EDITOR’S COLUMN: LIFT YOUR GAME AUSTRALIAN CAR MANUFACTURERS!

By Laura Boshammer 4 Min Read

I was having a discussion with a mate recently about the state of affairs in the Australian 4X4 market. Particularly when it comes to the current crop of dual-cab utes. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve driven every dual-cab on the market – both on-road and off-road – and have been mightily impressed by pretty much all of them. However, it still beggars belief that the Aussie-based manufacturers won’t bring in a full-size (as the Americans call them) ute.

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Sure, Ford had little sales success with the F250 and there’s the Toyota 70 dual-cab, but they’re both at the pointy end of the price scale and many ute buyers simply can’t justify the outlay – particularly when they can get a nicely modified BT-50 or D-MAX that’s ready to take on any trip in Australia for less than the purchase price of either of them. F250s that are a decade old are still commanding premium prices on the second-hand market.

 

I get that it costs time and money to convert to right-hand drive and get the vehicles over here, but if someone wants to dominate the (very popular) ute market they need to find a way to make it happen.

 

I’m of the opinion that if one of the manufacturers was to bring in a reasonably priced (say, around $50,000) full-size ute – and they all have them available overseas in the guise of the Nissan Titan, Toyota Tundra, GMC (Holden) Sierra, Ford F-series – they wouldn’t be able to keep them on the showroom floors. They all have powerful and economical turbo-diesel engines, they all have huge aftermarket support, they’re all made with heavy-duty towing and load carrying in mind… why the hell aren’t they already here?

 

They’re perfect for a large segment of our market and many tradies I know would much rather cart a tonne or so of concreting gear around in the back of a full-size than in a ute that’s probably tipped over the GVM as soon as the apprentice climbs into the passenger seat.

 

On top of that, more and more off-road drivers are towing these days. While the current crop of small capacity turbo-diesels do an admirable job of lugging a 25-foot van along behind them, having towed with a full-size I can tell you it’s not even in the same league. It’s barely even the same sport!

 

Meanwhile we get the non-diesel FJ Cruiser. It’s a bloody Prado chassis! How can the 3.0L TD not fit? We are also offered the Y62 Patrol (beautiful truck… but come on, throw in the 5.0L V8 Cummins turbo-diesel from the Titan and start impressing us) and the 60-grand Ford Ranger Wildtrak while the US gets the ready-to-race Raptor for $46,000 (seriously?).

 

Something is very wrong with this picture if you ask me.

Dex.

 


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