Where would we be with out a truck story in advertisement? You don't often see a manufacturer tug at the heart strings of its car buyers; but, trucks are different. They are designed and built so radically different to a car because their role and responsibility to an owner is also radically different. They're still used for work, they are still depended upon by many for their livelihoods. I fall into that category, too. More so than any of my daily drivers, my trucks have always had a slightly more special spot in my heart. I simply ask more from them, depend on them for bigger jobs, and they always deliver. They're like a mechanical dog or work-horse (in its literal sense).
It's fitting, then, that Australia's Ute has a similarly heart warming story.
In 1933, a poor Australian farmer needed a single vehicle that could "go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday." He mailed a letter to Hubert French, managing director of the Ford Motor Company of Australia. With this short letter in hand, 23 year old Lewis "Lew" Bradt was tasked with designing something that gave the day-to-day comfort of a sedan, with the utility of a truck. In 1934 Ford's Ute was born, though christened the "coupe-utility" by Lew.
The main body shell was a Ford Model 40, but from the front doors back a cab wall was added, along with steel bedsides integrated into the body, with a wooden bed floor. This was a new step from the traditional method of a separate body and bed. It helped to maximize the load floor area, while maintaining a compact and streamlined body, by eliminating the extra forward bed 'wall' and the gap between the bed and cab of a traditional truck. The Ute spawned a cultural icon for not only Australia, but in the U.S. as well with our El Camino and Ranchero.
Ford would like to credit the little Ute to their success with the F150 and global Ranger, despite its plans to end Australian production of the Ute and its Falcon twin by October of 2016.
So hats off, mullets free to the wind; and thank that thrifty farmer for his modest wish.
from The Truth About Cars http://ift.tt/Jh8LjA
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