The End of the Ute

On July 29, the last Ford Falcon Ute left Ford's Broadmeadow plant outside of Melbourne, Australia.  Ford is scheduled to end all vehicle production in Australia by September of this year.  General Motors and Toyota have also made plans to end Australian production by the end of 2017.  Henceforth, all vehicles sold by these brands in Australia will be imported from elsewhere.  The strength of the Australian dollar and increasing production costs are major factors behind the decision to cease local production of automobiles.  Other factors include changing consumer tastes toward cheaper imported vehicles.  Ford has seen sales of its Falcon dwindle from a high of 81,000 in 1995 to around 14,036 in 2013, and has observed customers looking for a practical workhorse purchase its Thailand-built Ranger pickup truck.

The history of the ute dates back to 1932, when a wife of a farmer in Victoria, Australia wrote a letter to Ford asking them to build a vehicle "to go to church in on Sunday, and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays."  Ford obliged the woman's request, and it was the beginning of a long standing tradition of Australian-designed and built coupe utility vehicles.  The current Ford Falcon Ute can tow up to 5,000 lbs when properly equipped, and has a payload of up to one ton.  All the while, it offers its passengers a smooth car-like ride.  General Motors' Holden division developed its first ute in 1951, and continues to build one based off the Holden Commodore sedan.

Ford and General Motors brought the ute to America in the late 1950s.  The Ford Ranchero was derived from different Ford sedans over the course of its lifetime, and stayed in production until 1979.  The Chevrolet El Camino was born in response to the Ranchero and outlasted its competitor until 1987.  Government restrictions and increasing production costs made car-based utility vehicles more unattractive from a manufacturing standpoint.  While American utes faded into obscurity, they thrived in Australia.  Each generation brought increases in refinement and capability.  High performance variants generated numbers to embarrass many a sports car, including the 435 horsepower Holden HSV Maloo and the 422 horsepower Ford FPV Pursuit. 

The end of Australian manufacturing and the ute are sad news for many in the automotive community.  Much like Australia is a refuge for unique indigenous wildlife, so it has become a bastion of cars that have, for the most part, gone extinct elsewhere around the world.  The Ford Falcon and the Holden Commodore are among the last mainstream family sedans and coupe utility vehicles to offer rear wheel drive and a V8 powertrain as an option.  They are also as important cultural icons to Australia as are kangaroos and koalas.  The emotional connection and overwhelming passion Ford and Holden fans felt for these homegrown cars is unlikely to be replicated with any imported models from either company's portfolio. 

It is difficult for car manufacturers today to distribute their resources between cars they want to build and cars they need to build.  Does Acura really need the NSX?  Does Chevrolet need the Corvette?  Some would say yes to those questions.  These cars serve as showpieces for their brand that cast their aura across the rest of the lineup.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  The Dodge Viper is about to end production after failing spectacularly with the buying public.  Cars brimming with passion still need to make some contribution to the bottom line in addition to creating a halo for the brand.  It is unfortunate that the Australian ute will soon be leaving us.  Australia and the rest of the world will not be the same without it.