Beaut Ute Luxury Touch

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday April 28, 1999

WHEN Ford's designers came up with the coupe utility back in the financially depressed 1930s they probably had no idea they were laying the groundwork for a whole new car culture.

How the coupe utility (later shortened to `utility' and later still to `ute') came into being is a short but interesting story.

During the Great Depression Australia's banks were allowed to lend farmers money for plant and equipment but not for luxury items.

Trucks and tractors were necessities, family cars were not but the farmers wanted comfortable, good-looking vehicles.

So Ford was the first, in 1934, to graft the front half of a sedan to the rear end of a light truck. Comfort up front, capacity down the back and the ute was born.

And despite a time gap of some 65 years between the first and the latest, nothing much has changed except the execution.

In 1991 Ford released its XF model utility onto the market, a vehicle which (finally) answered the challenge being made to the traditional utility from the Japanese light trucks.

Ford pushed hard on the issues of strength and ease of operation saying, perhaps quite rightly, that their workhorse was powered by a big, lazy, six-cylinder engine rather than a peppy four banger.

Sure, the one-tonne trucks carried more (the XF's payload was nominally set at 800kg) but they did not have the comfort or the sheer grunt of the Falcon's 139kW overhead camshaft engine, the same six-potter used in the Falcon sedan.

The interior was straight out of the sedan, too, and featured big comfortable bucket seats and plenty of legroom. Buyers got power steering as standard equipment and could choose either a five-speed manual transmission or three-speed automatic, both with a floor shifter.

That vehicle (and Holden's rival Commodore) began something of a resurgence in utility sales and with a new crop of buyers transforming XFs and Commodores from work horses into show ponies with lowering kits, graphics, alloy wheels and wide tyres, Ford rose to meet the market demands.

In March 1993 the XG Falcon ute arrived. It had the same basic dimensions as the XF but had a slightly bigger carrying capacity (an extra 21kg) and slightly higher standard equipment levels which stretched to a driver's airbag and four-speaker radio-cassette. There was also a new name ? Longreach ? and an important model variant, the XR6.

Ford had been stung by the effectiveness of Holden's Commodore `S' ute and offerings from Holden Special Vehicles, so decided to rise to the challenge.

The result was the Longreach XR6, a hairy-chested hottie with less weight and just as much power as the equivalent XR6 sedan. It didn't take performance buffs long to do their sums and figure out just how quick the car was.

With 164kW and 366Nm available the answer was: `bloody quick' and it looked good to boot.

Standard features ran to alloy wheels and big tyres, a limited slip differential, body-coloured bumpers, sports suspension, the XR6 dash and instrumentation, body-hugging sports bucket seats and the mean-looking XR front panels.

All of a sudden utes were not just used for lugging tools to the work site or taking junk to the dump.

If they had not had respectability before the XR6 they certainly did after it was released.

Not so glamorous was the GL van. Like the XF ute it came onto the market with a carburettor version of the 4.1 litre, six cylinder engine, a comfortable interior and very little else except power steering.

It soldiered on with the 4.1 until it was discontinued in March, 1993, replaced by the Longreach GLi.

Built on the same dimensions as the utility, its heavier van bodywork meant it had a slightly smaller carrying capacity and was rated at 780kg compared to the ute's 820kg.

Somewhat surprisingly, when Ford added the Tickford-modified XR6 variant to the ute it did not add it to the van which made the trusty old `panel' something of a poor relation by comparison.

Things have changed in the past few years. The panel van dropped quietly from the range in September, 1997, at about the same time Ford released the fearsome XR8 utility with 185kW on tap.

But that is another story all by itself.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IT goes without saying that the majority of Falcon utilities and panel vans will have been bought originally as work horses so finding a really good example might require a bit of leg work.

Take it as read that most will have carried more than their allowable weight limit more than once so it is important to have driveline components (clutch and differential) checked for signs of excessive wear.

WHAT TO PAY Falcon utility: 1991, $12,000; 1992, $13,000; 1993 (Longreach), $16,500; 1994, $17,000; 1995, $18,000.

Falcon Longreach XR6: 1993, $21,500; 1994, $22,000; 1995, $23,000.

Falcon GL van: 1991, $9500; 1992, $10,500; 1993 (Longreach GLi), $15,500; 1994, $16,500; 1995, $17,500.

(Retail prices courtesy of industry analyst Glass's Guide)