Americanisation of Australian Car Market.

[Stealth00]

Interesting thoughts..

So it seems that technically the Ranger is not a ute, I would argue it is not a truck either.

For it to be a truck you would need to have a truck licence to drive it. No truck licence required then you are not driving a truck.

Considering Ford Australia has a unique connection to the ute, I would perfer they referred to the Ranger as a ute, while it may not technically be a ute most Australians would consider it a ute.

While I appreciate this is a very minor issue in the whole scheme of things, I would hate Australia to lose the ute.

[JG66ME]

Originally Posted by Stealth00

Interesting thoughts..

So it seems that technically the Ranger is not a ute, I would argue it is not a truck either.

For it to be a truck you would need to have a truck licence to drive it. No truck licence required then you are not driving a truck.

Considering Ford Australia has a unique connection to the ute, I would perfer they referred to the Ranger as a ute, while it may not technically be a ute most Australians would consider it a ute.

While I appreciate this is a very minor issue in the whole scheme of things, I would hate Australia to lose the ute.

Any truck under 4500kg GVM can be driven on a car license. Mitsubishi Canter 413 for example. That is definitely a truck.

It is also true that since the AU the Falcon ute does not fully fit the true criteria for a ute.

People seem to be getting hung up on a word used to describe something that is unique to Australia. If people want to call a Ranger a ute, fine, others will know what they mean. If the word dies out, so be it. I can think of many Aussie terms not used anymore or being phased out. For example words rarely if ever heard in the modern day vernacular include

Cobber
Sheila
Fair Dinkum
Grouse
pash
word beginning with r
Word beginning with b
mole

Even mate is being replaced by dude or bloke.

I also don't understand this sudden belief that a truck has to be a huge thing with 15 gears. The true original meaning of the word truck is a small hand cart. The modern definition is a motor vehicle ranging in size from a golf cart to a mining dump truck.

Truck is just another word that describes a load carrying vehicle, it is not American, it is used all over the world. There is no American conspiracy to get us to stop using the word ute.

What I think may be happening is that Ford are getting us ready for the end of the Aussie ute as we know it. I drive an FG XR6 ute, I have been a dedicated ute owner since the AU (yes, not a ute, LOL). When I look at these Rangers, Tritons and Hiluxes they don't fit my criteria for a ute. They look to much like a small truck. I want a sporty sedan with a load bed. But if someone calls the Ranger a ute or a truck it matters not to me.

[39ClevoUte]

Maybe the criteria for ute (Aus criteria) should be sedan based.
Truck = non sedan based cab chassis.

[JG66ME]

Originally Posted by 37Clevo

Maybe the criteria for ute (Aus criteria) should be sedan based.
Truck = non sedan based cab chassis.

Agree, and that is what it has always been.

[39ClevoUte]

So an AU is a sedan based cab chassis. Nothing is ever easy cobber!

[Stealth00]

Fair dinkum.

[JG66ME]

Originally Posted by 37Clevo

So an AU is a sedan based cab chassis. Nothing is ever easy cobber!

Strewth, I call it a ute
Fair dinkum this is getting hard.

[castellan]

Originally Posted by JG66ME

Strewth, I call it a ute
Fair dinkum this is getting hard.

I call the new Pick-up Falcon a ute as well, but I know it's really a Pick-up.
I call the dual cabs a dual cab.
I call the 1 tonne tray back, a 1 tonne.

It's like you can have a 4 door sedan and then you can have a 4 door hardtop sedan and some dude will call it a sedan and you point out it's a hardtop sedan, now one may not know the difference, but I sure do. I love hardtops they are special and classy.
Just look at the 1965-6-7-8 Chev or Pontiac 4 door Hardtops to the 4 door sedans.

[39ClevoUte]

Originally Posted by castellan

I call the new Pick-up Falcon a ute as well, but I know it's really a Pick-up.
I call the dual cabs a dual cab.
I call the 1 tonne tray back, a 1 tonne.

It's like you can have a 4 door sedan and then you can have a 4 door hardtop sedan and some dude will call it a sedan and you point out it's a hardtop sedan, now one may not know the difference, but I sure do. I love hardtops they are special and classy.
Just look at the 1965-6-7-8 Chev or Pontiac 4 door Hardtops to the 4 door sedans.

That would be 4 door pillarless sedan.
Hardtops are usually convertable looking (ie two doors with a soft top) but with a hardtop and pillarless.
A tudor/two door sedan has the roof of a fordor but with two doors and not pillarless.
A coupe usually has a shorter roof than a sedan, but sedan height and not pillarless.
But on top of all this the marketing people will call them whatever will sell.
There are plenty of exceptions.
If a four door pillarless with a lower roof line (convertable height) then probably a 4 pillarless door hardtop.

[castellan]

Originally Posted by 37Clevo

That would be 4 door pillarless sedan.
Hardtops are usually convertable looking (ie two doors with a soft top) but with a hardtop and pillarless.
A tudor/two door sedan has the roof of a fordor but with two doors and not pillarless.
A coupe usually has a shorter roof than a sedan, but sedan height and not pillarless.
But on top of all this the marketing people will call them whatever will sell.
There are plenty of exceptions.
If a four door pillarless with a lower roof line (convertable height) then probably a 4 pillarless door hardtop.

XA-B-C Falcon have 2 door Hardtops and hardtop ute and p van.
Aussie 1971-2 LTD Galaxie were 4 door pillared hardtop.
They never have the dreadful cheap nasty framed steel edge around the windows and can be pillared or pillarless hardtops.

As for sedans you can have a sedan with a A.B.C.and D pillar right at the back,it may look like a wagon but it's not. as a wagon does have an open space behind the back seat.

Have a look at the 1949 Aussie built L series Vauxhall, she looks very much like a FX Holden and all, but we have 3 different types of sedan in this and one looks like a wagon with a sixth window, that's an Aussie body and the more FJ Holden looking one at the back is the imported English body and the CKD one has a more rounded boot. so they say. this is the closest thing to a FX-J Holden their is but the Vauxhall is not as advanced as the Holden at the time, but the engines is just about the same thing and you can even make the crank fit the Holden Grey motor.

[SM1DY]

The only thing about the current Ranger ads that annoys me; is that she strolls into the Bunnings/Masters and walks out with nothing?

Should that bother me?

[MrZ]

Originally Posted by SM1DY

The only thing about the current Ranger ads that annoys me; is that she strolls into the Bunnings/Masters and walks out with nothing?

Should that bother me?

She had an ad to film - there's only so much time for shopping.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by SM1DY

The only thing about the current Ranger ads that annoys me; is that she strolls into the Bunnings/Masters and walks out with nothing?

Should that bother me?

Only if you have shares in "Wesfarmers" Bunnings!

[SPArKy_Dave]

Originally Posted by 37Clevo

So an AU is a sedan based cab chassis. Nothing is ever easy cobber!

I believe the correct term for the AU-FGX vehicles with a Cab/Chassis underpinning,
is 'Style Side Box'.

[xxx000]

Geez we got bogged down with the ute/truck naming thing

[MrZ]

I just saw the latest episode of Highway Patrol on Channel 7 on Monday. In the episode, the police are about to impound a 1970s Ford F-100, and the driver says "You are not taking my truck". Not ute, but *truck*.

[Polyal]

F series are trucks IMO.

Ute = wagon/sedan based.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Stealth00

Interesting thoughts..

So it seems that technically the Ranger is not a ute, I would argue it is not a truck either.

Ford internally call it a Pick Up so its not a ute.

[MrZ]

The whole argument here is that the Ford Ranger should be called a ute in Australia, not a truck. Ranger and F-Series are in the same boat. Either they are both called trucks, or neither is. People in this thread are saying that people in Australia call them utes, not trucks, so I'm pointing out the guy in this week's HWP who called it a truck.