Did Ute Know? The first car-based pickup was not a Chevy
For a group that likes to call themselves car people, automotive enthusiasts have an odd affection for cars that look like trucks: The Chevrolet El Camino, the Ford Ranchero, and the Subaru Brat.
Whatever you call these oddities—car-truck, truck-car, cowboy Cadillac, ute—it’s tempting to say that they trace their lineage back to Henry Ford and the 1917 Model TT truck. Though early Ford cars and trucks are obviously related, the TT was a purpose-built utility vehicle with a more substantial frame and drivetrain. Typically, car-based trucks have gone in the other direction, borrowing their mechanicals from automobiles, not trucks, and tilting the utility/luxury balance more towards the latter.
So, if not the Model TT, which vehicle is the true founder of the car-truck line?
Since I haven’t done a Marianas Trench–level dive into the subject, I can’t say with 100 percent certainty that it was independent automakers Studebaker and Hudson that first introduced actual car-based pickup trucks to the American market. However, I believe that the 1937–39 Studebaker Coupe Express and the 1941–47 Hudson Cab Pick-up (including the 3/4 ton “Big Boy” models) are among the very first American vehicles that combined pickups’ cargo beds with the styling, sheetmetal, and mechanical componentry of those brands’ passenger cars.
Introduced for the 1937 model year, the Coupe Express was based on the Studebaker Dictator. In case you’re wondering why Studebaker would choose a model name associated with despots, the Dictator nameplate was introduced in 1927, before Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and Stalin had solidified the word’s modern connotations. If the branding scheme is now awkward, it was at least coherent: Dictator was the entry-level Studebaker, below the midrange Commander and flagship President.
Power was supplied by Studebaker’s larger, 218-cubic-inch (3.6 liter) L-head inline six-cylinder producing 86 horsepower, driving through a three-speed manual transmission, with an optional Borg-Warner overdrive available. Typical passenger-car options like radios, heaters, and turn signals were available. You could even choose from two different styles of steel wheels. (Yes, young Padawan, things like heaters and turn signals were not always standard equipment, let alone air conditioning. Before the 1976 Honda Accord, cars were very much priced à la carte.) About 3000 units of the introductory Coupe Express were sold. Advertising touted the “passenger-car comfort and style … combined with useful business body types.”
For the 1938 model year, the cab of the Coupe Express was updated to reflect styling changes on the passenger cars. In this case, styling alterations made the vehicle more practical: They allowed for a slightly longer cargo bed, which featured a sharp-looking, backwards-sloped tailgate. Despite the styling changes, sales dropped by almost two-thirds to around 1200 trucks. Again, the 1939 models were restyled to reflect Studebaker’s cars, but sales of the utes dropped even more, to just about 1000 units. The Coupe Express was discontinued to be replaced in 1941 by a 1/2 ton model of Studebaker’s more conventional M-Series pickup in 1941.
Hudson, on the other hand, never developed a dedicated truck line. You could well argue that all of Hudson’s pickup trucks, in fact all of its light commercial vehicles, were car-based. This wasn’t a bad thing, since Hudson’s automobiles were regarded as robustly overbuilt; perhaps they were suited well for the task of being car-truck hybrids.
In 1929 Hudson’s Dover truck brand started selling a line of commercial vehicles based on the parent company’s Essex automobiles, equipped with pickup beds, side-express bodies, or custom bodies made by the Hercules company in Kentucky. The United States Postal Service was a major customer, buying 500 of the car-based trucks, presumably for mail delivery. One of those postal utes, shown below, long resided at the Hostetler Hudson Museum in Shipshewana, Indiana, which closed in 2018.
Hudson also sold those same vehicles under the Essex brand, with slight changes. In 1932, a new line of pickups and sedan deliveries were offered, based on the Terraplane. With the Great Depression going on, sales were modest and peaked at about 8000 units in 1937.
That year, Hudson’s lineup of what it called Commercial Cars was expanded to also include a cab and chassis model, a sedan delivery, a station wagon, plus a “Utility Coupe,” which had a small pickup box that pulled out like a drawer from the trunk, and a “Utility Coach,” a two-door sedan with removable seats and panels to cover the rear quarter windows.
For the 1939 model year, the lineup was expanded yet further, offering three different wheelbases and multiple trim levels, all of them with car styling. That year the heavy-duty 3/4 ton Big Boy trucks were introduced. In 1940, when Hudson cars got new front-end styling and A-arm front suspensions with coil springs, the trucks shared those modern developments.
The Hudson trucks introduced in 1941 were probably the most car-like. Hemmings describes them as “low, long and dripping with chrome,” looking “like something dreamed up by a customizer… rather than the product of a mainstream American automaker.” Contemporary advertising focused on “new beauty and style,” plus “passenger car roominess and comfort.”
The fact that the ’41 Super-Six is considered by Hudson enthusiasts to be one of the marque’s most attractive products didn’t hurt. The half-ton Cab Pickup and the three-quarter-ton Big Boy models were based on 116- and 128-inch wheelbase versions of the Super-Six Commodore. Though those were midrange cars, they had substantial frames with 7 3/8″-inch tall rails and four lateral crossmembers augmented by a stiff X-member. The independent A-arm, coil-sprung front end was billed as “Auto-Poise Front Wheel Control,” the rear end had leaf springs with a track arm, and all four corners were dampened with modern hydraulic tube-type shock absorbers. The trucks did feature stiffer springs than the passenger cars and the Big Boy’s brakes 11-inch drums came from the parts shelf for the Hudson Eight.
The Hudson pickup may have been based on a sedan, but even the shorter-wheelbase model had a full-steel pickup bed measuring more than 48 inches between the inner fender walls and 93 inches front to back: With the tailgate down, you could carry a full sheet of plywood. On the inside, the dashboard offered the sedan’s clock, “Weather-Master” heater, Zenith radio, and deluxe steering wheel with a chrome horn ring as optional features. Super Six mechanicals were included as well, with Hudson’s 212-cubic-inch inline six driving through a column-shifted three-speed transmission that, like the Studebaker’s, was also available with an overdrive.
The war-shortened 1942 model year introduced Super Six sedan features such as slicker, restyled fenders and a flared lower body to hide the running boards. As with most cars in the immediate postwar period, the 1946 models were much like the prewar cars except for a new grille. The pickups, although they were some of the first postwar vehicles that Hudson made, still retained the earlier body style with exposed running boards—possibly due to their lower volume compared to the cars.
When Hudson introduced its innovative “Step-down” 1948 models, the firm stopped making pickup trucks as they were not compatible with the new model’s semi-unibody construction. While one prototype was reportedly developed, Hudson would never make another production pickup truck, car-based or otherwise, again. The company would merge with Nash to form American Motors in 1954.
Can we say with absolute certainty that Studebaker and Hudson made America’s first car-based pickups? No, but one thing’s for sure: Chevrolet and Ford were fashionably late to the party.
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I thought you were going to say Holden.
Dad had a 1914 Ford Model T Express Truck, which didn’t have a top over seat, but it did have a bed. Carbide lights also. Unfortunately, as @hyperv6 points out, it wasn’t the first, probably the most visible though…
I did research on this class of vehs about 14 years ago when I bought ky 80 Camino . The story recealed that the ute was actually created in 1934 in Australia for a woman who wanted a veh that could zork the farm all week and drive ro church on sunday . Up until GM shut down the Holden manufacturers z few years back these crucks were still in production .
Whenever you mention working the farm all week and driving to church, it brings up the MinneMo UDLX. Talk about some ‘utility’! No bed at all of course, but there’s nothing it couldn’t pickup.
Check out a 1940 Graham Pickup! Cool rig.
1940’s Diamond T pickups take a back seat to no one, either. It was a golden age of trucks.
Fords small truck line of 1940-41 advertised the 1/2 ton pickups as”commercial cars” here again because they looked identical from the passenger cars from the front.
What about the 51-53 Kaiser Traveler sedan? More car than truck, but in the same ball-park.
I have one of those 1929 Model A Roster Pickups. Nice truck. If you can, research a 1934 Ford car/truck produced in Australia. I saw a picture somewhere recently. Really nice – even hinged suicide doors just like the cars. Produced by Ford to satisfy a woman’s suggestion for a car she could enjoy (stretch-cab) as well as a pickup that her husband could haul the pigs to market. Hope you can find it and publish it for our readers.
Always thought the 1933/4 Ausie Ford was the world’s first but as the following article suggests, that was not the case!
Unfortunately the photos didn’t make it through the “copy and paste” but you get the picture anyway.
THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE UTE
Did the ute originate in Australia – sadly, no.
There are contesting claims as to the origin of the first ‘ute’ and some people reckon it’s an Aussie invention.
In 1933, a Gippsland farmer’s wife wrote a letter to Ford Australia, asking: “Can you build me a vehicle that we can use to go to church on Sunday, without getting wet, and that my husband can use to take the pigs to market on Monday?”
Lew Bandt, who was then a young designer at Ford’s
Geelong plant, modified a 1933 coupe, by incorporating tub bodywork in the back and strengthening the chassis so that it could carry a load. The prototype was approved and the Ford Australia ute went into production in 1934 as the Model 40-A Light Delivery.
But was this really the world’s first ute?
It depends entirely on how you define the word ‘utility’. Wikipedia defines ‘ute’ as: “an abbreviation for ‘utility’ or ‘coupe utility’ It’s a term used in Australia and New Zealand to describe vehicles with a tray behind the passenger compartment”.
It’s widely accepted that the original ‘utility’ was distinguished from a light truck by the fact that its bodywork continued in an unbroken line, aft from the cabin to the tail. A light truck had its cab and cargo bodywork separate.
Most modern utes aren’t ‘classic utes’ because the rear tub is separate from the cab structure. That’s a necessary separation in the case of a 4WD ute, to prevent stress cracking of the rear bodywork as the chassis flexes.
A second and very important demarcation is the difference between a 1920s and 1930s ‘utility’ and ‘coupe utility’. A ‘utility’ was derived from a passenger car with a soft-top, convertible roof and a ‘coupe utility’ was derived from a hard-roof sedan.
Ford Australia’s claim that Lew Bandt’s design was the world’s first ute is based on the fact that it was certainly North America or Australia’s first ‘coupe utility’. All the utilities that preceded it in these markets were soft-top utes.
But one very early ute wasn’t American at all: in 1927, across the Atlantic, a new company called Volvo (Latin for ‘I roll’) produced its first cars and
pickups, with open and closed cabins. However, only 27 closed-cabin pickups were produced before the company upscaled the OV4 to light truck size, moving it out of the ute category.
If 27 production vehicles is a reasonable amount then Volvo was clearly the world’s first ‘coupe utility’ maker. The photos show an open-cabin ute, because we can’t locate a pic of the closed-cabin (coupe) version.
For the following information we’re indebted to Robert Ryan, who owns a very rare, genuine Model 40-A coupe utility.
Interestingly, Robert told us that the well known Lew Bandt (Rego UTE 001) ute replica, produced in 1975, was built from a cut down 1933 Ford sedan to a ute, procured from a farmer in Bannockburn, Victoria. The reason was that Lew could not find a genuine Ford Coupe Utility. After Lew’s death in 1987 in this vehicle, it was rebuilt by members of the Early Ford V8 Club Victoria as a 1934 model, by changing the grille and bonnet, but still using the 1933 sedan cabin section.
This patchwork replica has received more adulation than genuine vehicles: in 1997 Australia Post issued a 45 cent stamp and poster card depicting the replica Bandt Coupe Utility; Classic Carlectables released a 1/43 scale model of the non-genuine Ford Coupe Utility and in 2017 Ford Australia, in collaboration with the Royal Australian Mint, released an uncirculated coin of the non-genuine Ford Coupe Utility.
Light Delivery was the Ford Australia title for both Roadster (soft top) and Coupe Utilities in the years 1933-1934.
Of the total 1390 produced in Geelong, 862 were Roadster Utilities and only 528 were Coupe Utilities.
Incidentally, the parallel production pattern of hard and soft tops continued, as this photo of a 1936 Roadster Ute shows.
Other pre-1930s utes
The earliest ute may have well preceded these mass production examples by more than 30 years. On the jacket of his wonderful Australian automotive history book, ‘From Horse to Horsepower’, S A Cheney is photographed sitting at the tiller steering of a 1903 Oldsmobile, which is fitted with an integrated
tub body that is distinctly ‘ute’.
The post-Dodge-Brothers company had a soft-top Dodge pickup in its model line-up in 1924. (John and Horace Dodge both died within a year of each other, in 1920 and their widows were then running the company that was eventually sold to Chrysler in 1928.)
An excellent example of the 1924 Dodge ute is owned by Bruce Church of Broken Hill. Bruce’s ute began life as a touring car with its original owners, the Parham family, but was retro-fitted with replica ute bodywork in 1947, incorporating the original rear mudguards.
The ute spent most of its life as a working vehicle, but has had long rest periods sitting on blocks. Bruce Church says the Dodge is still in original, unrestored condition.
In 1927 Chevrolet also produced a soft-top ute, known as the National Roadster Utility.
The claims for ‘first ute’ status will doubtless continue, but that of ‘most loved’ Aussie ute undoubtedly goes to the 1951 Holden coupé utility that was derived from the 1948-year, 48-215 four door sedan. The first Holden ute (nicknamed FX) was a great performer and was cheaper than any of its rivals. The waiting list was around 70,000 in its first year.
Ute trends
Utes have never achieved cult status in urbanised Europe, where the van is king, but in most other countries – particularly agri-based ones – utes are vital transport. The US dominates the ute world in terms of numbers and, until recently, the Ford F-Series pickup was the biggest-selling vehicle model on earth, but with poor export sales.
The laurels for ute numbers per capita go to Thailand, where some 420,000 new utes are sold each year. This healthy market, combined with world-class vehicle manufacturing capability and the fact that Thailand has heavy import duties on any vehicles that aren’t locally produced, has seen most Japanese-brand
utes being manufactured in Thailand since the 1990s.
A strange Thai law that demands leaf springs on ute rear axles is slowing Japanese-brand ute development.
India and China are ramping up ute production and will threaten traditional makers in the next few years.
“Since I haven’t done a Marianas Trench–level dive into the subject, I can’t say with 100 percent certainty”
sounds like the definition of Click-Bait.
Nonsense. The Model T pickup was nothing more than a Model T roadster with the turtle-deck replaced with a pickup bed. Even by 1941, the Ford pickup was basically a standard ford car with a pickup bed, very similar to the Studebaker shown above.
I was in Indiana in 2018 when the Hudson museum closed and the vehicles sold. That green mail truck, appearing so-so in the catalogue, was a looker in person and I would have loved to bring it home with me.
Ford marketed a “Runabout Pick-Up” beginning in 1925. The name “Pick up” was “barrowed” from Chris Wyss, a dairy farmer in Tillamook, Oregon. A well documented account states that two men from Ford visited the farm in 1923 to measure and take photos of Mr. Wyss’s light truck that he built by modifying 1915 Model T Touring car. When asked what he called it, Mr. Wyss said “Oh a pick up I guess”. Why they asked? Because it’s good for picking up things, Mr. Wyss answered. Mr. Wyss would go on to invent farm equipment and an irrigation system. After his experience with Ford Mr. Wyss was careful to patent all his other ideas and inventions.
Nash also made a pickup and HD truck (up to 1.5 ton, IIRC) using a cab made from the passenger car body (rear of front doors forward). The Nash truck was only sold in overseas markets for some reason, with the exception of a handful sold to dealers as tow trucks (one tone versions). There was an added lower grille in front and running boards on the sides. Hudson and Studebaker used the front half of four door car bodies for cabs for their early light trucks as a cost saving measure. It wasn’t for styling, though they are certainly more stylish the the big three trucks of the era! That was just a nice side effect.
The first ever couple utility vehicle was built by Ford Australia in 1934.
Aussie’s have had a long love affair with the “Ute”
https://outbacktravelaustralia.com.au/buyers-guide-buying-advice/the-true-history-of-the-ute/