Australia’s first fully manufactured car model, the FX Holden, soon became a favourite for most Australian car buyers. Toted as Australia’s car for Australian conditions, the FX laid the foundation stone for Australia’s most successful car manufacturer GM-H. At first, considering only manufacturing a sedan body, Holden found a need and a demand to quickly develop a utility for the man on the land. The “utility” was born and affectionately became known as the “ute”.
With vast distances that our farmers had to travel, some with properties spread over 30,000 and 40,000 acres, they needed a motor vehicle/work horse to travel their wide barren properties. Taking stock and produce to market and backing up as a comfortable and reliable sedan, the two seater “ute” became a must have for the man on the land and regularly used the “ute” for weekend picnics and driving into the closest city to purchase their food supplies.
The exterior body colour range was limited to four colours: Convoy Grey, Seine Blue, Gawler Cream and Black. At this time, the colour of the vehicle was not an issue. Because of low production numbers and high demand, the flexible Australian farmer bought the “ute” that was available to him at the time, regardless of colour.
The early Holden ute had very few options as there was very few to choose from because this was a “man on the land workhorse”. It had to work and work hard. The original 6 cylinder, 60 bhp “grey engine” was used, as Holden wisely chose reliability over innovation and durability over performance, the key to the success of the Holden ute.
Overseas car manufacturers were miffed at the soon to grow popularity of the Holden ute.
Australia has been, and still is, the only market place where the popularity of the ute vigorously challenges the sales of sedate 6 cylinder sedans.
