Id buy one and i live in the USA. I don't drive passengers around much and I prefer driving sedans. This is basically a sporty car with added utility which is awesome.
and despite what the enthusiasts say on here this car would not have sold any better than the other Australian cars sold here. There is reason GM stopped selling the El Camino and if they had placed that name on this Ute it would have certainly brought to mind negative images of the El Camino and Ranchero and their lackluster 70's execution. People here want raised trucks and SUVs. They would not appreciate paying 40-50kUS for a lowered El Camino with speed, Aussie heritage and an "iconic" American name, anymore than they wanted to spend $55kUS+ for a Chevy SS based on the G8 GXP based on the Holden Commodore. The Pontiac GTO, with unchanged styling is another example. I can comfortably say this as I own a GTO (10+ years) aka Holden Monaro and have heard all the criticisms. The same enthusiasts screamed for the GTO and when it came here unchanged with a bloated price tag to go with it's un-GTO like, un-retro shape, they like me, yawned. I bought one used when I realized a great deal could be had and that I did not care about the name or heritage as long as it performed.
It didn’t “catch on” in Australia in the 1980’s. Australia had been producing Utes since 1934 (Ford Australia) and 1951 Holden. The Ute was only discontinued in 2016 when car manufacturing ceased in Australia.
@@flynnjacobs1662 you mean because american companies don't give a shit about Australians icons. They weren't losing money, they just weren't making enough profit.
sad thing is we won't have utes anymore, we'll just have big trucks that are hard to load, and get into,they also are horrible on tarmac, not utes, utes drive like normal cars.
@@04m6gto Well, there was only one "real" Holden australians could buy -the Commodore in various shapes and forms. The rest of the line up were imports anyway. Classic GM: make a Holden SUV -nah. Let's sell rebadged Chevrolet-Daewoo stuff. Economy cars - we sell badge engineered vehicles from rather unrelated companies for decades, first Suzuki, then Opel then Daewoo. Compact cars - let's ship them real expensive from europe (Opel). Workhorse pickups or offroaders? We'll promote Isuzu instead. And then we'll withdraw our stakes in Isuzu. GM sure knows how to manage their business and brands so well. Each marque has great reputation and disversification. Not.
@@04m6gto @@04m6gto A bit of both. GM as owner of Holden didn't offer much for the price tag they had for their cars compared to imports. Imports came with good value for every dollar spent and not to mention warranty. And worst of poor resale value. Omega is a good example. GM had the powers to address these issues but it wasn't their top agenda. They just let Holden bleed out. It was eventual for a country no longer prioritise manufacturing. The government is partly should be blamed.
'Ute' is an abbreviation of coupe/utility, a body style which was pioneered by Ford Australia in 1933/34 and which has been popular in Australia ever since. So it's very incorrect to say that it started with El Caminos and Rancheros and that Australia adopted it from the US.
Yes, some Australian farmers wife wrote to Ford and asked for a vehicle that they could go to town with to pick up farm supplies on the weekdays and still civilised enough to go to church in on Sundays.
I think Ford Australia fully released it in 1934 or 35 and it was called coupe utility. Holden released its version in the ute version of the first car it made in the early 50s so i think we made the first two before any were made in america
Those Australian UTEs are pretty damn sick, I'm not much into pickup trucks (my daily is actually Mercedes W124 Coupe) and I'm from Poland where almost NOBODY buys a pickup truck (in fact they're REALLY rare to see on a road there) but those UTE things are really cool in my eyes especially with a big V8, go Aussies! I love you guys and your silly accent.
Sorry Doug, the 'sedan based ute' did not 'catch on' in Australia from the US but rather the other way around. The concept was first released by Ford Australia in around 1934 after a letter from a farmer's wife asking for a vehicle that could "go to church on a Sunday and carry pigs to the market on Monday".
A minute silence please Holden has closed its plant in Australia and Australian car production is no more. This beautiful V8 ute is no more last of its kind. RIP Holden.
The fact they needed bail out money said it was over for them. Manufacturing costs are just too high over here. Plus with our tiny market it's more practical just to import. Though it does indeed make me sad losing Ford and Holden.
It wasn't. The commodore was the perfect car for driving around Australia. Very comfortable, room for the family, plenty of power to tow. They were built to a budget which fit the middle class Australian. There was no point having a pokey European car when we have wide open roads and cheap fuel similar to USA. As fuel got more expensive and most people moved to the city though our needs changed but Holden and Ford failed to adapt.
There are lots of utes here in Australia...in fact Ford Australia created the first Ute in 1934 by converting a Tudor sedan...we have been using them ever since, and they are popular everywhere here.
Holden Special Vehicle (HSV) own 50 percent of the stakes, so the Commodore can still be kept alive with the help of the australian community if they wish for it. It's all a matter of making it happen.
The Utes were also available in New Zealand, and very popular here as well. My father had his first one in 1960. I owned two of the very popular Holden HQ series, one a Belmont and the other a Kingswood.
It is because we get crap cars that look extremely ugly and barely fit main purpose let alone multiple haha. Definitely pretty funny from non American perspective
They're some of the easiest cars to get your hands on in Australia, unless you go into Sydney where all the Japanese cars seem to end up you will see 90% Holdens on the road.
@@NuggetsAutomotive I have one of the last of the LSA manual Maloos here in OZ. They are a amazing vehicle. Any info you need message me. Congrats on the purchase.
Could be a dummy plate-sold on ebay. 19 US states only require a rear plate and many put other plates on the front (German plates on BMWs, Mercs etc.) This is registered in Massachusetts, and should have a front plate. Perhaps Mass. is like California where having either a fake plate or no plate on the front is not unusual.
I'm single with no kids. I like driving fast. But I play a lot of ice hockey and on the weekends I am a gigging musician with bulky gear. I need this car.
No one cares....sike, this car should had been the New Camino with the LS3 from the Chevy SS which Chevy should had called it the Impala SS and both would had become instant classics, not to mention that the Chevy SS was a great choice for Police Cruisers.
It's good conversions are happy, since these are about to become history and the more the spread the better. Just hope someone of these conversions are kept tip top, so in years to come, Australians can buy them back and convert them back to Holden (Since there are no longer going to be made and bogans crash them daily). Just wish GM cunts would have allowed Australia to do LHD for the US market. GM was too scared if Holdens were brought to America new that local brands would have issues selling their Daewoo shitheaps
I'm waiting for the day when someone's crazy enough to import a Maloo, the HSV version of the Holden ute. If you think the stock SS gets your attention, the Maloo is as subtle as a brick to the face. Everything from its aggressive body kit, huge low profile tyres, massive brakes and retuned suspension are all to make an even better ute. I'm aware Americans don't like subtlety in performance cars, and that would be the answer
Im not sure they would get it though, we grew up with the changes to the Maloo range so the VE/VF was amazing Such an amazing car. Even the FPV utes in the end looked great. Shame there is no more :( In saying that though if i got to move back to the USA i would love a VF Maloo as a daily hahaha
There was a company on the Eastcoast of the USA that imported and converted HSV cars a few years back but not sure it is still around. I remember seeing an advert for them on a USA cars for sale site.
So true Mate it has been around since the late 1940's and was built on a GM car platform all the way back to then. Look up on Google Pictures and ask for SS Camaro Ute and see what you find... This guy has his ass backwards...
I remember having to do an assignment in high school about an Australian invention and did the ute. From memory it was a guy named Lewis Bandt who worked for Ford Australia at the time.
No, the "Ute" was designed under Ford by Australian Lew Bandt by adding a bed to a 1933 Ford Coupe, thus creating the 1934 Coupe Utlity. Yes he's Australian, yes it was developed for Australia, inside of an American company's development rooms, by an American company, with Americans, using an American Ford. He died in 1987 in a 1934 Ute of his own design when he crashed with a truck. Besides that.. Holden became GM-H, General Motors owned, in 1931. General Motors is out of Detroit. Holden, like Chevy, Opel, Vauxhall and others, are just subsidiaries of or majority owned by General Motors. Australia didn't release their own Coupe Utility until 1951 with a variant of the first car to ever bear the Holden name, the 48-215. That was 2 years after the British released the Armstrong Siddeley, 5 years after the Chevrolet Stylemaster, 5 years after the newer Ford Coupe Utility.... There was a Ford Runabout in 1913... The "ute" would have never existed if not for the American automotive industry, and Australia is certainly not responsible for flatbed vehicles or the pickup truck. Agree, disagree, I don't care, I won't debate recent history. *edited, added info about Holden, removed el camino reference.
Shoulda woulda coulda..unfortunately the genuises in Detroit thought it best to pull the plug on Holden (slow clap) BTW that Ute is a VE series 1, circa 2010, so the styling and interior dates back to 2006. The current (and last) VF series II has a 6.2 LS3, 304 kW (414 hp) and looks like the current Chev SS inside and is a huge step up from the vehicle shown. As a Melbournian, love seeing the blue and white (state of) Victoria number plate in the USA, that is just surreal,so, woooo! on that. But Doug is right, it SHOULD have been sold in the USA, but your militant UAW would have disallowed that. It could have been an El Camino and successful too. The team that developed this platform were the same people who developed your 5th Gen Camaro, so the engineering ability is there. To Show how good these cars are, the HSV version of this set the exact same lap time as an Aston Martin DB9 on the Top gear track back in 2009...
Well i have REDLINE Stickers for sale, this is when Redline australia still had opportunities to sell their products as far as friction modifiers, but now they sell thier oils and other friction products combined with OE oils. :) But you cant get the stickers anymore. so please contact me if you want to buy any. :)
Yes the new VF Range and especially the series 2, which is to say you can get a new car thats all the basics are still there. 430Kw in a ute or approx 340KW at the rear wheels ?
Knight Industries thanks so much for this. Being from the US I greatly appreciate the cool factor of this vehicle. I visited Oz about a year ago and was so excited to see one in person. Really too bad we didnt get them. An LS3 would be a great powerplant for this.
They have them now in the new Chevy SS and the HSV or the SS utes which the USA company can import with just a few changes due to emissions other than that, you can get a 2013 to 2017 UTE with a 6.2 LS3 engine ?
I was living there and I really dig the ute thing man. In my country they drive station wagons.... lol if they would only know...... I think that a ute is the best combination of many good things from different types of cars without taking over the bad things. And its a part of the Australian culture for sure. Greetings to all Aussie blokes out there.
American owners of the GTO (Monaro), G8 (VE), SS (VF) and Caprice are very educated on the history. Im in a few owners groups on facebook and its great seeing how much effort they all put in to make their cars look like proper Holdens. Some even go to the effort of getting authentic Holden airbags.
@Mark Haury, there was no ute untill a farmers wife sent a letter to an executive of Ford Motor Company of Australia asking them to build a vehicle that her husband could "take the pigs to market on a weekday, and drive her to church on Sunday", that is how the idea of a Ute or "Utility Coupe" came to be.
tolgahk84 ...Except that story is a complete fabrication... Research by *Australian* journalists revealed there is zero evidence it ever happened. Regardless: Ford, Packard and *many* other marques were making that exact car chassis with cargo bed formula decades before. In fact, they have existed since self-propelled vehicles thenselves were invented. There is nothing even remotely Australian about the idea. The Holden version was different only in that *all* cars of that period were different from cars of other periods. The formula itself was identical to those before as well as since. Australia is just the only place it ever really caught on. In the States there was never enough utility or performance compared to the alternatives available. The ute's relatively small size was irrelevant and a liability rather than an asset because American streets, lanes, parking spaces etc., etc. are and always have been so much bigger. If anything, the American full-sized "pickup" was far more unique than the "ute", and now every country makes a body-on-frame, much heavier-duty pickup. Because they are still far more useful than the "ute"... Even compact pickups can haul and tow as much as a ute, have an even smaller footprint and are far better when the pavement is broken or absent. And if you think pickups can't be fast and/or luxurious you haven't been paying attention. F150 Lightning. Lincoln Blackwood. King Ranch. GMC Typhoon & Syclone (sic). The list is very long.
in Australia a farmer's wife complained to ford that she needed a car to take the pigs to the market on saterday and to go to church on sunday. and the ute was born and Aussys have worshipped it ever since!..
Pigs to market eh......I remembered them as sheep, stand corrected. But the livestock angle is what I remembered as critical to the design, being a man of a certain age.
That model was exported to the USA wearing the Chevy bowtie. Sadly not many were sold as consumers didn't get advertising on tv about them. Unless they saw the showroom stock, most Americans had no idea.
Sam has it right. I might add that because Australian cars are required to have a front plate, if they don't have one there they can look a bit stupid because they're designed to have them on the front, and would otherwise have a rectangular relief in the bumper.
Ford Australia's first products were Model Ts assembled from complete knock-down (CKD) kits provided by Ford of Canada.In 1934, the company released a coupe utility based upon the Model A American Ford "Closed Cab Pickup Truck" that had been produced for 6 years from 1928.
@@CsykKrit Yes, an Esky is a cooler for your food and drinks. Esky is/was an actual brand name, but has become a generic term in Oz, just like how Hoover means vacuum cleaner.
@@dbyrne91 Monaros belong to the era when we were more American/Australian in design. Later Australian Vehicles gradually became more German/Australian.
In Germany, I have never even heard of the brand, and then I flew to Australia and these things are everywhere! It's a shame they're not really sold anywhere else
I car named "Ute" (wonder what their other cars are named like... Birte and Dörte?) Would have stuck I guess. It's like naming a car "Ethel", "Mildred" or "Olga".
I think you will find that several other Holden models are actually in Germany as Opels, like the Astra. Holden is only sold in Australia and New Zealand
GM attempted to do it with Pontiac in 2010 in 2009 at the New York Auto show Pontiac was in love with 50 cent. So 50 cent rolled out with a Pontiac G8 sedan and a Pontiac G8 ST (Street Truck) and they were reintroduce the el Camino in 2010 with the G8 ST. But Pontiac died in 2009 so we never got the G8 ST. With all that being said I will always have a soft spot for the Holden Ute and the Holden Commodore.
For people saying 350 horsepower isn't much for a 6 liter V8 you are correct, this however is not the high performance version of the Holden ute, the high performance one is the HSV Maloo which I believe has 600 horsepower and looks a fuckload better! The car in the video is just what all the plumbers drive around in, not a car any of us would call high powered!
my brother used to have an ss ute like this one. all it took was a cam, cai, exhaust and a tune to make nearly 500rwhp haha. was quite the work car. sounded the part too
I owned a Ford Falcon ute from 07 to 12. Let me give you some numbers. It costs around the equivalent of USD$28,000. The base model/trim at that time (also the one I got) was XR6 BF Mark II. 4.0L naturally aspirated inline 6 cylinder petrol engine (engine code "Barra 195") that makes 195kw @5250 rpm and sends 391Nm (290ish lb•ft?) of torque to the rear at just 2500 rpm. In another word, the vehicle can have you pinned on the seat long before you hear the engine rev. It's magic. If you are willing to spend around 5000 to 10000 more, you can get a turbocharged i6 or a NA v8. There are also companies like HSV and FPV (the Holden and Australia Ford's own high performance division, like AMG to mercs) who produces supercharged v8 version of the sedan and ute body of Falcon and Commodore. They are probably the reason why you don't see M5 or C63 that much in Aussie streets. Also the sedan version is a very popular taxi model because the Barra engine is known to go 800k to a million km before bust. Sadly automotive manufacturing is closing down in Australia and both Ford and Holden's ute are going extinct. Moment of silence.
Have to correct you on your history, the car based pickup did not catch on in Australia after the Elcomino or other such American models it was born in Australia. Legend has it a farmers wife contacted a local car manufacturer and asked for a car that she could drive to church on sunday and take a pig market on monday. Anyway Holden that is the manufacturer of this particular vehicle has been making such models out of its sedans since 1948.
THe first ute (coupe utility) was built by Ford in 1934 as a result of the letter you mentioned. Holden have been building sedan (Vauxhall) based utes since before the introduction of the 50/216, the first of which was registered in 1951. Counter to your guess that " the car based pickup did not catch on in Australia after the Elcomino or other such American models" which is a patently ridiculous statement, the ute caught on immediately after Ford introduced it in 1934. It is so popular, indeed essential, that practically every company which built cars in Australia had a ute in their range including Holden, which was building cars (mostly, but not exclusively, GM types) & car bodies long before there was ever a Holden branded car.
I was jumping on to right the exact same thing. This guy needs to do a bit more research on the Australian motor industry before he just makes it up as he goes along ..
Absolutely right to other readers, Ford followed in the early 50's with the Customline and large boat Fairlanes , then full on Falcon Utes in the 60's until Ford ceased operations in Australia in 2016.
paspax I think you misread his commend. He said it did not catch on after the El Camino because it had already caught on and had been popular since the 1940's because it was born/first manufactured as a production vehicle in australia.
@@JasonSmith-iq4xs are you serious? the VE is the ugliest holden they ever made! the utes and Wagons are ok.. but my Goodness is the Sedan a hunk oF S***. do your self a favour, buy an xr6 Turbo! it"s in a different league Completely!
i saw about 10 of these things in the first 5 minutes on arrival in Sydney. i could immediately see that it was a GM product and i was just as immediately certain that it would sell like nuts in the US. another in a long list of missed opportunities by a big three American auto maker. no surprise, really.
Yep, and they go back much further than the 60s. They were originally designed with farmers in mind...many couldn't afford 2 vehicles, so they needed a farm truck that was comfortable enough to take the missus longer distances, Sunday church, etc. with (relative) comfort. "The worlds' first "Closed Cab" Pickup truck was developed by Henry Ford in 1928, and whilst the Ford Model A (1927-1931) Roadster Pickup was produced in the United States from 6 years earlier, Ford is claimed to be the first company to produce an Australian "ute". This was the result of a 1932 letter from the unnamed wife of a farmer in Victoria, Australia asking for “a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays”. In response, Ford designer Lew Bandt developed the ute and the model called a "coupe utility" at the time was released in 1934." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_(vehicle) Amazing what a little research would have done to help Doug.
yep first ute was a model t ford, was still designed by henry ford after an aussie requested the dual purpose car, pretty sure they were sold in usa too
Utes are sedan based vehicles that are low down to the ground like a sedan with 2 or occasionally 4 doors with the bed built onto the bodywork and chassis with everyday car in mind but also doubling as a utility vehicle, with very high powered engines mostly consisting of V6s and V8s Pickups are specially built vehicles with very commonly 4 doors and occasionally 2 doors, high up like a 4x4 or SUV and more utilitarian in design and more suited for off road and heavy duty tasks. Essentially Utes are more like high powered coupe road cars with the ability of being a very capable utility vehicle and Pickups are mainly just utility vehicles with heavy duty in mind
tobagotb10 no. Pick up is based off a 4wd and can be either 2wd or 4wd. It is designed as a step up/in vehicle with high ground clearance as opposed to a car based sit into vehicle. Hilux is a pick up. F150 is a pick up. Only Australia does utes/tray backs. Not sure if you have "sedan" based Hilux 2wd tray backs in US but we do. We technically call our big 4wd and small 2wd Hilux Ute's. We don't use pick up in Oz. But yes, 3 types. A large 4wd "pick up" A "sedan" based Ute, as well, as tray back. That is it is a Ute in design but instead of a enclosed rear body, and the Ford falcon used this extensively a tray is placed on instead. Hence..... Tray back.
V8Ziggy we have pickups here, several American ones in rhd but not as common, also we have the land cruiser 80 pick up, ford ranger, and holden Colorado as well as Nissan Navara
Australia didn't adopt the idea based on utes American utes from the 1970's... The actual story of the ute is as follows; A farmer’s wife from Gippsland wrote to Ford Australia, in 1933. Her letter said that they couldn’t afford to buy two vehicles, but wanted a car that could take them to church on Sundays and the pigs to market on Mondays. In response, Lewis Brandt, a 22-year-old engineer at the Ford Geelong plant, was commissioned to design a solution. Brandt modified the 1933 coupe, a passenger car, by extending the side panel from the rear of the cab to the rear of the tray. This strengthened the body and suspension to provide for load-bearing. In 1934, the first Ford Coupe Utility rolled off the production line. The original ute had a 5ft 5in tray that could carry a load of 1200 pounds (550kg). The coupe ute was undoubtedly successful. Henry Ford himself commented that the boys in the US needed to take a look at what he dubbed the ‘Aussie Kangaroo Chaser’."
Great job Doug- but you got one thing wrong...the ute was invented in Australia in 1932 because a farmers wife wanted a car which could be used on the farm but also to go to church on Sunday. So the farmer made the untility. Sadly there are no Australian-made cars any more. Thanks for showing our beloved ute.
I'm from south Africa and I really appreciated your review on the sedan of the chevy ss cause it's been one of my favorites.... And you pretty much get them around south africa but they getting rare
This has El Camino written ALL OVER IT, Doug!!!!!! Yes, the point of origin MIGHT be the Land Down Under, but with that BEAUTIFUL LS V8 under the hood, Chevy/GM were sitting on a gold mine, & it SHOULD have been sold as the El Camino here!!!!!!
nope that is not true holden has stopped the production of the australian build commodore and it is now going to be a rebadged opel insignia. so good buy the the ute
Wasn’t just sold in Aussie they’re popular here in New Zealand too. The Ford version is the Falcon and they also came out in ute shape. Holden bought out a 4dr version of the Commodore Ute too
I fell in love after seeing a picture of a family friend's 1967 Valiant Ute (utility pick up version of mixed Dodge Dart and Plymouth Valiant). I've always wanted one...maybe one day
The G8 IS a Holden (4-door), there is also an estate version called the Sportwagon, all have the same wheelbase. They have just done a transplant without much alteration. Oh, and we had utes DECADES before the USA (early 1950s).
I lived in Oz for a year and saw a number of Fords and Holdens that I know would have sold well in the US. These tricked out Utes would have been sweet to see here in the US!
If I understand the term right, the holden ute is the only true "ute" left on Australian roads. All the others (including the Falcon ute) are cab on chassis designs, so they're technically [pickup] trucks. Mind you, none of that makes sense when they talk about Utes having become a thing in the 1930's ... since all cars then were cab on chassis designs. bleh ... who knows
ford falcon utes are not "pick up" trucks. holden and ford made the true utes, toyota hiluxs', ford rangers and nissan navaras are your "pick up" style utes.
I'm surprised that Doug was so surprised the whole thing went together so well. After all, the donor G8 was just a left hand drive version of the Commodore sedan, which this ute was based on. Of course everything fits 🙄
The Holden Ute is based off the Holden Commodore which is powered by a Corvette motor and transmission. The Commodore was rebadged in the US and it was called the SS. It’s a GM drivetrain in an Australian car.
SS is a category of Holden isn't it? As in Holden Super Special. You can buy Holden SS Commodores everywhere- not just Utes- in NZ and Aus. The SS is the 5+ litre(the biggest being the 6.3 litre v8) engine bases with better suspension and gear boxes. The standard Commodores come with a 2 litre 4 or six cylinder engine. The rebadging was the Holden Monarro from 2000-2004 being rebadged as a Pontiac.
@@TheAztec1289 the 08 commardore was also rebaged as the Pontiac G8 that's why left hand utes uses the G8 chassis for the base of these conversions because the ss ute is literally the same thing as the G8 just with a tub
They are not asleep.... there is no market in the US. If you want one you can get one from Mexico! Every car maker offers their version of this here from Chevy to Volkswagen! They just done market in the states! Big market for them here! The first time I saw one I literally thought to myself "whoaaa is that a Volkswagen el Camino?" Lmao
For someone who never really heard of a Holden, I can say that i did love my beautiful black on black G8 GT back in 2008. Had a lot of fun with that vehicle.. Thanks Australia!
I saw an actual Commodore in Fresno, California about a year ago. Black w/black out windows, sounded mean as hell. It's the only one that I've ever seen.
Chur cunny. New Zealand should have keep buying them. Since sales also slumped there, the dream is dead. Gotta get my ass over to NZ soon to check out the JDM stock. I mean NZ is pretty much just another state of Australia still haha
The "Holden Bluetooth" is a recording, not sure when it was done! The car likely makes you record when you set up a new Bluetooth device, from my experience with that onstar Bluetooth voice system in other GM vehicles
Its weird seeing someone get so excited over a car that for me I see every day because they are so common in Australia.
Just like I get excited seeing a Dodge here in OZ etc
@@jimajams7080 A Dodge XD!! We laugh at those prices of crap! Except the Viper. And Ram SR8.
@@surenxavier8915 .. Where im from we still laugh at those too.
I see these daily burnt out and up on bricks in sydney lol
Bogan car
These things are everywhere in Australia and I mean EVERYWHERE.
Yes, that's absolutely true... Close to 1/3 are this kind... At least in Perth...
Id buy one and i live in the USA. I don't drive passengers around much and I prefer driving sedans. This is basically a sporty car with added utility which is awesome.
Honestly, as someone who lives in the US and didn't even know this exsisted, I think these are really cool.
I see
and despite what the enthusiasts say on here this car would not have sold any better than the other Australian cars sold here. There is reason GM stopped selling the El Camino and if they had placed that name on this Ute it would have certainly brought to mind negative images of the El Camino and Ranchero and their lackluster 70's execution. People here want raised trucks and SUVs. They would not appreciate paying 40-50kUS for a lowered El Camino with speed, Aussie heritage and an "iconic" American name, anymore than they wanted to spend $55kUS+ for a Chevy SS based on the G8 GXP based on the Holden Commodore. The Pontiac GTO, with unchanged styling is another example. I can comfortably say this as I own a GTO (10+ years) aka Holden Monaro and have heard all the criticisms. The same enthusiasts screamed for the GTO and when it came here unchanged with a bloated price tag to go with it's un-GTO like, un-retro shape, they like me, yawned. I bought one used when I realized a great deal could be had and that I did not care about the name or heritage as long as it performed.
It didn’t “catch on” in Australia in the 1980’s. Australia had been producing Utes since 1934 (Ford Australia) and 1951 Holden. The Ute was only discontinued in 2016 when car manufacturing ceased in Australia.
Lucas Hood October 2017
@@flynnjacobs1662 you mean because american companies don't give a shit about Australians icons. They weren't losing money, they just weren't making enough profit.
yupppp the government doesnt care about us... would rather us all be on centerlink and controllable
It's the first thing that I thought, and I was going to comment, but you've done that for me. Invented in Australia.
sad thing is we won't have utes anymore, we'll just have big trucks that are hard to load, and get into,they also are horrible on tarmac, not utes, utes drive like normal cars.
RIP Holden. Murdered by GM
RIP Holden. *Murdered by Australian's buying imports.*
yall hate one them when they are here and act sad when they are gone
@@04m6gto Well, there was only one "real" Holden australians could buy -the Commodore in various shapes and forms.
The rest of the line up were imports anyway.
Classic GM: make a Holden SUV -nah. Let's sell rebadged Chevrolet-Daewoo stuff.
Economy cars - we sell badge engineered vehicles from rather unrelated companies for decades, first Suzuki, then Opel then Daewoo.
Compact cars - let's ship them real expensive from europe (Opel).
Workhorse pickups or offroaders? We'll promote Isuzu instead. And then we'll withdraw our stakes in Isuzu.
GM sure knows how to manage their business and brands so well. Each marque has great reputation and disversification. Not.
@@04m6gto @@04m6gto A bit of both. GM as owner of Holden didn't offer much for the price tag they had for their cars compared to imports. Imports came with good value for every dollar spent and not to mention warranty. And worst of poor resale value. Omega is a good example. GM had the powers to address these issues but it wasn't their top agenda. They just let Holden bleed out. It was eventual for a country no longer prioritise manufacturing. The government is partly should be blamed.
me: so why did you kill off holden?
GM: money!
Aussies be like: "Just another stock commie bro"
exact thought ! hahaha
Joshua Hindmarsh HAHAHAHA too fucken true😂
their called commonwhores m8
Simo Aint called that round here, what state you in?
Aussies dont say 'bro' thats Kiwis.. aussies say 'mate' .. ok bro!
'Ute' is an abbreviation of coupe/utility, a body style which was pioneered by Ford Australia in 1933/34 and which has been popular in Australia ever since. So it's very incorrect to say that it started with El Caminos and Rancheros and that Australia adopted it from the US.
You can't believe anything Doug says
I think Ford started the Ute thing with the Model T pickups in the 1920s
shhh the americans might start crying
Yes, some Australian farmers wife wrote to Ford and asked for a vehicle that they could go to town with to pick up farm supplies on the weekdays and still civilised enough to go to church in on Sundays.
The “Ute” concept was actually invented in Australia, we didn’t pick up on an American idea, it was quite the reverse.
James Coe It’s called the Holden UTEster
Roady Kim ??? Um, no. The concept was suggested to Ford Australia by a farmer’s wife in Gippsland in 1933.
What is the concept car name?
I think Ford Australia fully released it in 1934 or 35 and it was called coupe utility. Holden released its version in the ute version of the first car it made in the early 50s so i think we made the first two before any were made in america
Ohh
Those Australian UTEs are pretty damn sick, I'm not much into pickup trucks (my daily is actually Mercedes W124 Coupe) and I'm from Poland where almost NOBODY buys a pickup truck (in fact they're REALLY rare to see on a road there) but those UTE things are really cool in my eyes especially with a big V8, go Aussies! I love you guys and your silly accent.
Sorry Doug, the 'sedan based ute' did not 'catch on' in Australia from the US but rather the other way around. The concept was first released by Ford Australia in around 1934 after a letter from a farmer's wife asking for a vehicle that could "go to church on a Sunday and carry pigs to the market on Monday".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_(vehicle)#History
Technically the Ute started with the Model T in the 1920s
A minute silence please Holden has closed its plant in Australia and Australian car production is no more. This beautiful V8 ute is no more last of its kind. RIP Holden.
Ben Wong 😭 As An American I'm Sad About This.
It sucks that GM took all the bailout money the Australian government gave Holden and sent it to the US!
The fact they needed bail out money said it was over for them. Manufacturing costs are just too high over here. Plus with our tiny market it's more practical just to import. Though it does indeed make me sad losing Ford and Holden.
good riddance to antiquated technology
It wasn't. The commodore was the perfect car for driving around Australia. Very comfortable, room for the family, plenty of power to tow.
They were built to a budget which fit the middle class Australian.
There was no point having a pokey European car when we have wide open roads and cheap fuel similar to USA.
As fuel got more expensive and most people moved to the city though our needs changed but Holden and Ford failed to adapt.
There are lots of utes here in Australia...in fact Ford Australia created the first Ute in 1934 by converting a Tudor sedan...we have been using them ever since, and they are popular everywhere here.
Tudor sedan? Was that a Ford car?
Victor Murat it’s on google look it up
Holden Special Vehicle (HSV) own 50 percent of the stakes, so the Commodore can still be kept alive with the help of the australian community if they wish for it.
It's all a matter of making it happen.
For me,high compression 253 v8 and a 3 speed column shift HQ.
I think the first Ute was the Model T with a pickup bed
The Utes were also available in New Zealand, and very popular here as well. My father had his first one in 1960. I owned two of the very popular Holden HQ series, one a Belmont and the other a Kingswood.
I have a VZ SS Crewman & I love it
Yep we see the Holden Ute almost every day in New Zealand too, I remember wanting a Kingswood but by that time they were getting pretty rare.
Hehe
Kings wood
It didn't catch on in Australia we had them in the 40's and never stopped making them!
well never stopped until last year
What do you mean "it didn't catch on in Australia", Australia is where the first ute was made in 1933.
Jarl Nieminen Aussie all the way 🤙🤙🤙
Doug Borrett thank you at least someone knows Aussie history 🤙
We had utes in the 1930s 1932 to be exact first ute was built on the Ford model A chaise.
I find it hilarious as an Australian that Americans are so amazed by a car i see on the daily
No, it's just Doug.
They are awesome looking cars, amazingly practical. I'd love to get my hands on one.
Derian Parsons I prefer the falcon, they have a better interior and feel more expensive. They only draw back is that they don’t sound as good
It is because we get crap cars that look extremely ugly and barely fit main purpose let alone multiple haha. Definitely pretty funny from non American perspective
It'd be the same thing if the roles were reversed. It's just human nature.
For an Australian, this is just about the most normal car you've had on your channel ever! They are just about everywhere.
"Died out in US but caught on in Australia.."
Yeah nah mate it's just been like a thing forever over here..
the key word is 'DIED'
I think that's what he was trying to say.
It was INVENTED here in Australia
1934. Australia. Ford. Rather v.v.
Didn't you know Americans invented everything including water?
I went to Australia last week and boy were there lot's of these
They're some of the easiest cars to get your hands on in Australia, unless you go into Sydney where all the Japanese cars seem to end up you will see 90% Holdens on the road.
32000usd brand new / Now a 6 yr old 2012 ss ute are selling for $13000usd
Yeah but their shit
Yeah
We are pretty lucky to have them here
Doug needs to get his hands on a VF Maloo, I know Left Hand Utes have done a few of them.
I pick up my LSA maloo from Left Hand Utes sometime around March. I'll have to see if he wants to make it happen once it's done.
Chris Edwards you’re gonna fuckin love it
@@NuggetsAutomotive I have one of the last of the LSA manual Maloos here in OZ. They are a amazing vehicle. Any info you need message me. Congrats on the purchase.
Chris Edwards you are going to scare yourself witless mate 😆
@@NuggetsAutomotive Any updates? Keen to hear your thoughts :-)
Red HSV Holden Ute is otherwise known as a "Tradesman's Ferrari".
Felipe Plaza up tha maloo !!!
Poor mans sports car
Never heard that one. I like it lol
adnan bashar They aint cheap though. The new ones cost about the same as base model mustang.
Maloo R8 FTW
You're not driving it right, you've got to tailgait the people in front of you who are already going 10 over the limit.
That sounds like how I drive.
Isn't that 4wds
@@randomdude4669 Typically Ford Rangers
as is tradition
@@randomdude4669 yes facts years later that is now all 4wd’s are are now tailgating me all the time in my Holden Ute lol.
Still carrying Vic rego! I love it!
But bought from Shacks Holden in WA
Could be a dummy plate-sold on ebay. 19 US states only require a rear plate and many put other plates on the front (German plates on BMWs, Mercs etc.) This is registered in Massachusetts, and should have a front plate. Perhaps Mass. is like California where having either a fake plate or no plate on the front is not unusual.
Must be stolen then hahaha
yeh was thinking shacks is WA haha.
Nick Lai no, he got the cards from a trip to Australia.
I'm single with no kids.
I like driving fast.
But I play a lot of ice hockey and on the weekends I am a gigging musician with bulky gear.
I need this car.
No one cares....sike, this car should had been the New Camino with the LS3 from the Chevy SS which Chevy should had called it the Impala SS and both would had become instant classics, not to mention that the Chevy SS was a great choice for Police Cruisers.
Chevy SSR...
@@raptorm8242 don't let mommy see your comment or you'll get grounded
@@raptorm8242 11 year old who just learned how to swear?
@@stupidsnek, too late. She was looking over his shoulder. XD
OMG, you're driving that beast from the passenger seat!
Lol.
you mean tamed beast don't you lol
its fucking dangerous if its not LH though, pulling out from the curb you will get in a smash lol.
Right hand built not left lol
Driving on the proper side.
They were also available in South Africa as the Chevrolet Lumina SS utility.
Wait there are cars in Africa? I thought u guys don't have water
@@lucatiu1608 do your research pls
@@lucatiu1608 mate really
@@shayyuss it's called a joke
@@thebigdog9785 a shit one
I appreciate the guy who made this ute, I don't care about the small mistakes
It's good conversions are happy, since these are about to become history and the more the spread the better. Just hope someone of these conversions are kept tip top, so in years to come, Australians can buy them back and convert them back to Holden (Since there are no longer going to be made and bogans crash them daily). Just wish GM cunts would have allowed Australia to do LHD for the US market. GM was too scared if Holdens were brought to America new that local brands would have issues selling their Daewoo shitheaps
most Australian thing to read
Gotta keep the behind the seats air conditioned mate. Actually not a bad idea if you keep drinks and food there ;p
Aidan Flagg you mean the guy who invented it?
Ian Faen gm almost sold a Ute through Pontiac in 2010 but they scraped the idea because of budget cuts...Pontiac died :(
I'm waiting for the day when someone's crazy enough to import a Maloo, the HSV version of the Holden ute. If you think the stock SS gets your attention, the Maloo is as subtle as a brick to the face. Everything from its aggressive body kit, huge low profile tyres, massive brakes and retuned suspension are all to make an even better ute. I'm aware Americans don't like subtlety in performance cars, and that would be the answer
Yep...downright sure to get even the most discerning critic in the USA to take notice!!!!
Im not sure they would get it though, we grew up with the changes to the Maloo range so the VE/VF was amazing
Such an amazing car.
Even the FPV utes in the end looked great.
Shame there is no more :(
In saying that though if i got to move back to the USA i would love a VF Maloo as a daily hahaha
There was a company on the Eastcoast of the USA that imported and converted HSV cars a few years back but not sure it is still around. I remember seeing an advert for them on a USA cars for sale site.
Apparently the maloo is actually banned in america lol
Left Hand Utes will import Maloos no problem.
did you say...utes?
yeah, two utes.
what is a ute?
oh, excuse me your honor, two youttttthhhhsss.
whitedevil2 great movie
I was trying to figure out what movie to watch tonight. That decision has now been made.
haha. one of the better movies
What movie is that from?
Is that from My cousin Vinny.
HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) used to make more powerful versions of this ute. The most powerful version (HSV GTSR) has 635hp!
A friend of mine has a Walkinshaw ,puts out 800hp
"It caught on in Australia". It STARTED in Australia mate.
Been going since the 40’s.
Aussies invented the ute.
So true Mate it has been around since the late 1940's and was built on a GM car platform all the way back to then. Look up on Google Pictures and ask for SS Camaro Ute and see what you find... This guy has his ass backwards...
I remember having to do an assignment in high school about an Australian invention and did the ute. From memory it was a guy named Lewis Bandt who worked for Ford Australia at the time.
No, the "Ute" was designed under Ford by Australian Lew Bandt by adding a bed to a 1933 Ford Coupe, thus creating the 1934 Coupe Utlity. Yes he's Australian, yes it was developed for Australia, inside of an American company's development rooms, by an American company, with Americans, using an American Ford. He died in 1987 in a 1934 Ute of his own design when he crashed with a truck.
Besides that.. Holden became GM-H, General Motors owned, in 1931. General Motors is out of Detroit.
Holden, like Chevy, Opel, Vauxhall and others, are just subsidiaries of or majority owned by General Motors. Australia didn't release their own Coupe Utility until 1951 with a variant of the first car to ever bear the Holden name, the 48-215. That was 2 years after the British released the Armstrong Siddeley, 5 years after the Chevrolet Stylemaster, 5 years after the newer Ford Coupe Utility.... There was a Ford Runabout in 1913...
The "ute" would have never existed if not for the American automotive industry, and Australia is certainly not responsible for flatbed vehicles or the pickup truck. Agree, disagree, I don't care, I won't debate recent history.
*edited, added info about Holden, removed el camino reference.
this is the car version of a mullet.
DigitalYojimbo now THAT'S funny!!
Not only found IN Australia. We have it in South Africa, it's called the Chevrolet Lumina SS/SSV
Shoulda woulda coulda..unfortunately the genuises in Detroit thought it best to pull the plug on Holden (slow clap)
BTW that Ute is a VE series 1, circa 2010, so the styling and interior dates back to 2006.
The current (and last) VF series II has a 6.2 LS3, 304 kW (414 hp) and looks like the current Chev SS inside and is a huge step up from the vehicle shown. As a Melbournian, love seeing the blue and white (state of) Victoria number plate in the USA, that is just surreal,so, woooo! on that.
But Doug is right, it SHOULD have been sold in the USA, but your militant UAW would have disallowed that. It could have been an El Camino and successful too. The team that developed this platform were the same people who developed your 5th Gen Camaro, so the engineering ability is there.
To Show how good these cars are, the HSV version of this set the exact same lap time as an Aston Martin DB9 on the Top gear track back in 2009...
Well i have REDLINE Stickers for sale, this is when Redline australia still had opportunities to sell their products as far as friction modifiers, but now they sell thier oils and other friction products combined with OE oils. :) But you cant get the stickers anymore. so please contact me if you want to buy any. :)
the hsv maloo 10x cooler because of 2 words "super Charged"
Yes the new VF Range and especially the series 2, which is to say you can get a new car thats all the basics are still there. 430Kw in a ute or approx 340KW at the rear wheels ?
Knight Industries thanks so much for this. Being from the US I greatly appreciate the cool factor of this vehicle. I visited Oz about a year ago and was so excited to see one in person. Really too bad we didnt get them. An LS3 would be a great powerplant for this.
They have them now in the new Chevy SS and the HSV or the SS utes which the USA company can import with just a few changes due to emissions other than that, you can get a 2013 to 2017 UTE with a 6.2 LS3 engine ?
it's a shame everyone is abusing each other in the comments, instead of enjoying this awesome ute on both continents. Us Aussies love these utes ! :)
Spread the love, Andrew! 💋🍄💋🍄
ever heard the keyboard warrior? why you so salty brah
Its a VE, what could we enjoy about it ?
I was living there and I really dig the ute thing man. In my country they drive station wagons.... lol if they would only know......
I think that a ute is the best combination of many good things from different types of cars without taking over the bad things. And its a part of the Australian culture for sure.
Greetings to all Aussie blokes out there.
Andrew Murray Every time I hear something about Australia it is something good, I wanna go to Australia one day.
Doug if you thought that was fast you should try a HSV Maloo GTS
Ratchet7191 used to have one... regret selling
Ratchet7191 or you can gt a supercharge in ssv redline and you get more power
Ratchet7191 yessss
for an FPV f6 tornado v8 killer
gtsr w1!!!!!!!!!!!! manual!
This was also sold in South Africa as a Chevy Lumina, buying one soon
As an Australian it's weird to see one of those without Chevy badges stuck on it.
Cerbaus Hi Yep. I always wondered if in America they do the opposite and put holden badges on some cars.
American owners of the GTO (Monaro), G8 (VE), SS (VF) and Caprice are very educated on the history. Im in a few owners groups on facebook and its great seeing how much effort they all put in to make their cars look like proper Holdens.
Some even go to the effort of getting authentic Holden airbags.
MrHeyfuckoff Why do I literally see you everywhere? Lmao. Thanks for the comment, I thought it was just an Aussie thing.
what about hsv replicas ?
Aka tryhards!
Ute's started in Australia because a farmer asked Ford to make a utility car for multi use
johnnyasus86 ...As if that very thing didn't already exist...
Mark Haury it didnt idiot
@Mark Haury, there was no ute untill a farmers wife sent a letter to an executive of Ford Motor Company of Australia asking them to build a vehicle that her husband could "take the pigs to market on a weekday, and drive her to church on Sunday", that is how the idea of a Ute or "Utility Coupe" came to be.
actually the first ute was invented buy Aus for the use army
tolgahk84 ...Except that story is a complete fabrication... Research by *Australian* journalists revealed there is zero evidence it ever happened.
Regardless: Ford, Packard and *many* other marques were making that exact car chassis with cargo bed formula decades before. In fact, they have existed since self-propelled vehicles thenselves were invented. There is nothing even remotely Australian about the idea. The Holden version was different only in that *all* cars of that period were different from cars of other periods. The formula itself was identical to those before as well as since.
Australia is just the only place it ever really caught on. In the States there was never enough utility or performance compared to the alternatives available. The ute's relatively small size was irrelevant and a liability rather than an asset because American streets, lanes, parking spaces etc., etc. are and always have been so much bigger.
If anything, the American full-sized "pickup" was far more unique than the "ute", and now every country makes a body-on-frame, much heavier-duty pickup. Because they are still far more useful than the "ute"... Even compact pickups can haul and tow as much as a ute, have an even smaller footprint and are far better when the pavement is broken or absent. And if you think pickups can't be fast and/or luxurious you haven't been paying attention. F150 Lightning. Lincoln Blackwood. King Ranch. GMC Typhoon & Syclone (sic). The list is very long.
in Australia a farmer's wife complained to ford that she needed a car to take the pigs to the market on saterday and to go to church on sunday. and the ute was born and Aussys have worshipped it ever since!..
Nerdy Tech nope the farmer wanted to take his wife to church on Sunday
Pigs to market eh......I remembered them as sheep, stand corrected. But the livestock angle is what I remembered as critical to the design, being a man of a certain age.
Saturday, NOT Saterday
Shut up, Hammond
That model was exported to the USA wearing the Chevy bowtie.
Sadly not many were sold as consumers didn't get advertising on tv about them. Unless they saw the showroom stock, most Americans had no idea.
It had a Victorian (Australian State) number plate.
yeh i saw that also, weird
not gonna lie at the start i though he was at the great ocean road in vic
Sam B too bad California requires it
Sam has it right. I might add that because Australian cars are required to have a front plate, if they don't have one there they can look a bit stupid because they're designed to have them on the front, and would otherwise have a rectangular relief in the bumper.
ipullstuffapart all because of those damn speed cameras
"Australia caught on" mate Australia invented the ute in the early 1900's we didnt copy the u.s...
From a Queenslander...Bloody oath we did.
Australia is the best!
Ford Australia's first products were Model Ts assembled from complete knock-down (CKD) kits provided by Ford of Canada.In 1934, the company released a coupe utility based upon the Model A American Ford "Closed Cab Pickup Truck" that had been produced for 6 years from 1928.
@John Johnson Everything
Doug is the type of guy who thinks cars were not made before 1990
In Australia we use Roof Racks for the Surf boards...keeps the back clear for the Esky
Is that the colloquial term down there for what we in North America call a cooler? Esky?
@@CsykKrit Yes, an Esky is a cooler for your food and drinks. Esky is/was an actual brand name, but has become a generic term in Oz, just like how Hoover means vacuum cleaner.
Nz calls a "Esky" a chilly bin
I've been to Australia several times and they have some pretty awesome cars from American carmakers that we don't get in the US.
First off the Aussies were building utes in the 1950s, second of all the 1930s Studebaker Coupe Express is probably the first example of the concept.
no, "It's a Jew flatener"
Ford australia started building utes in the 30's mate
Armstrong sidley were making utes before
ha ha kangaroo chaser..
I don't think they know Aussies invented the idea in the 30's. We will just keep it to ourselves
I live in Australia so i see these things around 46 times a day
Everytime he says "pick up" I swear aussies would have to be getting triggered, it's a ute not a pick up mate
HAHA ... Yep!!!
yepp
definitely
Aussies also trigger everyone else in the world by calling trucks "utes". Thirty million inbreds with skin cancer lose to the rest of the world.
He calls it a Ute several times , it’s in the title .
Doug shows nothing but respect and you sound like a cockhead mate
"What is a ute?" "I'm sorry, Youthes." I love that movie!
My cousin vinny, classic. Joe Pesci should've received an Oscar along with Marrissa Tomei.
Awesome lol, perfect quote for this video, great movie
We also made them as a 5 seater, with V8, oh and you could get it in AWD too in Australia.
Paul Marynissen bahahahahaha the awd zb is not a commo it’s a glorified euro car not that true aussie classic v8
Occy 666, I’m talking the VZ Crewman AWD, the Cross 8, definitely Aussie, not euro.
Monaro as well
Kristen555 each to his own
@@dbyrne91 Monaros belong to the era when we were more American/Australian in design.
Later Australian Vehicles gradually became more German/Australian.
I live in Australia and I took for granted that you guys don't have these Utes. They are super common in Australia.
I know I'm from Australia
US here. I would love one of these if it's big enough for a 2 meter tall guy to fit in. They look super FUNctional.
In Germany, I have never even heard of the brand, and then I flew to Australia and these things are everywhere!
It's a shame they're not really sold anywhere else
Saltiest Salt they are sold in the UK
they are sold in South Africa too; but rebadged as the Chevrolet Lumina UTE
I car named "Ute" (wonder what their other cars are named like... Birte and Dörte?) Would have stuck I guess.
It's like naming a car "Ethel", "Mildred" or "Olga".
I think you will find that several other Holden models are actually in Germany as Opels, like the Astra. Holden is only sold in Australia and New Zealand
@@sarielle85 😂 Nice opinion. But UTE is the short form of UTILITY VEHICLE. What a PICK-UP is for the U.S. , is a UTE for Australia. 👍🏼😁
GM attempted to do it with Pontiac in 2010 in 2009 at the New York Auto show Pontiac was in love with 50 cent. So 50 cent rolled out with a Pontiac G8 sedan and a Pontiac G8 ST (Street Truck) and they were reintroduce the el Camino in 2010 with the G8 ST. But Pontiac died in 2009 so we never got the G8 ST. With all that being said I will always have a soft spot for the Holden Ute and the Holden Commodore.
I just noticed that Holden Bluetooth is a Australian accent
For people saying 350 horsepower isn't much for a 6 liter V8 you are correct, this however is not the high performance version of the Holden ute, the high performance one is the HSV Maloo which I believe has 600 horsepower and looks a fuckload better!
The car in the video is just what all the plumbers drive around in, not a car any of us would call high powered!
Nightmana tradies choice 😂
yeah G8 GXP has the Ls3 Motor the GT only had L76 motor was weaker than the LS2.
Dont forget FPV
Nightmana all it takes is cyl heads, headers, a cam and a tune and you can go from 320crank hp to rwhp 420rwhp on American truck v8s
my brother used to have an ss ute like this one. all it took was a cam, cai, exhaust and a tune to make nearly 500rwhp haha. was quite the work car. sounded the part too
I owned a Ford Falcon ute from 07 to 12. Let me give you some numbers.
It costs around the equivalent of USD$28,000.
The base model/trim at that time (also the one I got) was XR6 BF Mark II. 4.0L naturally aspirated inline 6 cylinder petrol engine (engine code "Barra 195") that makes 195kw @5250 rpm and sends 391Nm (290ish lb•ft?) of torque to the rear at just 2500 rpm. In another word, the vehicle can have you pinned on the seat long before you hear the engine rev. It's magic.
If you are willing to spend around 5000 to 10000 more, you can get a turbocharged i6 or a NA v8. There are also companies like HSV and FPV (the Holden and Australia Ford's own high performance division, like AMG to mercs) who produces supercharged v8 version of the sedan and ute body of Falcon and Commodore. They are probably the reason why you don't see M5 or C63 that much in Aussie streets.
Also the sedan version is a very popular taxi model because the Barra engine is known to go 800k to a million km before bust.
Sadly automotive manufacturing is closing down in Australia and both Ford and Holden's ute are going extinct. Moment of silence.
Peida Li iô
Love the barra. Am glad to own a BA Fairmont ghia and XF falcon :)
We have them in New Zealand too. I've never really thought about it before but I guess it is pretty unique.
Have to correct you on your history, the car based pickup did not catch on in Australia after the Elcomino or other such American models it was born in Australia. Legend has it a farmers wife contacted a local car manufacturer and asked for a car that she could drive to church on sunday and take a pig market on monday. Anyway Holden that is the manufacturer of this particular vehicle has been making such models out of its sedans since 1948.
THe first ute (coupe utility) was built by Ford in 1934 as a result of the letter you mentioned. Holden have been building sedan (Vauxhall) based utes since before the introduction of the 50/216, the first of which was registered in 1951.
Counter to your guess that " the car based pickup did not catch on in Australia after the Elcomino or other such American models" which is a patently ridiculous statement, the ute caught on immediately after Ford introduced it in 1934. It is so popular, indeed essential, that practically every company which built cars in Australia had a ute in their range including Holden, which was building cars (mostly, but not exclusively, GM types) & car bodies long before there was ever a Holden branded car.
doug harrison , don't ruin it for him lol
I was jumping on to right the exact same thing. This guy needs to do a bit more research on the Australian motor industry before he just makes it up as he goes along ..
Absolutely right to other readers, Ford followed in the early 50's with the Customline and large boat Fairlanes , then full on Falcon Utes in the 60's until Ford ceased operations in Australia in 2016.
paspax I think you misread his commend. He said it did not catch on after the El Camino because it had already caught on and had been popular since the 1940's because it was born/first manufactured as a production vehicle in australia.
I'm so pumped that an Aussie car is loved in the states! Pity they've stopped making them in Australia. 😭
For me the VE is my favourite body design they have ever done, it excites me everytime i see it, it will be my next purchase, sv6 though
I like the Falcon better
Moving on to Electric cars
@@carsnshii_ Yeah, pickup version from Nissan leaf...
@@JasonSmith-iq4xs are you serious? the VE is the ugliest holden they ever made!
the utes and Wagons are ok.. but my Goodness is the Sedan a hunk oF S***.
do your self a favour, buy an xr6 Turbo! it"s in a different league Completely!
i saw about 10 of these things in the first 5 minutes on arrival in Sydney. i could immediately see that it was a GM product and i was just as immediately certain that it would sell like nuts in the US. another in a long list of missed opportunities by a big three American auto maker. no surprise, really.
"It was only sold in Australia" oh.... guess we never had any of these in New Zealand then... 🙄🙄🙄 lol
New Zealand might as well be part of Australia. Enough kiwis live in Sydney anyway.
It was invented there
@@flynnmartin2101 that's not the point... It wasn't anything to do with where they were made, but where they were sold.
The australian constitution still says New Zealand is a state
I think the Commodore Ute made it to Sth Africa too.
In Australia we have one with 577hp
prob with a chevy badge too
i think next year you'll have one with over 630. I know you'll have a commodore with the LS9 for the last year. Hopefully they'll put it in a ute
The LS9 was sold this year.
The Commodore & Ute go out of production in October this year.
ok. Thanks for the clarification. Didn't know they made it yet
>GM sold Holden brand to Opel
uh, Opel got sold to PSA, but Holden's still GMH dude
Caught on in Australia? . . . . Didn't an Aussie invent the ute? Which differs from a pick up?
Yep, and they go back much further than the 60s. They were originally designed with farmers in mind...many couldn't afford 2 vehicles, so they needed a farm truck that was comfortable enough to take the missus longer distances, Sunday church, etc. with (relative) comfort.
"The worlds' first "Closed Cab" Pickup truck was developed by Henry Ford in 1928, and whilst the Ford Model A (1927-1931) Roadster Pickup was produced in the United States from 6 years earlier, Ford is claimed to be the first company to produce an Australian "ute". This was the result of a 1932 letter from the unnamed wife of a farmer in Victoria, Australia asking for “a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays”. In response, Ford designer Lew Bandt developed the ute and the model called a "coupe utility" at the time was released in 1934."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_(vehicle)
Amazing what a little research would have done to help Doug.
yep first ute was a model t ford, was still designed by henry ford after an aussie requested the dual purpose car, pretty sure they were sold in usa too
Utes are sedan based vehicles that are low down to the ground like a sedan with 2 or occasionally 4 doors with the bed built onto the bodywork and chassis with everyday car in mind but also doubling as a utility vehicle, with very high powered engines mostly consisting of V6s and V8s
Pickups are specially built vehicles with very commonly 4 doors and occasionally 2 doors, high up like a 4x4 or SUV and more utilitarian in design and more suited for off road and heavy duty tasks.
Essentially Utes are more like high powered coupe road cars with the ability of being a very capable utility vehicle and Pickups are mainly just utility vehicles with heavy duty in mind
tobagotb10 no. Pick up is based off a 4wd and can be either 2wd or 4wd. It is designed as a step up/in vehicle with high ground clearance as opposed to a car based sit into vehicle. Hilux is a pick up. F150 is a pick up. Only Australia does utes/tray backs. Not sure if you have "sedan" based Hilux 2wd tray backs in US but we do. We technically call our big 4wd and small 2wd Hilux Ute's. We don't use pick up in Oz. But yes, 3 types. A large 4wd "pick up"
A "sedan" based Ute, as well, as tray back. That is it is a Ute in design but instead of a enclosed rear body, and the Ford falcon used this extensively a tray is placed on instead. Hence..... Tray back.
V8Ziggy we have pickups here, several American ones in rhd but not as common, also we have the land cruiser 80 pick up, ford ranger, and holden Colorado as well as Nissan Navara
All that and not a mention of the fact it's actually a Holden Commodore.
Doug DeBogan
No Its a Holden Ute, Yes they are technically commodores however they stopped calling them that in 2000, and went straight to Holden Ute
Adam Herbst but they are commies tho
Liam Rodgers 😂😂😂
Liam Rodgers wdym?
Australia didn't adopt the idea based on utes American utes from the 1970's...
The actual story of the ute is as follows;
A farmer’s wife from Gippsland wrote to Ford Australia, in 1933. Her letter said that they couldn’t afford to buy two vehicles, but wanted a car that could take them to church on Sundays and the pigs to market on Mondays.
In response, Lewis Brandt, a 22-year-old engineer at the Ford Geelong plant, was commissioned to design a solution. Brandt modified the 1933 coupe, a passenger car, by extending the side panel from the rear of the cab to the rear of the tray. This strengthened the body and suspension to provide for load-bearing.
In 1934, the first Ford Coupe Utility rolled off the production line. The original ute had a 5ft 5in tray that could carry a load of 1200 pounds (550kg). The coupe ute was undoubtedly successful. Henry Ford himself commented that the boys in the US needed to take a look at what he dubbed the ‘Aussie Kangaroo Chaser’."
review a maloo ute it has twice the power
no comment Yeah
They had one on Top Gear with 578hp
Twice the power lol. You suck at math.
360 hp vs 450 hp
VE SS had 295 hp to the wheels. his numbers are bullshit.
Great job Doug- but you got one thing wrong...the ute was invented in Australia in 1932 because a farmers wife wanted a car which could be used on the farm but also to go to church on Sunday. So the farmer made the untility. Sadly there are no Australian-made cars any more. Thanks for showing our beloved ute.
It didn't catch on in Australia it started in Australia
I'm from Australia
xx36 noscope cooooooooooool 👍🏼
I've seen heaps in Australia
I'm from south Africa and I really appreciated your review on the sedan of the chevy ss cause it's been one of my favorites....
And you pretty much get them around south africa but they getting rare
I could not agree more. I used to own one of them back in Australia. They're so expensive to buy in the US though!
There's someone near me who owns a Chevy SS. It's like a little breath of back home when I see it.
Mark Henderson Duhhh you gotta import them in the Us
This has El Camino written ALL OVER IT, Doug!!!!!! Yes, the point of origin MIGHT be the Land Down Under, but with that BEAUTIFUL LS V8 under the hood, Chevy/GM were sitting on a gold mine, & it SHOULD have been sold as the El Camino here!!!!!!
Theres rumors that it will be in the next few years!
nope that is not true holden has stopped the production of the australian build commodore and it is now going to be a rebadged opel insignia. so good buy the the ute
+Nick well if they do rebadge as opel then gm won't own it anymore. gm is backing out of eu
MyNoble06 GM just sold its opel and vauxhall, arm to Peugeot a corner of weeks ago.
+Stephen Butler yeah that's what I heard I didn't know who bought it.
Best car in the world , I own 2 , the car and the UTE ,We call it a Bakkie in South Africa!
And they come standard with bluetooth , I just hope I never have to choose between my UTE and R8
Difference between a Ute and a pick-up: a Ute is a unibody, the rear half does not have a seam/join between it and the front half.
Being from Australia i never realised the rest of the world didn't have utes or holden for that matter
what do you guys put your motorbikes on? lol
Jacob hudd we put our motorcycles on big V8 trucks.
Jacob hudd yeah but see the height difference. Much easier to load a ute up
Holden is Australian brand of Vauxhall which in turn was owned by GM, a US company.
penitent2401 holden is an Australian brand gm probably own all the stock but i dont see them driving around in America.
When you open the tailgate there are 2 circle indentations in the plastic so you have a seat with cup or beer can holders on either side
I love mini trucks, mostly cause that's as close as I can get to a ute
i can tell you like MINI trucks.
get it? because your profile pic is a MINI?
Knee slapper right there
Mazda 787B (MR.B) that joke caused me physical pain.
+Reckyonrampage it caused me worst
HNPgeek hell mini trucks kick ass am working on a nissan hardbody right now on my channel
I seen one Michigan while doing Amazon delivery. It was sharp!
Saw one. You saw one in Michigan delivering for Amazon.
@@beetlebonnet6152 parked the van and and took a walk around it. Seen a Subaru and the owner said he did his from a kit he ordered.
Its also sold in New Zealand, Which is NOT a part of australia
Now now..... It was a part of NSW... and lets be honest you are the little Island and we are the big one....
if you say so mate
Whats long hard and fucks New Zealanders?
High School
Mr Sly Fox I don't think most people believe that NZ is another country...
most people outside of the US and Europe believe it is
It could have been here sold as the El Camino
Easy. Cool.
It would've been boss as an El Camino, Pontiac once planned to bring to U.S. as a G8 SportTruck
Well, Pontiac's had the Firebird, Sunfire, Solstice... how about the Pontiac Corona?
@@jimmy3people0 I thought Corona was Toyota
@@wwetnabamafan194 huh, there's a car I never knew about.
Maybe continue the Sunfire theme, then? Sunflare, Sunburst, Sunrise...?
Wasn’t just sold in Aussie they’re popular here in New Zealand too. The Ford version is the Falcon and they also came out in ute shape. Holden bought out a 4dr version of the Commodore Ute too
I fell in love after seeing a picture of a family friend's 1967 Valiant Ute (utility pick up version of mixed Dodge Dart and Plymouth Valiant). I've always wanted one...maybe one day
Perfect to tote around a motorcycle in the back!
😂
The G8 IS a Holden (4-door), there is also an estate version called the Sportwagon, all have the same wheelbase. They have just done a transplant without much alteration. Oh, and we had utes DECADES before the USA (early 1950s).
RIP Holden. Australian production anyway, so no more Holden Utes.
nchia Holden was also a branch of GM lol
no biggie really, there all crap. Still a GM product of USA. Dont kid yourself just because you live in Australia.
GM makes some shit but they also make some truly excellent world class cars. just like any other company.
stdavross666 doesn't know shit about cars im guessing.
Just my opinion max pot, were I am from your allowed an opinion. I have owned a few (holdens)...all been shithouse. I dont buy GM anymore. Catchya.
I lived in Oz for a year and saw a number of Fords and Holdens that I know would have sold well in the US. These tricked out Utes would have been sweet to see here in the US!
The attention to detail tho, dat Victoria Number plate.
(Comin from an Aussie btw)
Aspect Agreed (Also an Aussie)
Utes were developed in Australia in 1936 by Ford Australia. We did NOT pick it up from Yanks.
There is also a ford falcon ute in Australia and I have the sedan model.
Reema Rishi I have a ford falcon Ute
the 64 and 65 bodies are cool, the other falcons is some homely shit
@@tommurphy4307 The latest falcon looked baller as hell.
I could see a massive request for GM to bring back the el camino. And GM'S response, you will drive what ever we make you and like it.
@@simplyexisting1125 overpriced bulky trucks and ineficiente SUVs is all GM wants americans to buy
Every second goddamn car in Australia is a ute... Toyota Hilux, Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon, Ford Rangers, Nissan Navaras... they're everywhere!!!
If I understand the term right, the holden ute is the only true "ute" left on Australian roads. All the others (including the Falcon ute) are cab on chassis designs, so they're technically [pickup] trucks. Mind you, none of that makes sense when they talk about Utes having become a thing in the 1930's ... since all cars then were cab on chassis designs. bleh ... who knows
I wouldnt mind having had the option to buy any of those new last year.
ford falcon utes are not "pick up" trucks. holden and ford made the true utes, toyota hiluxs', ford rangers and nissan navaras are your "pick up" style utes.
I freaking hate you
Saw one today in New York State 😱
max14551 Really I Live In New York And Never Seen A Holden Car
OMG I SAW A WHITE ONE TODAY HERE IN TEXAS!!
I'm surprised that Doug was so surprised the whole thing went together so well. After all, the donor G8 was just a left hand drive version of the Commodore sedan, which this ute was based on. Of course everything fits 🙄
We don't mess around in Australia 😎 it's why we invented the Ute. Not a pickup, a Ute (Utility Vehicle)!
Actually, it's Coupe Utility.
The Holden Ute is based off the Holden Commodore which is powered by a Corvette motor and transmission.
The Commodore was rebadged in the US and it was called the SS. It’s a GM drivetrain in an Australian car.
SS is a category of Holden isn't it? As in Holden Super Special. You can buy Holden SS Commodores everywhere- not just Utes- in NZ and Aus. The SS is the 5+ litre(the biggest being the 6.3 litre v8) engine bases with better suspension and gear boxes. The standard Commodores come with a 2 litre 4 or six cylinder engine. The rebadging was the Holden Monarro from 2000-2004 being rebadged as a Pontiac.
@@TheAztec1289 the 08 commardore was also rebaged as the Pontiac G8 that's why left hand utes uses the G8 chassis for the base of these conversions because the ss ute is literally the same thing as the G8 just with a tub
ALL of the US manufacturers asleep at the wheel once again...this would have sold crazy.
No it wouldn't Holden have just stop making cars
They are not asleep.... there is no market in the US. If you want one you can get one from Mexico! Every car maker offers their version of this here from Chevy to Volkswagen! They just done market in the states! Big market for them here! The first time I saw one I literally thought to myself "whoaaa is that a Volkswagen el Camino?" Lmao
I respectfully disagree. We had the Chevy SSR ( DeMuro made a video with it also ). It was similar. It didn't do well.
The chevy ssr wasnt actually similar to any other car...
TraxX2k7² ok. Once again I respectfully disagree.
Super sweet! That blue is the best colour.
The g8 was just a rebadged Holden Commodore
For someone who never really heard of a Holden, I can say that i did love my beautiful black on black G8 GT back in 2008. Had a lot of fun with that vehicle.. Thanks Australia!
and the gto was a rebadged monaro... next
I saw an actual Commodore in Fresno, California about a year ago. Black w/black out windows, sounded mean as hell. It's the only one that I've ever seen.
@@divecolosio4988 the VXR Monaro was another spin off of the Holden. Saw one at the Nurburgring and lost my shit lol
You must feel real smart stating what every G8 owner knows 😂
In New Zealand these are police cars
Rohan I'm not too surprised. It's the same engine as the (in your neck of the woods) Holden Commodore SS (Chevrolet Capice PPV)
Chur cunny. New Zealand should have keep buying them. Since sales also slumped there, the dream is dead. Gotta get my ass over to NZ soon to check out the JDM stock. I mean NZ is pretty much just another state of Australia still haha
Rohan they are in Aus to mate
here in new zealand the police use these as dog handler utes
Chevy caprice in Australia is the holden caprice
The holden commodore ve is the Pontiac g8
Holden commodore vf is the Chevy SS
THE VE COMMODORE WHEELS ARE LITERALLY MY FAVOURITE WHEELS EVER AND I DONT KNOW WHY BUT I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!!
The "Holden Bluetooth" is a recording, not sure when it was done! The car likely makes you record when you set up a new Bluetooth device, from my experience with that onstar Bluetooth voice system in other GM vehicles
This is the sole reason I relocated to Australia, to own a Holden ute. Last year I achieved my goal with a crewman. Bless the Aussies.
+hahahaha .i should dothe same)after i finish my project Elcamino here in Califirnia)
Hats off to you sir
Get behind the wheel of an XR6 Turbo, or better yet a Typhoon - mental utes once that boost kicks in!
+Chris A Fuck off mate. That's like saying only bogans can wear thongs