Holden Ute VF

The Commodore family wouldn’t be complete without the VF facelift being extended to what must be one of the most charismatic Australian cars. Like what was mentioned on Calais’ article, these cars represent why prospering in the car world isn’t done neither with only global or only regional projects, but using a combined strategy. Ford has followed this concept at that market using Falcon, which has been this family’s archenemy for decades. So now you’re about to read the latest chapter of this delicious competition.

Even though the market has received many new categories in the last years, such as four-door coupés, retro-inspired compacts and the endless variations under the “crossover” label, their purposes may be very different but the history is usually the same: one particular automaker found a gap of the demand that no one was satisfying directly and released a very different car which, according to its intentions, the public would prefer instead of the existing ones. Some ended failing, but others achieved so much success that soon became followed by the rivals. However, other categories were created by clearer demands, such as the Brazilian compact pick-ups: in the 1970s, this market’s commercial sector had only s-size trucks or big pick-ups. The exception came with an adapted version of Fiat 147, whose reduced size gave it excellent handling in city streets, along with the much better fuel consumption of an urban car – the hatchback was already very commended for its frugality. The Australian situation was very similar, in fact: that public wanted smaller pick-ups, although not as much as the Brazilians’, but also taking the advantages of being derived from urban vehicles: it was possible to share most of the mechanics and even several visible parts, such as the interior’s front part, resulting on unusually attractive commercial cars.

Besides the size, another big difference between those regional trends came with the time passage: while the Brazilian pick-ups wanted to resemble the big sisters, using off-road-inspired accessories, the Australian preferred looking as similar to the urban siblings as they could possibly be. Holden Ute’s last generations are a nice example of that: the big length is “disguised” by very clever styling, with items such as curving the cabin’s external silhouette so it looks longer, using a narrow auxiliary window to “disguise” the sedan’s carried over front door’s “incomplete” design, or taking the wagons’s wheelbase: it avoids a new project’s costs, and having the rear axle very far from the rear end doesn’t leave too big plain areas on the sides – Falcon uses the same solutions. They have some restrictions, like when didn’t accept well the double-cab Crewman, but this public’s overall reaction is impressive, reaching the point of approving a vehicle as picturesque as One Tonner. Holden began to present the latest Ute in the upscale version SSV, which means it has the exact same front fascia as Commodore, but looking very much like an aftermarket-tuned pick-up. There are all the sedan’s aerodynamic and styling kits, while the interior keeps the excellent news by being an exact copy until the front seats. This car is also expected to arrive in June, receiving the 6.2-liter V-8.