A UTE BEAUT
The humble coupe utility, or ute for short, was an Australian invention, created by Ford Australia in 1933 and copied around the world. The ute was an instant success story and its designer, Lou Bandt, went on to become Ford Australia’s Manager of Body Engineering from 1966 to 1973.
The ute quickly became part of the Australian identity, especially in rural areas, with the key to its success being that it was as comfortable as a saloon car, yet practical for the man on the land or the tradesman. Many people even bought them as a second family car, or even the only car.
But even into the mid-1960s neither Austin nor Morris, nor BMC for that matter, had anything to compete with the ubiquitous Holden FJ model, which accounted for around half of all sales. The Morris Oxford utility was assembled in Sydney from 1950 to 1954, and there were comparable locally-designed models from Austin on the A40 and A55 chassis, but these four-cylinder utes were no match for Holden’s six-cylinder offering.
By 1955, BMC had only one ute on the market, the diminutive Morris Minor Pickup released in 1953, but the Minor’s small size limited its use by small businesses to local deliveries, or for private use. This model would remain in production until 1962, a year after Minor saloon production ceased in Australia. BMC felt the Mini Pick-up was simply too small for the local market and none were
