Game Changer: The dual-cab 4x4 ute

For reasons partly related to Australia’s convoluted tax system – and the fact they now combine off-road, towing and carrying capability with family-friendly space, technology, safety and refinement – the two biggest selling models on the market are light commercial vehicles, but the vast majority of them will never carry plumbing equipment or a load of bricks.

Until the late-1980s, Australia was a bastion of the conventional family car or maybe the station wagon. Utilities were rudimentary – built to carry two or three in the cabin and a load behind – and 40 years ago there was little demand for a model that could integrate the roles of workhorse and family transport.

Brit-based Armstrong-Siddeley had pioneered the concept in 1952 with its 4/5 seat Station Coupe. Then, a few years later, Australia saw its first genuine dual-cab when Volkswagen shortened the tray of a Type 2 Kombi pick-up and extended the cab to make space for five occupants.

At around the same time in the USA, International Harvester was turning its Travelall station wagon into the Travelette four-door pick-up.

I-H would continue to offer variations on the theme until 1975, by which time Ford and Dodge had begun building pick-ups with extended cabs and space behind the front seat to safely carry cargo or extra passengers.

Joining in too were the Japanese manufacturers, led by Nissan which in the 1950s began converting Bluebird sedans into two-door, five-seat pick-ups.

Toyota was first to recognise the potential of the dual-cab as family transport. From 1983 it began marketing an extended-cab SR5 version of its HiLux and three years later produced a full dual-cab.

By the mid-1990s a vast range of commercial vehicles with the attributes of passenger cars were being sold in Australia. However, it had been introduction of fringe benefits tax (FBT) in 1986 that could take most of the credit – or blame.

FBT was intended to target non-salary components of income, which allowed the self-employed and businesses to reduce their tax bill. Passenger models were the main victims, with vehicles principally designed for commercial purposes or rural use generally exempt.

Manufacturers looking to generate sales learned how to package commercial models in ways that maximised appeal while helping business buyers stay within the rules.

Dual-cab penetration of the Australian market soared and by the time production of the Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon and Toyota Camry ended during 2016-2017, light commercials were already claiming 20 percent of Australian new-vehicle sales.

Japanese brands in particular uprated their dual-cabs to improve comfort, as did Ford and General Motors. Holden even developed a dual-cab version of the Commodore called the Adventura, but it failed to challenge the imports.

Ford and Mazda would during the 21st Century claim market dominance once sales of their Ranger/BT-50 models were combined. However, in most months the Toyota HiLux would maintain its place as the biggest selling individual model – as it does today, with the HiLux now being the nation’s top-selling new vehicle bar none for seven consecutive years.

At one time it was important for automotive brands to keep the maximum price of their dual-cabs below the luxury car tax (LCT) threshold. However, as demand for better-equipped premium variants grew, the need to dodge LCT became less crucial.

Top-spec RAMs, for example, now exceed $225,000 and several other locally-converted full-size US pick-ups costing more than $100,000 are selling in their droves, including the Chevrolet Silverado and, soon, the Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra.

With such competition, conventional cars and SUVs in the luxury segments will increasingly come under threat from models that were once seen as useful only for dropping kids at school on the way to a building site.