Australian 'Cruiser, power by Ford

[JG34JA]

It has always been puzzling that the Land Rover, and then LandCruiser dominated this country in rural areas and the bush and no Australian competitor emerged to even challenge them. After all, they are utilitarian, built tough, unsophisticated and reliable - all monikers that have been used on Australian passenger cars.

So why has no one connected the dots, and produced a mass produced Australian 4x4 ute/wagon with real "bushability"? And I don't mean soft roader.

Is it business case? Could it supplement a current business case? Is it crash safety regulations that demand Aussie produced cars be one level and allow imports to be less safe? Consumer tastes denying the ROI? Is the competition too strong? Has the ship sailed, long ago?

As an example, we could take the 4.0 inline six in petrol and gas, the 2.7TD, 6 speed auto and 6 speed manual and marry these combos to transfer case, two live axles (or one with a front IFS), part or full time 4wd, a full chassis and simple body work. We could build it simply, and build it tough to last. The suspension could be made supple, the angles of approach, departure and ramp-over could be competitive, diff lockers could be used, and Australians can certainly engineer for both safety and tune the vehicles to this country better than anyone else.

Love to hear thoughts on why there never was/will be (?) an Aussie made "Cruiser" on this continent, or why there should be!