They’re part car, part pickup truck, and totally Australian. This week, Ford is celebrating the 80th birthday of the distinctive body style called the Utility Coupe—you know it as the Ute.
According to the eager publicists at Ford of Australia, the Ute was invented in 1934 when Ford designer Lew Brandt combined elements of the pickup truck and the closed passenger car, creating a hybrid vehicle perfectly suited for Australian country life.
Nice try. No, really. However, we know that utility-style car-slash-trucks were already long in use in Australia by 1934, and in the USA as well, for that matter. Any historical firsts in this category are problematic. After all, the automobile was no sooner invented when, five minutes later, somebody recognized how useful it could be with a cargo box attached.
Brandt’s innovation, as we see it, was in designing an attractive, functional body style with both coupe-like elements, including quarter windows, and an integral cargo box. The longer, sloping roofline and extra windows on most Utes also serve to distinguish them from otherwise similar car-trucks built for the American market—the Chevrolet El Camino and Ford Ranchero, for instance.
Sadly, soon the traditional Australian ute will be no more. Both Ford and GM’s Holden division are scheduled to discontinue production of home-market vehicles, their utility models included. But we’re glad the Ford people took a moment this week to remember the distinctive body style. Here’s a small sample of all the great Ford utes through the decades.
Here’s Lew Brandt’s original design, the 1934 Ford Utility Coupe, in fully restored condition. Note the quarter windows, a feature not found on Ford’s passenger-car based pickups of the era, and the integrated cab and pickup box.
Note the ’46-’48-style rear fenders on this ’49 Ford Utility. Chassis and drivetrains on Utes of this era were shared with American Ford passenger cars but converted to right-hand drive.
Along with the USA-based full-sized Utes, Ford of Australia also offered compact Utility models based on British Ford models, including the Popular (MY1955 shown here) and Zephyr.
The 1958 Ford Mainliner Ute (also shown in the lead illustration above) borrowed its front end sheet metal from the 1955 USA passenger car line. However, the rear fender sweeps mimic the ’52-’54 Ford styling theme.
The 1961 Falcon XG Ute closely resembles the Ford USA Ranchero, but there are key differences, too, including the wide, backswept B pillar. Australian Falcons soon departed from their American counterparts to meet local needs and tastes, with the utility models following along.
A 1991 XF Falcon Ute S is shown with its GL Van sibling in a factory photo. Down Under, vans and one tonners (flatbeds) are platform-sharing variants on the Coupe Utility theme
Australians like to work hard and play hard, hence the Ute’s popularity as a lifestyle tool. Here, a 2008 Ford XG Falcon XR8 Ute tows a pleasure boat.
An original ’34 Ford Utility poses next to the vehicle intended to take the place of the traditional Ute in the Ford lineup, a Ranger mid-size pickup.
Note the 2008 XG Falcon, like the US Falcon-based Ute, also breaks a fundamental ute design criteria — it has a separate cab and bed. I think GM actually did this first for the Holdens, and Ford followed. Not sure why, but maybe the integral beds were being flexed by carrying heavier loads over rough roads – the problem Ford had when it went to an integral bed design for the ’61 F-Series.
Incidently, Ford also offered an integral cab and bed pickup in the US in the early 30s – the Service car. Fitted with chrome side rails, it was originally created for General Electric to deliver Monitor Top refrigerators, and also offered to Ford Dealers as a service car, usually fitted with a tow winch. Unlike Lew Brant’s innovative design, it used a standard pickup cab with no quarter windows, and wasn’t intended as a dual-use vehicle.
The American Falcon Ranchero PU had a unitized cab and body, and the El Camino/GMC Sprint
too. The recent Chevy Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade pickup and the Honda Ridgeline employ this construction also.
Thanks for the great article. It appears the front grille used on the mid-Fifties Australian Ford Ute is originally from the ’55 Meteor (the Ford-based car sold through Canadian Lincoln-Mercury dealers). How fortunate for Ford to have such a large parts bin; they made some interesting variants over the years. .
A slightly sad side story is that Lew Bandt was killed in 1987 while driving his restored 1934 Ford Coupe Utility home after filming a TV documentary.
This car has since been restored by members of the Early Ford V8 Club of Victoria and this is the car seen in the photos above.
The Mainline is Mainline! Most parts were sourced from Canada to keep the money in the Commonwealth. The 61 Falcon is an XK model. The seperate tray became available in 98 with the AU model. They are sold as both bed type ute and traytop,,, with a LEAF spring rear. Yes it will be sad when they stop making them. And in this case the Falcon ute is leaps and bounds in front of the imports. Quieter, smoother, quicker, more economical with true passenger comfort and luxury. And actually cheaper too.