Car, Truck, or Ute? The Vehicles to Help Figure Things Out.

In the United States, the utility vehicle is largely associated with the Chevy El Camino, but this type of vehicle has a long tradition going back to the Great Depression.

The idea of combining a passenger car’s ride comfort and accoutrement with the load-carrying capability of a truck began in Victoria, Australia, when a farmer’s wife wrote to Ford asking for a vehicle that could carry the family to church on Sunday but could also bring pigs to market on Monday. That’s a far cry from “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” but it was a strong enough plea that Ford of Australia began building such a vehicle in 1934 as a coupe utility model.

While utility vehicles—known simply as utes in Australian parlance—were common down under, they didn’t pick up steam in America until the Ford Ranchero of 1957.

Nevertheless, the market seemed primed for such a vehicle after GM narrowed the gap between cars and trucks in 1955 with the Chevy Cameo Carrier of 1955-1958 and the GMC Suburban Carrier of 1955. (The latter was extremely rare, with only around 300 produced.)

These were based on GM truck products, which meant a trucklike ride, but the interior appointments, exterior trim, and unique fiberglass exterior panels gave it a bespoke passenger-car appearance that later would resonate with customers in the Chevy El Camino.

The El Camino’s early success here in America was largely attributed to the eye-popping design of the 1959 Chevrolet cars.

A firsthand account related to automotive writer, Jeff Koch, by Chevrolet designer, Bob Cadaret, appeared in the April 1994 issue of Vette magazine that detailed a fascinating late-night booze-fueled styling session under deadline in 1956 in which the full-size 1959 Chevy models received their now-iconic raised-eyebrow tailfins.

Those lines would eventually be used in the new-for-1959 Chevy El Camino. Nevertheless, as forward-looking as the 1959 Chevy El Camino was, it was Ford that put utility vehicles on the map in the United States two years earlier with the Ranchero.