Fearsome competition in today’s dual-cab market has transformed what used to be one of the most fundamentally compromised product offerings in Australia, into a range of machines that are well-rounded and significantly less agricultural.
Subsequently, safety, ride comfort, luxury features and technology are all items that once languished at the bottom of a one-tonne buyer’s list of priorities (if at all), but have now shifted to the very top of the must-have pack. Demand has had a miraculous effect on the evolution of the ute.
Nonetheless, if you’re considering hitting the unsealed trail and heading into Australia’s most isolated regions – whether it be for work or pleasure – there’s one criteria that will almost certainly be paramount – reliability.
Ask any grey nomad or grazier you happen to find in a far-flung part of the country and they will almost certainly tell you they’d trade a creature comfort or two for a vehicle that doesn’t miss a beat.
However, one of the most frequently cited priorities for a ute that spends a lot of time in the outback is not just dependability, but the ability to get it fixed if the worst happens. This is exactly why, as the distance from major metropolises increases, as does the concentration of Ford, Holden and Toyota vehicles on the road.
Should this polarising consideration be a factor or does it make a negligible difference in practice? Here’s a tale that might make you reconsider.
On a recent road trip from south Sydney to the Big Red Bash near Birdsville southwest Queensland, Brendon ‘Knuckles’ Walker’s plans took a dramatic turn for the worse.
About 200km west of Windorah, Walker’s 2013 Ford Ranger detonated, leaving the family of five and their 3000kg caravan stranded in one of Australia’s most remote desert regions. The stricken Ranger limped on another 20km to the ghost town of Betoota but was going no further.
Friends travelling with the family rallied around and moved the caravan the final 200km to their destination – the world’s most remote music festival – a challenge in itself given the unseasonably wet conditions.
But three nights of rock music and beer on the edge of the Simpson desert could only distract Walker from his seriously unenviable predicament for so long. On top of the $6000 bill already incurred to transport the blown Ranger back to the nearest suitable workshop in Brisbane, he had a seemingly impossible problem to solve.
A replacement tow vehicle would need to be sourced after making the 1600km trip to Brisbane but, with all flights fully booked from the nearest airport in Birdsville, Walker was facing several days of hitchhiking to get there. Furthermore, his wife, daughter and in-laws would be left behind for perhaps longer than a week until his return.
When choosing a vehicle for camping trips into the outback, parts availability was one of Walker’s considerations but, with a totalled engine many hundreds of kilometres from the nearest auto workshop, ease of repair was suddenly a meaningless concept.
What would you have done? No amount of spares or tools carried on board could fix a snapped con-rod on the side of the road, while summoning a second recovery truck would take the family’s spiralling expenses well into ten-grand territory. Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending this time.
Aside from the The Big Red Bash’s numerous accolades and defining features – including its status as the world’s most remote music festival and the location where the Guinness World Record for the most people simultaneously dancing the Nutbush was broken (5838 if you were wondering) – it also happens to be sponsored by Volkswagen.
To say it was Brendon Walker’s lucky day is without question the understatement of the century and, when Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles head of sales Vladan Dimic heard of Walker’s plight, he responded simply: “We are obliged to help”.
Over the days leading up to the Bash, a convoy of 12 new-generation Amaroks had made the journey from Broken Hill to Big Red and while the participants were due to fly out of Birdsville, the fleet would drive.
After the redistribution of some camping gear and a quick clean of the headlights, one Amarok peeled out of formation for its unscheduled mercy mission, Walker was handed the keys to a 2023 Amarok Panamericana turning his nightmare into a dream, and Volkswagen executed one of the finest PR activations in living memory.
But back to our initial question. When it came to the crunch (literally) it would have made no difference if the piston that had tried to escape the confines of an engine bay via the oil sump were stamped with the Toyota, Ford, LDV or Koenigsegg logo.
It’s certainly fair to suggest that the average bush mechanic is more likely to have a HiLux oil filter on the shelf than one for a SsangYong Musso, but when it comes to catastrophic failures, the Australian desert is callously indifferent when it comes to the brand of car you drive.
So when it comes to selecting the right dual-cab for outback duty, you can slot one more virtue in at the top of must-haves – the kindness of strangers and good old fashioned mate-ship. Something, it appears, Australia has in abundance regardless of the brand.
Keyword: Toyota HiLux? Ford Ranger? Isuzu D-Max? It doesn't matter which brand of dual-cab ute you take into the outback, there are far more important things to consider | Opinion