Australia to get SUV's

[slo crostic]

An article I read in the Herald Sun the other day said the Australian four wheel drive would soon be marketed as an SUV to bring the Australian car market in line with the U.S. After pondering this for a couple of days I can come up with not one single reason as to why this would be beneficial to anyone. If anything it just goes totally against the Australian idea of what a utility is.


This is a utility. The great Aussie Commodore ute......

As you can plainly see it looks nothing like a sports utility vehicle.

If anything our Commodore ute looks sportier than this big square lump of metal.
So why don't we let utes be utes and 4wd's be 4wd's, and let the Americans have their SUV's.

 

[Buck]

You know Slo took that last picture driving by someones house. They probably thought that someone was casing their house.

 

[Pradeep]

mmm Surburban, so much rooom. A ute is nice, but bugger all room to store anything of value in the cab. My current object of desire is a Dodge Ram Quad Cab with Hemi V8. Unfortunately they seem to be incredibly overpriced.

 

[honold]

looks like an el camino...

 

[mubs]

A wabbit widing a bicycle! Schweet!

 

[time]

So will this thread be the revenge for those who don't like the performance/sports cars idolized in the Car Fans thread? It seems a shame to include 3-ton tanks on the same page as the sub-14-second Holden 'truck'.

 

[Stereodude]

Sweet! They still sell the El Camino in Oz. That's it I'm packing my bags and moving there.

Stereodude

 

[Pradeep]

The Holden Monaro has been selling in Aus for several months now.

It will be released in the US as the Pontiac GTO. With the requisite price hike.

http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/modeloverview?modelid=12001&navid=1

Actually Holden are also making a special edition of the Monaro with a 7 litre engine for racing, unfortunately the cost is around AUS$200,000.

http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/conceptcar?modelid=20006

 

[Buck]

. . . and this is a real 4wd:

Compliments of Dr. Karl.

 

[Howell]

. . . and this is a real 4wd:

That's not a noife. This is a noife:

For scale, the tires on the earthmover in the middle of the road are 12 feet tall.

 

[Mercutio]

Er, unless I miss my count, that's also substantially more than four wheel drive, Howell.

Do Aussies actually tolerate Paul Hogan? I should think they would've deported him to, oh, Burma by now. Of course Yahoo Serious is apparently some sort of celebrity over there, rather than the ironically tragic post-retro pop culture reference (much like saying "Everybody Wang Chung tonight") he is in the states.

It's amazing what obscure references one remembers. 50 years from now, if I'm still alive, I'll remember my 10th grade locker combination, the PIN number for my first ATM card, and "Yahoo Serious". I might as well shoot myself now.

 

[Pradeep]

Never see Paul Hogan anymore. Nor for that matter Steve Urwin unless you subscribe to Discovery Channel.

 

[Stereodude]

Never see Paul Hogan anymore. Nor for that matter Steve Urwin unless you subscribe to Discovery Channel.

But did you ever see them? Is the croc hunter even from aussieland?

Stereodude

 

[Pradeep]

Sadly I moved to Aus after the great days of "throw a prawn on the barbie".

Apparently the Urwins do live in Aus, or at least have some kind of animal reserve, but they are travelling around so much doing their filming it's hard to say.

 

[Howell]

Er, unless I miss my count, that's also substantially more than four wheel drive, Howell.

Would you go for 4-track drive?

 

[The Giver]

Howell,

Yummy... strip mining. Ain't it great?

We mine phosphate with Draglines down here in central Florida by strip mining. It leaves the country side looking like the moon until they reclaim it (which is often 15 or 20 years after the fact). I will say this though, it often looks better after they reclaim it then it did before they mined it.

 

[Dozer]

I was noticing the name on the side of that massive machine..."The Silver Spade." Somehow it just doesn't sound manly enough--Maybe "Methuselah" or "The Iron Monster," or "CougTek," but "The Silver Spade"? Oh, well. I guess if you're that big you can call yourself whatever you want.

 

[Howell]

It leaves the country side looking like the moon until they reclaim it (which is often 15 or 20 years after the fact).

What do they reclaim it from?

 

[time]

You can see that Pradeep lives on an island that's only occasionally part of Australia. :wink:

Paul Hogan theoretically lives in Byron Bay, New South Wales, but I thought he had sold his mansion there? In any case, he spent most of his time in LA. Due to his high profile on Oz TV in the seventies, he passed his use-by date in Australia many, many years ago.

Yahoo Serious made one reasonably entertaining off-the-wall film (Young Einstein - although it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea), then an only occasionally funny film (Reckless Kelly - the best bit by far is the dog saying "Corn Flakes"), and finally by all accounts a complete turkey (Mr Accident). It's highly unlikely he'll ever receive funding for another film, so rest assured that's probably the last you'll see of him.

Steve Irwin lives down the road from me, here in sunny Queensland. Well okay, 50km down the road. When he's there, he runs Australia Zoo, formerly Queensland Reptile Park. This is probably number one on the desirable excursion list for most schoolkids, and of course is a very popular tourist destination. Steve does live shows there, which unless you're catatonic are a memorable experience.

 

[The Giver]

It leaves the country side looking like the moon until they reclaim it (which is often 15 or 20 years after the fact).

What do they reclaim it from?

Nothing. All "reclaim" means is that they restore it to what it was before they mined it.

 

[Pradeep]

Rehabilitate in Australia.

 

[The Giver]

Steve Irwin lives down the road from me, here in sunny Queensland. Well okay, 50km down the road. When he's there, he runs Australia Zoo, formerly Queensland Reptile Park. This is probably number one on the desirable excursion list for most schoolkids, and of course is a very popular tourist destination. Steve does live shows there, which unless you're catatonic are a memorable experience.

He was a real breath of fresh air when he first appeared on TV over here. Imho his shows have become far to civilized for the most part these days. He is still completely psycho in the way he handles snakes however. He and his wife seem like regular folks despite their success.

 

[slo crostic]

Paul Hogan used to have a weekly show here back in the late 70's early 80's. It was one of the funniest, most original, comedy shows ever on Australian telly. Every now and again they show a "best of" the Paul Hogan show but it's the same old bits over and over again. I think after he made crocodile dundee he actually bought all the old episodes of his show to make sure they wouldn't be screened again because he thought they were too embarrasing for a "big movie star" like himself.