I think they are made by ford and used by the people down under. What years were they made and what engines did they use? They look like a car-pickup. Does ute apply to all kinds of cars made by other manufactures?
A Ute is a utility vehicle. They were normally sold it seems to me in the Great Down Under. It was a cross between a car and a pickup. Think Ranchero only out of an earlier car like say a 40 Ford. And yes not all Utes are Fords.
History of the Aussie Ute In 1932 a farmer's wife from Gippsland, Vic. wrote a letter of complaint to Ford Australia, saying that her husband wanted a car that could carry her 'to church on Sundays and pigs to market on Mondays'. In response, a 22 year old engineer named Lewis Brandt designed and successfully pushed the concept of a passenger/load-carrying vehicle, and the first Ford 'Coupé Utility' rolled off the production line in 1934. This vehicle was a huge success, and spawned many similar cars worldwide. However, most of the overseas pickups were more truck than sedan based, and to this day, the mighty ute remains largely a unique Australian body style. Over the years, Ford and General Motors locally manufactured ute versions of their passenger cars, and when the 'first Australian car', the Holden 48-215 (FX) was released in 1948, an FX ute was also made available. A similar thing thing happened with the XK Falcon in 1960 - a car Ford Australia found in the US and decided would be perfect for Australia (along with a ute variant of course). When Chrysler briefly set up shop and began locally producing cars, it was a foregone conclusion that they would make utes also. Apart from a few dark patches in the 80's/90's, Holden and Ford have always produced a utility based on their volume passenger car. <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = V /><V:SHAPE style="Z-INDEX: 2; POSITION: absolute; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; WIDTH: 147pt; HEIGHT: 67.5pt; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; mso-wrap-distance-left: 0; mso-wrap-distance-right: 0; mso-position-horizontal: left; mso-position-vertical-relative: line" id=_x0000_s1027 type="#_x0000_t75" alt="Commodore Ute" o:allowoverlap="f"><V:IMAGEDATA o:title="comm" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\SIRZED~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image002.jpg"></V:IMAGEDATA><?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = W /><W:WRAP type="square"></W:WRAP></V:SHAPE>Today, any load carrying car too small to be a truck is called a ute (including 4WD traybacks etc), but among the ute purists, and given the spirit of Lew Brandt's original design philosophy, a real Aussie ute is one based on a passenger sedan, preferably with a seamless body-moulded tray (exceptions made for the mighty 'tonner). Fortunately, the Australian icon is still alive and well despite the influx of cheap Japanese 4WDs, and should be with us for many years to come.
This may help. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=339810&highlight=aussie+ute&page=20
I like the blue one... I'll take mine with a BIG V-8 and 5-speed manual gear box with a 3.73 limited slip diff!
A ute is a sedan based "pick-up" (think ranchero or El-Camino),where the bed sides are part of the body shell. Ford (Australia) started them off, and have made a ute version of every sedan made up till now. GM started a bit later (after WWII?), but stuck to Chev's up to 1954. Chrysler made them right up to when they died down here, mid '80's, and made a ute version of their sedan models. The "Big 3" early utes were based on the U.S. designed but right hand drive versions of Dodge Kingsways, Chev belairs, Ford Customlines, and all used the same running gear as the sedans. There were plenty of other locally assembled utes, mainly British and French jobs, but they only made the ute versions here, along with the sedans.
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