saddle leather, to trucks pushing 1000ft-lbs to torque. There are EVs trucks with 400 miles of range and crossovers with the hatch turned into a tiny bed. There's even a Jeep Wranger with a bed (Gladiator).
If there's a significant market for a truck niche, it's covered. Trucks are far and away the most diverse segment of the US auto market. If manufactures killed of the truck you want, it's because they apparently can't find 1,999 other people to buy that trim.