Thread: If you park like this....

I doubt they'd know what to make of it. Too much like a sedan for the "truck" mentality and too flexible for the "sedan" label.

yeah, I don't know if it would sell over there.......

Looks like it almost made it but was canned due to the GFC

The Australian-assembled Ute was to be sold in the United States as the Pontiac G8 ST starting in 2009 alongside the four-door Commodore-based G8 sedan.[5] However, due to GM's company-wide model review, a result of the 2008 global financial crisis, such plans were shelved on 6 January 2009. Exports of the G8 sedan remain unaffected.[6] Sales of the Ute in South Africa as the Chevrolet Lumina SS commenced during 2006/2007.

Ute will never make it here, I can guarantee you that. They're killing off our compact/midsize pickup line as it is. Currently all we have is the Nissan Frontier and the Toyota Tacoma (Which I have); which you all know as it's brother the Hilux. Ranger, dead; Dakota, dead; Colorado/Canyon, dead or dying.

This actually confirms my point. The ute isn't a "truck" or a "pickup", it's something else entirely. Australians are brought up understanding them but to Americans it's going to be a completely alien concept. That's not a criticism it's just a cultural thing, we don't get plenty of your stuff either. Think "utility sedan" rathen than "compact pickup". The construction is different as well. Your trucks and pickups are what we often call "tray-backs" or "cab-chasis" where as a ute (a true ute, not a "tub back" on a cab chasis) is built on the sedan body. A ute handles and rides as well as a sedan but can carry up to a tonne depending on the model. A "tray-back" with no load rides rough and light in the rear end, where a ute rides just fine.

Originally Posted by MickRussell

This actually confirms my point. The ute isn't a "truck" or a "pickup", it's something else entirely.

Yeah, they have there own category as a 'ute' and nothing else.

I still remember driving my friend's 253 WB. I was used to driving a 1200cc Corolla so that ute was more than a bit different.

Utes are great for a bit of circle work. Mind you though, I watched one bloke lose it going around a roundabout once, trying for a bit of sideways action all the way round. Ended up in a dirt wall off the side of the road. I was on my motorbike, and I don't think he was overly impressed when I started roaring with laughter before I rode off. I got no time for clowns who drive like idiots on the road, especially when it could have been me in the side of his ute if he had have lost it 2 seconds later. The paddock is the place for that sort of thing.


Mick

Since I started attending MVAs with my fire brigade my attitude to driving, and tolerance for idiots on the road, have changed markedly. Idiots driving top heavy SUV type vehicles too fast or too aggressively aggrevate me the worst.
I attended one a couple of years ago. Double fatality. The driver and his wife were bringing some international business partners back from Sydney after they'd just flown into the country. They were driving a Toyota Prado and from the road marks and damage to the vehicle they were MOVING. Both people in the back, the folk who had only just arrived in the country for a business holiday, died in the vehicle while the front passenger and driver, although in a pretty bad way, survived. That could have been their kids in the back on any other trip.
The Prado handles pretty well for a SUV as it happens. Many of them are much worse, a certain Ford springs to mind. I still maintain that 90% of people who drive those things shouldn't be allowed to and people who drive like idiots shouldn't be allowed to drive anything.

Originally Posted by Catrentshaving

Not to be a pain in the a$$ here but...
If you had parked centered in your spot you shouldn't have had a problem just pulling out. Thats still no excuse for buddy to have parked so close to you...but its kind of a chain reaction in the picture.

+1 for the above. Inconsiderate of the guy behind you, but if you hadn't been so far forward it would be much easier to get out again.

After reading this and seeing the parallel park video I received this one today...

Originally Posted by nzFuzzy

+1 for the above. Inconsiderate of the guy behind you, but if you hadn't been so far forward it would be much easier to get out again.

After reading this and seeing the parallel park video I received this one today...

I would like to see the video of them getting the car back out