Welp, that’s really disappointing. Once upon a time I thought the Holden Ute was pretty cool looking, and I liked stuff like the El Camino (dunno if y’all had those in Aus, but iirc they were discontinued in the US in the 80s).

I hate the weird “I wanna big car” thing in the US. I can understand wanting lots of footroom and feeling like you’re in a tiny room instead of a car, but you don’t need a massive pickup for that. If that’s what you really want, buy a surplus humvee and take it somewhere to get a custom interior, new shocks fitted and maintenance done. It’ll probably be more interior space than you’ll know what to do with for half the cost of a brand new Ford, and it’ll probably do off-road better as well. Bonus points if you replace the engine with a modern, more efficient diesel or do a full electric conversion. Imagine how much torque you could get out of an electric motor hooked up to a decent gearbox on that frame.