So here we are in early 2006. Fuel prices are at record highs. The market for Ford and GM's SUV's and trucks is drying up as customers realize they can no longer afford to fill the fuel tank and frequently as needed. The Japanese, Koreans, and Germans are killing the Americans in the smaller car market. The luxury brands from overseas
are taking the best SUV and luxury car customers. What is a poor American car company to do?
Duh! How about looking at their own company for ideas? And guess what? Both GM and Ford have an answer right here in Australia. They have been making and selling something here for a long, long time that the Japanese and Europeans don't even have. It is called the "Ute".
A Ute is the Australian pick-up truck. It is actually a breed of car based pickup trucks. Ute is short for "Utility", because it is used for work. Unlike the classic American style pickup truck in the US, such as Ford's F-150 and the Chevy Colorado, the Ute is lower, sleeker, and slightly smaller. The front end, from the cab forward, is a 2-seater, sporty, coupe style, muscle car. The rear bed is often a shallow aluminum tray, but is actually a proper bed on the city models.
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| Holden Ute |
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| Ford Ute |
I think they are beautiful vehicles. They get much better mileage than the American pickups. They have powerful motors, are fast, and they look mean and sexy.
GM owns the only Australian car company, Holden. Holden makes a line of Utes. So does Ford Australia. They compete with each other for the loyalty of the Australian ute buyer, which is usually a male in his 20's or 30's.
But... there is a problem that Ford and GM need to overcome. In US, the legacy of their previous car/truck models, the Chevy El Camino and the Ford Ranchero is not good. Neither model is made any more, having been killed around 1980 by fuel and quality problems. The biggest problem is going to be getting past the image of these class of vehicle preferred by ignorant trailer-park trash.
You can thank Congress for that. They put these vehicles in the car group, while pickup trucks like the Chevy S10 where in the truck class. The truck class is exempt from safety and fuel economy requirements of the car class. So Ford and GM focused on Pickups and SUV's and let the car/truck die.
Now that we have come full circle and the market for the truck class vehicles has dried up, it is time to take a good look at the modern Aussie Ute. Both GM and Ford and going to have to give up on trying to use the old El Camino and Ranchero names. There is too much baggage with them. Just call them what they call them here in Australia. It could be the Chevy SS Ute and the Ford XR6.
I think they will sell well, if they don't f**k it over like GM did last year with the Australian Monaro.
Ah... the Monaro. In 2005 GM took a great Aussie muscle car, the Holden Monaro, and imported it to the US. But they couldn't leave well enough alone. I guess some GM executives had to justify their jobs by making changes rather then just selling them, as-is, off the boat from Australia. They changed the name, calling it the Pontiac GTO. They changed the body and drive train, which introduced quality problems. They softened the look and made it look like it had it balls cut off. Then they over-priced it and tried to sell it to middle age men family men. GM ended up killing it after one year. I wrote about that fiasco here.
You know, the US car companies were able to make the working-class pickup truck the preferred choice of soccer mom's and suburbia America by turning it into the SUV. They should be able to overcome the history of the El Camino/Ranchero and turn the Ute into a very successful and profitable vehicle. If you are top executive with Ford or GM in Detroit, please pull you head out of you ass and look down-under. What do you have to loose at this point?
But I'm not holding my breath.
2 comments:
I think the major problem with the Ranchero, El Camino and Dodge Rampage (ever heard of that one?) were that the machines were a functional compromise and a car truck paradox with too many trade-offs to make them worthwhile.
For instance, while those machines are really just cars, they are registered as trucks. Truck registrations cost more. They had car suspensions which made them fairly useless for the types of things a person might need a truck bed for, and, they only had two seats which, again, at the time was too constraining (where to put the kids).
Now, while those vehicles no longer exist, the concept that they were meant to embody (truck utility with car comfort and economy)is still around. Detroit definitely took lessons from those machines. You can see the results today with the four-dour "crew cab" trucks, and the SUVs that "drive and handle like cars."
Perhaps today, with more people being single and new technology to improve things like suspension and handling, maybe the time is right for a comeback of these type of cars. Although, with two Dodge Rampages myself, maybe I'm just a little biased.
I think that the Ute will be a great way to bring back the reputation of Ford. Everyone could use a sturdy truck so why not get one that looks good too. If I lived in Australia, I know what vehicle I would use to get around. http://www.mikeblewitt.com.au/list.php/utilities/
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