Gotcha. For all I know, he was calling it a ute as a playful comparison with the Holden Ute, since it’s sort of a hybrid of two types of vehicles all mashed together. I dunno. I just like to say “ute”.
it seems to me almost everyone in australia has a ute …
i spent a lot of time in the goldfields of western australia …along the rabit proof fence …i was with a bushie …he cut burls in the goldfields …we also traveled from outside perth up to darwin…in the ute …
i have been all over australia …but that was my ute experience …
it is called a ute …i was teased everytime i called the ute …the truck …
Anything with an open tray is a ute.
Even though it appears built off a Hilux, that is a ute. It’s a dual-cab ute, as opposed to a single or king-cab ute, but it’s still a ute.
And no, not just about everyone in Australia has a ute. They’re pretty ubiquitous out in the country areas, but in cities you’ll find the usual range of sedans, small cars, hatch-backs, station wagons and SUVs as you’d find anywhere else in the world.
Australia’s not just some homogenous fucking outback hole where we all drive utes and shoot roos and go walkabout. It’s just as varied from city to country as the US is.
No, almost certainly not. No one in Australia thinks of a ute as being a ute because it is like a Ute. The colloquial term precedes the (very recent) usage of the colloquial term as the manufacturer’s official name for a particular vehicle. He called it a ute because it was basically a ute.
It would be like if Ford started marketing an F150 as a Ford “Truck”. You wouldn’t then call a variation on a truck a truck because it was like a Truck. It would be a truck because it was basically a truck.
You can relax now, since nobody said anything like this. We spent a week in Broome and surrounds and a week in Sydney. While they were nowhere as ubiquitous in Sydney as they were in Broome, they were still not terribly uncommon. I saw many driving around even in Darling Harbour. They were by far outnumbered by the delivery trucks, the cabs, the sedans, and the sports cars, but they were definitely present. Where the hell are you getting this “homogenous fucking outback hole” stuff?
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I’m just gonna repeat what’s already been said - I likes the camper trailer idea, you could get it built in oz or locally I would imagine, and much easier than the customisation route.