ASH8

55 Years ago Ford Australia started production of the UTE (XK Series), their invention which stayed in production for 7 generations has come to an end, the beginning of the closure and shutdown of Ford Australia's auto manufacturing.


Ford created the concept of a ute after receiving a letter from a Victorian farmer’s wife in 1933 requesting a vehicle civilised enough to drive to church on Sundays and practical enough to take pigs to market on Mondays.

The Ford Australian UTE started the 'pickup' era, still alive today.

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ASH8

Ford will become Australia’s largest automotive employer once Holden and Toyota shut their car assembly lines in late 2017.

But rather than building cars locally, a team of more than 1100 designers and engineers will develop global vehicles for Ford.

In a bitter twist, they will work on the next generation of vehicles such as the Ford Ranger ute — designed and engineered locally but made in Thailand where manufacturing labour costs are one-fifth the rate in Australia.