How a Customer’s Letter Inspired an Ingenious Design that Revolutionized the Industry

Last week, we reminisced about Ford of Australia’s establishment. But we would be remiss if we didn’t share another story of historic innovation there: the creation of the Coupe Utility. In addition to being a historic advance that proliferated throughout the automotive industry, it is also a classic example of Ford listening to its customers. 

The Coupe Utility, the first integrated passenger-based utility, was dreamed up by a young designer named Lewis Bandt, who was tapped to design the revolutionary vehicle. The project came about after the frustrated wife of a farmer in Victoria wrote the managing director of the Ford Motor Company of Australia to request a vehicle with passenger car comfort and styling that also had the utility needed for her husband’s everyday tasks. 

Aussie ingenuity 

Already showing what would become his trademark flair for design, Bandt, 23, drew the assignment. The resulting passenger car-based utility was conceived during the Great Depression and would become an icon because of its revolutionary design. Rather than constructing a utility body on a car chassis, which was the common design at the time, Bandt developed his version as a coupe with an integrated steel-paneled load-carrying section in the rear. A blended design gave the Coupe Utility a cleaner profile and increased the load area behind the cabin, which was the same as that of the four-door Ford Model 40 five-window coupe but also included a wooden-framed utility section with steel outer panels. 

The vehicle was powered by the famous Ford V8 engine and a three-speed manual transmission, while its suspension was up to the task for farmers, sheep raisers, other tradespeople, and small business owners. The Coupe Utility went into production in 1934 as the first major job in a newly expanded factory after a significant retooling needed for production. The investment proved worthwhile, though, and Bandt’s brainchild was a hit with rural Australians, with 22,000 sold between 1940 and 1954. Its design was also being copied by other automakers within months of its introduction. 

Bandt was summoned in 1935, as Henry Ford inspected the “kangaroo chaser” and Bandt helped U.S. designers affix a utility body to the company’s new 1935 model. Ford proclaimed his company would bring the coupe utility concept to the U.S., which it did, with vehicles including the Ranchero.   

Subsequent V8 models preceded new versions of the Coupe Utility in its local market. Its success also led to the creation of the Falcon utility, another customer favorite, with the first Falcon XK ute launching in 1961. Ford of Australia went on to sell more than 455,000 Falcon utes by 2014 before manufacturing operations ceased in 2016. Ford celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Coupe Utility in 1994 with a special limited-edition model. It debuted at the Brisbane Motor Show alongside a fully restored 1934 model. 

Bandt, who joined Ford in 1929, was also known for creating a series of Falcon convertibles with a steel retractable top in 1964. The six cars were created using the Falcon utility as the base of the vehicles. Bandt is also credited with creating utility versions of English Ford models, including Anglia, Prefect, Consul, and Zephyr, as well as other innovative vehicles such as a Falcon station wagon and a Cortina fastback. Bandt retired in 1975, but sadly, he was killed in a car crash in 1987 while driving a restored version of the Coupe Utility he helped make famous. He was returning from filming a documentary about the creation of the revolutionary vehicle.  

While the origin of the Coupe Utility can be traced to a simple letter, it was the creative thinking of Lewis Bandt that helped transform a customer request into a vehicle that went on to have a legacy of Aussie ingenuity and helped pave the way for the pickups that today make up the backbone of Ford’s vehicle lineup. 

Employees can learn more about Ford of Australia through its product history available at FordHeritageVault.com. The site now includes more than 2,300 brochures and images of Australian Ford models from the past century, including the aforementioned 1934 Coupe Utility and 1960 XK Falcon.