Driving a ute is un-Australian

COMMENT

The humble utility vehicle, or ute, has a long history in Australia but the homegrown Ford and Holden passenger-car-derived versions we loved are gone.

Instead, they’ve been replaced by ever-larger pick-ups.

And guess what? There are compelling arguments that in today’s world driving one of these so-called one-tonners (many can’t even cop the tonne!) is about as un-Australian as backing the Poms in The Ashes cricket.

But why?! I hear you ask, the question echoing abruptly through the ether like a coffee tumbler shattering on rumpus room floorboards?

Where to start… A bit of history, perhaps.

Depending you who talk to, the humble ute was born in Australia wearing Ford badges in 1934 after a farmer wrote a letter to Ford requesting a vehicle that could go to church on Sundays and “carry our pigs to market on Mondays”.

But the legacy of these much-loved hay haulers and tow trucks is in the balance.

Sometimes called pick-up trucks in the USA and bakkies in South Africa, the most popular utes sold in Australia (let’s call them one-tonners due to their circa-1000kg tray payload) are not the safest vehicles doing the rounds.

According to Professor Stuart Newstead, the director of Monash University’s Accident Research Centre, utes and large SUVs are putting lives in danger.

“Our propensity to buy these vehicles is driving road safety backwards,” he told The Guardian Australia this month.

Vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists are at most risk if a collision occurs with a pick-up, chiefly because of the laws of physics. They’re very large and very heavy.

Back in 2020 Professor Newstead released a study that showed the road death toll had risen by five per cent simply because buyers are purchasing more 4x4 utes and large SUVs than ever before.

Since that study at the turn of the decade, he explained the five per cent figure would be much higher now.

Despite cars getting safer, the national road toll has been rising in 2023, and by the end of September was at 946 fatalities, up from 886 deaths or 6.8 per cent for the same period in 2022. And a quick Google search reveals an alarming number of fatal ute rollovers have occurred this year alone.

The incandescent popularity of utes has been driven in part by tax perks and incentives, such as the fringe benefits tax, the instant asset write-off scheme, temporary full expensing policies and loss carry-back tax offsets.

The result is that utes now account for one in five new vehicles sold in Australia.

In turn, this is singeing nostril hairs right across the nation, given the most popular one-tonne Aussie utes are predominantly diesel-powered vehicles – and far from what you’d classify green or clean.

In fact, they’re dirty blighters.

Even if you don’t believe that CO2 accumulating in the upper atmosphere has become a gaseous insulator heating up the globe, you can still see, smell and taste the filthy jalopies as they clatter past.

The pollution is real and stinks to high heaven.

A report published earlier this year published by the Climate Council – dubbed Ute Beauty – postulates that tailpipe emissions for half of the top 10 selling utes are over 200g/km.

Compare that figure to European vehicle emission standards for passenger cars, at 95g/km, and it puts things in perspective. That and the fact the EU is proposing to ban all combustion engines by 2035.

Even commercial vans are capped at 147g/km in Europe but because Australia doesn’t have a mandatory Fuel Emission Standard in place there’s no reason for car-makers to offer low- or zero-emission alternatives to customers.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says new emissions regulations via a mandatory Fuel Emission Standard is coming “soon” but the burning question is whether the new fuel/emission laws will exempt utes in some form?

There's also another can of worms I cannot get into due to word limits -- parking fails. How many big utes have you seen parked across two (or more!) car spaces?

Despite misgiving, I have been tempted to buy a dual-cab ute in the past…

I love surfing and snow-boarding and visiting quiet, pristine, far-away destinations with my growing family. But then I dug a little deeper and realised it was simply un-Australian to do so in ute.

So it looks like it’s back to horse and cart for me.

Join the conversation at 

our Facebook page

Or email us at 

editor@carsales.com.au