“Yeah man, El Camino”
Not to be confused with the American Indian people living in Utah and Colorado, a Ute is a “utility” vehicle – the U in SUV. The Ute formula is simple: take a car, rip out everything behind the driver, and jam a truck bed to the back. You get the utility of a small pickup, but the benefits of a car – smoother ride, better handling, and increased fuel economy. Pioneered by the folks Down Under, the Ute was invented when a farmer’s wife asked for “a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays”. Alas, the Ute has been extinct in the US market since the last Subaru Baja was spotted in the wild sometime circa 2006. But times are a changing, and even if pig farming has gone out of fashion, automakers have new incentives to reconsider bringing the Ute back stateside.
Before we jump into the reasons and analysis, let’s have Senor Brad Pitt introduce what a Ute is.
That’s right, Mr. Pitt didn’t want something bland and boring like a Chrysler. He wanted something a little more authentic, a little more Mexican. If we squint between the lines of the script, we could translate “Mexican” to mean “totally awesome”.
And being totally awesome is what bringing the Ute to the US is all about. The Ute probably won’t win any high volume sales awards, but it does serve as a good halo car and a gateway purchase to a brand. All manufacturers in the last decade have been trying to capture the imagination of a young buyer. Once a young buyer is hooked, the idea is to funnel them into more expensive vehicles in the lineup as their lifestyles change. One can imagine the marketing department hard at work shaping the ideal buyer: handsome, recent college graduate, loves being social and outdoors, wants to stand out and be an individual. What car can we build to stir his emotions and attract him to our brand?
One of the first answers to this question was the Pontiac Aztec. In retrospect, the Aztec was not the correct answer. It flopped terribly in sales and to this day, that infamously boxy bottom continues to haunt it’s original designers. But the car wasn’t entirely to blame. As other manufacturers have discovered, it is possible to build a lower volume and inexpensive halo car that attracts younger buyers to a brand. Honda had their Element, Nissan with it’s highly accoladed Juke, and lest we forget, Toyota created Scion – an entire sub-brand whose primary mission is to attract buyers into the Toyota family. The successes of these experiments have varied, but all have drummed up significant buzz and chatter in the media.
No brainer that a Ute would take the namesake of it’s grandfather “El Camino”
GM has a great opportunity on their hands. They own the Holden brand in Australia, maker of the bonkers HSV Maloo. It’s got attitude, and the performance to back it up. Capable of running 168 MPH, it’s got the record for the world’s fastest pickup truck. Bringing a heavily detuned or modified version of this ute to the US could fill a gap in GM’s current portfolio. Combine an attractive price (less than $20k starting MSRP) with a ute’s utility and unique styling, and first time buyers will have to do a double take. Let’s hope that GM does their homework and takes a risk. Who knows, one day, you’ll be able to point out to your driveway and say, “Yeah man, it’s an El Camino”.