Aussie SUV Culture?

[f6fhellcat13]

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the austrailian suv culture like? Does everbody think they're a herder form the outback so they drive mostrous suvs, like in USA with cowboy pickups and suvs? And I've noticed that ford austalia and holden make a good number of rwd sedans. In america the rwd sedan mosltydied out because starting in the 80s the big three started converting their rwd saloon plants to rwd/awd suv plants. Do ford or holden make any suvs? or are all the suvs in australia foreign?



on a side note with gas prices rising the big three are considering changing back from making suvs to rwd cars YAY!

[Ferrer]

Ford Territory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Australian SUV.

[f6fhellcat13]

Thank You for the info

[NSXType-R]

They like Utes. They prefer that over SUVs. It's like an El Camino, a car with a truck bed that's lower than a general pickup. Monaro and Ford make them I think. Forgot their names though.

[nota]

Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the austrailian suv culture like? Does everbody think they're a herder form the outback so they drive mostrous suvs, like in USA with cowboy pickups and suvs? And I've noticed that ford austalia and holden make a good number of rwd sedans. In america the rwd sedan mosltydied out because starting in the 80s the big three started converting their rwd saloon plants to rwd/awd suv plants. Do ford or holden make any suvs? or are all the suvs in australia foreign?

Most SUVs here are japanese (eg Landcuiser, Nissan Patrol etc) and the only American-sourced ones sold locally are Jeeps and Hummer H3 because no other US SUVs are built in r/h/d.

Regrettably the SUV culture is quite popular here, especially so in urban areas. This is because urban males like the romantic idea, and masculine ownership aura, of trekking off to remote outback locales - but never accomplish this because of the kids, job commitments and such. So they mainly just ponce about in the suburbs.

Likewise urban mums love the quasi-feminist empowerment an SUV offers, including that 'commanding' driving position which gives such an air of invincibility for when you're monstering other motorists during the school-run, or cutting them off in supermarket carparks etc.

During the 1970s there were Holden and Falcon 4x4s (long before the 'SUV' name was imposed) and although a few were sold, sadly not enough to reach 'critcal mass' production. In more recent times Holden also made a few interesting AWD Commodore variants, including Adventra which was basically a raised-ride-height, raised-roof wagon (still with IRS) a-la Volvo X70, plus an AWD Crewman ute and the terrific Commodore Cross-6 trayback (2-seater) ute. Btw HSV also made an impressive albeit expensive performance-oriented AWD Monaro (your GTO). None of them sold terribly well and Holden no longer build AWD vehicles, due to GM-NA apparently raping $300M from Holden's self-funded Zeta development budget, to ameliorate ever-mounting GM-NA $$ losses.

While Adventra was generally regarded as a sales flop against the well-conceived Ford Territory, I notice Adventra resale has held up surprisingly well. Which in a way is a pity imo because it otherwise would make for an interesting and vesatile 2nd-hand buy - especially the potent LS1 V8 version.

Here's an Adventra road test
AutoWeb - New Car Test - Holden Adventra

on a side note with gas prices rising the big three are considering changing back from making suvs to rwd cars YAY!

on an even more sideways note I hear that GM were going from SUV to rwd cars as you say, but due to worsening fuel concerns are now mostly ditching rwd and going back to fwd!

[blingbling]

seriously, is there idiots with money in australia?

unfortunately, like in many developed countries, the answer is yes

so yeah, there probably is a vibrant "outback herder" mentality in the "SUV culture" slash community

i wish i had a button that converted all SUVs into a toyota prius or a honda insight, that'd be so damn funny

or a button that converted all ricers into rovers or stock corollas

[ozzycarnut]

Originally Posted by NSXType-R

They like Utes. They prefer that over SUVs. It's like an El Camino, a car with a truck bed that's lower than a general pickup. Monaro and Ford make them I think. Forgot their names though.

the main breed of ute that we go after is holden's s/sv6/ss commodore utes, and ford's falcon xr6/xr8 utes. imo, toyota produce far better quality utes, v6 sr5 hilux extra cab etc, but dont really have the pose value of an ss ute. hsv and fpv both make hipo versions of the utes, which as far as i'm aware, make the fastest utes in the world, think hsv maloo R8 before you attempt to shoot me down .....

[f6fhellcat13]

Originally Posted by nota

on an even more sideways note I hear that GM were going from SUV to rwd cars as you say, but due to worsening fuel concerns are now mostly ditching rwd and going back to fwd!

NOOOOOO!!!!!

[coolieman1220]

gas prices arn't rising anymoreeeeee! $3.69 for 93 in Jersey!

[NSXType-R]

Originally Posted by ozzycarnut

the main breed of ute that we go after is holden's s/sv6/ss commodore utes, and ford's falcon xr6/xr8 utes. imo, toyota produce far better quality utes, v6 sr5 hilux extra cab etc, but dont really have the pose value of an ss ute. hsv and fpv both make hipo versions of the utes, which as far as i'm aware, make the fastest utes in the world, think hsv maloo R8 before you attempt to shoot me down .....

Yeah, those were the two cars I was referring to. The names slipped my mind though, because it's not like I regularly see those cars anyway. I'm a bit far away from Australia.

[ozzycarnut]

Originally Posted by blingbling

seriously, is there idiots with money in australia?

unfortunately, like in many developed countries, the answer is yes

so yeah, there probably is a vibrant "outback herder" mentality in the "SUV culture" slash community

i wish i had a button that converted all SUVs into a toyota prius or a honda insight, that'd be so damn funny

or a button that converted all ricers into rovers or stock corollas

well yes, yes there are. alot of people with alot of money in fact. as far as idiots go, i feel this term may be best at describing the learned individual that slags off a country he does not reside in nor evidently has any knowledge of ......

[syko]

Originally Posted by nota

This is because urban males like the romantic idea, and masculine ownership aura, of trekking off to remote outback locales - but never accomplish this because of the kids, job commitments and such. So they mainly just ponce about in the suburbs.

And here I was thinking it was because you could fit more people and crap into them.

[nota]

Originally Posted by syko

And here I was thinking it was because you could fit more people and crap into them.

I'll let you be the judge...

Ford Falcon BFIII wagon

The current Falcon wagon offers no less than 1254 litres of cargo space before the rear seats are folded. The Falcon's rear seats-down capacity is a whopping 2584 litres with the length to match it.

Toyota Landcruiser 200 V8 wagon

Luggage capacity varies from 259 litres with the third row of seats in place to 701 when they're stowed. Fold the second row and space rises to more than 1,265 litres

[clutch-monkey]

i've noticed the toyota kluger is about the same size as the landcruiser used to be. and the landcruiser is larger than most trawlers
soccer mum's in X5's and those stupid honda MDX's are not uncommon.

[fpv_gtho]

Originally Posted by ozzycarnut

the main breed of ute that we go after is holden's s/sv6/ss commodore utes, and ford's falcon xr6/xr8 utes. imo, toyota produce far better quality utes, v6 sr5 hilux extra cab etc, but dont really have the pose value of an ss ute.

Toyota dont make utes, they make pickup trucks like the rest of the world. A ute is car based, and IIRC the only one in production other than the Falcon and Commodore ute is the Proton Jumbuck.

Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13

Does everbody think they're a herder form the outback so they drive mostrous suvs, like in USA with cowboy pickups and suvs?

Theres likely to be a few, but from what ive seen theres far more people going around in Falcon or Commodore utes with chrome bullbars, massive mudflaps, multiple driving lights and the car littered in stickers such as R M Williams and "Real Aussies drive utes".

Since the Territory went on sale in 2005 theyve become littered all over the place, and the inevitable has happened where quite a few tools now own them. They handle better than the rear live axled, leaf sprung Falcon wagon though and like most soft roaders are about 200mm lower than youre genuine Landcruiser/Patrol type 4x4.