Coupe utility
From Wikislippy
The coupe utility car body style has a passenger-car derived cabin of coupe style, but with an integral cargo bed behind the cabin. An example of this is the Chevrolet El Camino. The vehicle that uses this style is significantly different than a pickup truck, which has a cargo area separate from the cab. In Australia, these are called utes.
History
The coupe utility began in Australia. In 1934, as the result of a request from a Victorian farmer's wife, Ford Australia combined the cab of its newly released Ford Coupé body with a well-type load area fully integrated into the coupé body, producing the first Coupe Utilities. Holden built a Chevrolet ute in 1935, but utes weren't sold in America until the 1957 Ford Ranchero. Both types of vehicles were called utilities or utes for short.
The first American coupe utility vehicles were produced in December 1956 (for the 1957 model year) by Ford as the Ford Ranchero. The Ranchero was based on the standard and new full-size Ford platform. The first Chevrolet El Camino was produced for the 1959 model year (two years after the Ford Ranchero) and, like the Ranchero, was based on an existing and easily modified platform.
In 1960 the Ranchero became much smaller, becoming based on Ford's compact Falcon. The 1960 model sold worse than the 1959 and General Motors decided to discontinue the model.
Four years later (1964) with the Ranchero still selling well, Chevrolet reincarnated the El Camino, based on the new Chevrolet Chevelle.
By 1979, cars were getting smaller and increasing government restrictions and requirements on a car-based pickup truck made such a vehicle less and less attractive from a manufacturing standpoint. Meanwhile, purpose-designed light trucks had to meet much less stringent requirements for emissions and fuel economy. Ford saw the way the market was going and decided that small light trucks were the wave of the future, beginning with the Mazda-built Courier pickup. This vehicle would be a "stepping stone" during which time Ford would develop their homegrown replacement, the Ranger. El Camino production ended in 1987.
