Coupé utility

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Holden Ute SS
Holden Ute SS

The coupé utility combines a two-door "coupé" cabin with an integral cargo bed behind the cabin—using a light-duty unibody automobile platform rather than a pickup truck's heavier duty body-on-frame construction.

Contents

[edit] Features

Rear of Holden Ute with tonneau cover
Rear of Holden Ute with tonneau cover

A Coupé Utility style has some or all of these features:

  • Body style with coupé lines, especially using a fixed roof, but like a truck it has an integral open cargo area at rear
  • Like a passenger car, it is built as a monocoque, as opposed to the separate cab and body construction of a pickup truck.
  • Usually derived from existing coupé or sedan, not from a pickup truck.
  • Low profile road tires and alloy rims may be fitted.
  • Low ground clearance.

[edit] Origins

Holden coach works of Australia was the first to integrate a cargo area with the bodywork of a passenger vehicle.[citation needed] Starting in 1924 Holden produced these bodies for Chevrolet and Dodge cars (Holden later became a subsidiary of General Motors). These "roadster pickups" were essentially an extension of the open top roadster design, but with a 'well' type cargo area between the wheels. Barsby and other coach builders also built roadster pickups[1]. Later, in 1934[2], as the result of a request from a Victorian farmer's wife, Ford Australia combined the cab of its newly released Ford Coupé body with a well-type load area fully integrated into the coupé body, producing the first 'Coupé Utilities'[3]. Holden built a Chevrolet ute in 1935, but utes were not sold in America until the 1957 Ford Ranchero. Both types of vehicles were called "utilities" or "utes" for short.

Both the Coupe Utility and the Roadster pickup continued in production, but the improving economy of the mid to late '30s and the desire for improved comfort saw coupe utility sales climb at the expense of the roadster pickup until, by 1939, the roadster pickup was all but a fading memory. No car maker offered a roadster pickup or ute when car production restarted after World War II.

By the mid-'80s in North America, the coupé utility began to fall out of favor again with the demise of the Ranchero after 1979, the Volkswagen Caddy, Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp and of the Chevrolet El Camino. Subaru offered the Brat in the early 1980's, but still offers a Coupé Utility as the Baja today.

The pickup truck, on the other hand, started its life a little earlier and is defined by its separate, removable, well-type 'pickup bed'. This pickup bed does not contact the cabin part of the vehicle, while the ute bed is an integral part of the whole body. Both the Coupé Utility and Closed Cab pickup designs migrated to light truck chassis & these are correctly known respectively as Utility trucks & Pickup trucks. Eventually the pickup design found a natural home on the smaller truck chassis while the ute became entrenched as a passenger car derivitave, although exceptions do apply.

See also: Cultural Significance of The Australian Ute

[edit] Other names

The original makers of roadster utilities and coupé utilities called these vehicles "utilities". The term was quickly shorted to "ute", pronounced "yoot", rhyming with "boot".

Australians define a "ute" as any commercial vehicle that has an open cargo carrying space, but requires only a passenger car licence to drive. This includes coupé utilities, pickup trucks and traybacks (flatbed pickup trucks). An example of the broadness of this definition is that anything from a Ford F250 XL to a Proton Jumbuck called a ute.

In South Africa, no special distinction is made for coupé utes—all classes of pickup trucks are simply called bakkies.

[edit] Variations

Since readers in many parts of the world may be unfamiliar with the formal term "Coupé Utility", here follows some examples of vehicles using this body style.

[edit] Modern coupé utilities

Holden VE Ute SS V-Series
Holden VE Ute SS V-Series

Modern vehicles of the Coupe utility style include, among others:

[edit] Famous coupé utilities of the past

1967 Ford Fairlane Ranchero
1967 Ford Fairlane Ranchero

[edit] Compact

Subaru Baja: profile view with bed-mounted bike rack. Marketed from 2003–2006 in the USA, Canada and Chile, the Baja featured four-doors and derived from the Subaru Outback platform.
Subaru Baja: profile view with bed-mounted bike rack. Marketed from 2003–2006 in the USA, Canada and Chile, the Baja featured four-doors and derived from the Subaru Outback platform.

[edit] References

  • According to a Holden press release in 2001.[4], the coupe utility "is based on a sedan equivalent and has a load bed integral with the cabin"
  • Car Exchange magazine article "Ford V8 Mainline Star", June 1981, pp 76–77.
  • ABC interview with automotive historian Adrian Ryan[5]
  • The Good Ole Aussie Ute, Larry O'Toole, ISBN 0-949398-26-8
  • Ford R5 press release[6]