The ute is more than just a car. The ute is a thing of beauty. The ute is part of our national identity. The ute is an expression of one's lifestyle. The ute makes boys into men.

The ute is Australian.


From the Ute Appreciation Society of Australia

Unlike a pickup truck, which is classified as a truck, a ute (short for coupe utility) is a vehicle with the body and design of a sedan but with a tray where the rear seats and boot usually are. Utes are largely an Australian phenomenon, other countries prefering the larger, truck based utility vehicles. Vehicles such as Ford's F100-F350 are all classed as trucks. By comparison, Many popular sedans sold in Australia also had ute variants; FJ Holdens, Ford XA Falcons, Valiant AP6s, right up to the Fords and Holdens being released today. For the most part, the best utes have the tray moulded in as part of the body; the only exception being one-tonners (utes designed to carry a tonne in the tray), which will have a separate steel tray with sides, or a flat tray with no sides and wood flooring. Utes are good to play around in, as they are condusive to car surfing, or 'playing around' in the other sense of the word as they are a staple of Bachelor and Spinsters Balls.

The ute first came into being when a farmer's wife from Gippsland in Victoria wrote to Ford Australia, saying "Why don't you build people like us a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday, and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays?"". Lewis Brandt, a twenty-two year old engineer working for Ford designed a vehicle that could carry passengers and loads, and managed to convince the company that there was a market for it. The Ford Coupé Utility first rolled out of the factory in 1934, and since then there has almost always been a 'Ford ute'. Utes have evolved with cars, usually enjoying production runs at or near the same time as the passenger vehicles. When Ford imported a car from the United States for Australianuse, a ute was often constructed out of the base specifically for this country, such as the XK Falcon. It wasn't until the late 1950's that the United States got their own version of the Ute with 1957's Ford Ranchero, and later the Chevrolet El Camino.

Utes in Australia are still a big industry today - Ford are just about to release the FPV Pursuit ute with a 32 valve 5.4 litre V8, fog lights, rear spoiler and a shitload of safety features. Holden's new entrant is the HSV Maloo R8 with a 5.7 litre V8 and all the other Clubsport trimmings. So how much will these humble working vehicles set you back? Around $60,000 Australian. Oh yes. Of course, no painter or brickie is going to be driving around in one of those, the popular utes for doing actual work are the Toyota Hilux, the plain 'Holden Ute' and the Ford XL Falcon. Most likely though, it'll be an old ute. Newer utes have a bit of a disturbing trend among them though - hard covers on the tray instead of material. This feature indicates that the utes are not being marketed as work vehicles at all, rather as coupes for people who want a lighter car. The worst part about it all is; Where does the dog sit?

Special mention goes to the Uteopia, winner of Queensland's best ute for a few years now. A Toyota Supra and a Hilux rear that took four hundred hours of welding. Inside it has a 24 valve six cylinder engine with twin turbochargers that generates about three hundred horsepower. Ironic that an Australian award given to an Australian style of car is won with Japanese technology.