Can anything really replace Ford’s beloved Falcon Ute?

THE tainted milestones that lead the way to the end of Australia’s car manufacturing industry are in full swing ahead of Ford’s end date in October, followed by Holden and Toyota bowing out next year.

For the Blue Oval, the reality of a future without locally made models became all the more real when the coveted Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) special branch closed its doors about two years ago, but now another Aussie icon has passed into the history books.

This unassuming tradie Falcon will go down in history as the final Ford Ute to be based on a car platform.

After a run of 55 years, production of the Ford Falcon Ute has come to an end at the Broadmeadows factory in Melbourne’s north, completing the story of one of the world’s most esoteric and unusual vehicles.

Ford is credited with inventing the Ute segment when it introduced a version of the XK Falcon in 1961, which replaced the rear seats and boot for a pick-up truck-style tray, creating a trend that would be followed by Holden and embraced by Australians.

Although the company had technically invented the Ute many years before when it created the 1930s Coupe Utility in response to a letter from an Australian farmer who requested “a vehicle to go to church in on Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays”.

With the final XR6 Ute now finished, the rumour that Ford would build an XR8 version can be put to bed.

The final example of the Falcon Ute rolled off the production line on July 29 and rather than dressing the last car up in every option in the extras list, Ford exercised restraint with a white XR6 as the flag bearer.

Unlike some other significant Ford models such as the first and last FPV GT F and the first XR8 Sprint that were donated for charity, the last Ute is heading straight to Ford’s archives where it will stay under Ford ownership for the foreseeable future.

The historically important Ute will be joined in the car-maker’s private collection by the final examples of both the Falcon sedan and Territory large SUV when they call last drinks for the production line on October 7 this year.

The final Falcon Ute will be housed in Ford’s treasured historical car collection, alongside many other milestone models that have been assembled over many years.

But the last Fords to be built on Australian soil will not be shut away from prying eyes to gather dust, and will instead be proudly paraded around museums and car shows over the coming months and years.

Ford and its Broadmeadows production team put on a brave face and laid on a touching send off for the last tradie Falcon with each member of the team clear in the knowledge that the milestone marks the approach of the last day of employment for the remaining 850 employees at the factory.

No doubt, there were somber undertones to the send off of the last Falcon Ute, with the whole team out of a job as soon as the sedan sibling has its swan song in October.

As the white XR6 rolled on its own steam for the first and last time, it was flanked by a classic Falcon Ute and a more tricked up XR6 in gunmetal paint.

But what is a true blue Aussie to do now that the Blue Oval will not sell a car-based ute, and even if a hardcore fan defected to the lion badge, even that Ute model’s days are numbered?

Ford says the motoring world is a very different place now and that the slipping sales of both Falcon and its Ute sibling indicate that its customers are looking for something different than a modified version of its large sedan, but what is the alternative?

The Ute is made on the same line as the sedan and Territory SUV, but it will fall silent in October when Ford pulls up its manufacturing stumps in Australia.

“We’ve got another new ute – it’s called the Ranger,” said Ford Australia president and CEO Graeme Whickman.

Speaking at a press briefing at the company’s design centre in Melbourne, Mr Whickman explained that Ford Ute customers had already been making the switch to the more rugged Ranger off-road ute for some time and the fans would continue to step up to the one-tonner.

“I think you’ll find that as the likes of Falcon Ute moves on that will be one of the options that consumers will validly look to,” he said. “It’s a reasonably decent percentage of people migrating from Falcon Ute already into Ranger.

A majority of the Ford production team took time to come and bid farewell to the iconic and true blue Ute.

“We still see a very strong group of people migrating from that product into the pick-up category. That’s one of the stronger categories as it stands. We talk about growth, that’s similar to small SUVs and has grown. I think year to date it has just tipped over 15 per cent of all vehicles sitting in pick-ups.”

The figures certainly support Mr Whickman’s theory and in June this year, Ford found homes for 371 Falcon Utes – a slight boost from the low-200s for the first part of the year, but it is a different story in the Ranger column which had its best month to date, shifting 4078 examples.

That substantial figure has been enhanced by Ford Falcon Ute owners making the switch to the Ranger’s high-riding and all-paw capability says Ford, and it put the Blue Oval-badged model just 535 units behind the dominant Toyota HiLux (4613) for the month.

The Ute has come a long way from its humble 1934 beginnings, but Ford says the modern day Ranger is its spiritual successor.

Since its introduction in the early 1960s, a total of 439,742 Utes were built at the Broadmeadows plant, but the grand total of Falcon Utes is 467,690 when production from the old Eagle Farm, Queensland facility is factored in.

But can a jacked-up off-roader really replace the iconic Aussie Ute, and is the motoring world losing an irreplaceable symbol of Australian automotive heritage?

Daniel Gardner GoAuto.com.au

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