I’m a good old fashioned American that likes his cars big and fast.  That is why I drive a sport utility vehicle.  A Chevy Trailblazer can not only get you to where you are going, but with four wheel drive, spacious back seat and cargo area, all leather interior, and a v-6 under the hood, is more than adequate for weekend either on the farm, or trekking my way through the wilds of rural North Dakota.

In Australia, I will admit, I had some expectations about what to expect in vehicles.  I expected that there would be four wheel drive vehicles.  I expected that I’d see sport utility vehicles.  I expected to see the classic American pickup truck.

My expectations were wrong.

Nothing shocked me more on my first day in Melbourne then seeing something that I hadn’t seen on the roads of America in ages.  Something that has been pillared in American society for decades.  A seemingly bad idea from the 1970’s…and supposedly left there…

Yes, that first day in Melbourne, I cried out in shock when I saw - the El Camino.

Half car, half pickup truck, it is the in between vehicle that defies proper classification in America. 

Surely, surely I thought, this must just be relic of a bye gone era.  Then I saw another one.  Then a third.  But what was more shocking, they didn’t look like a vehicle from the 1970’s…They looked, well, brand new.

But more then brand new, they were not just Fords.  They were Toyota’s and Holden’s.  The Fords, the Fords weren’t labeled as El Camino’s either, they were the Ford Falcons.

And here, they certainly didn’t call them El Caminos; they are ‘Utes’ - which is short of Utility Vehicle.

As an American, I must admit, I enjoy most things about Australia.  The people.  The food.  The climate.  But the ute, and its appeal, was something that just escaped me.  When Americans gathered, we quietly and stealthily mocked the ute.  Not the pickup trucks - true American style pickup trucks that were also called utes, but the El Camino styled utes.

With this in mind, I chuckled a bit to myself when I heard that one of my Australian friends bought a ute.  A Holden.

Looking it over, I smiled.

“I could have gotten a front of a Pontiac.” My friend said casually.

“Wait.  A Pontiac?  Like a Grand Am? These things are made by GM? I asked.

“Yeah.” He said, “Want to go for a ride?”

“Sure!” I said.

We got in and he started her up - this half car, half pickup - and the engine roared.  He peeled out of the parking lot of his work and made his way through the streets of Sydney.  The thing had power.  It had zip.  It had had a great start off the block.

“What does this thing have?” I asked as he shot around a corner.

“A V-8.” He said.

I will admit, stepping out of the ute, I had a new respect for this strange mix of car and pick up, this concoction laughed out of the states decades ago has grew and evolved into a respected machine.

In short, the El Camino has grown up.