Australia’s blokes have voted and named the Ford Ranger Australia’s best-looking ute! Over one thousand (1,150) Blokes over 18+ years were surveyed, with each bloke asked to rate utes from Toyota, Mazda, Holden, Ford, Isuzu, LDV, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Mercedes and Volkswagen.
The blokes were shown the pictures of the utes and asked to tell us what they thought was the best looking ute and why.
Not only were BlokeVote looking to find out what Blokes really want in the look of a ute, but the important questions like: Does the type of Bloke who drives a Ford Ranger, just want to be a tough guy? Does Toyota’s reliability make them utterly boring? And should Volkswagen stick to making sensible cars for sensible people?
The “aggressive” looking Ford Ranger Ute was voted the best looking overall narrowly edging out the Isuzu D-Max for top honours.
The type of bloke that voted for the Ranger did so because “It looks large and imposing”. This was a consistent theme amongst the voters with words like tough, aggressive, solid and rugged being used to describe the design.
The question is, does the car look tough, aggressive, solid and rugged, or does it make blokes feel like that? Maybe both. Ford Ranger Ad campaigns have certainly played on this interesting quirk in male psychology, that requires them to have a car that makes them feel tough!
So how does this translate into sales? Well in 2021 the Ford Ranger was the second most popular car overall in Australia.
Moving on to second place, the Isuzu D-Max missed out on the top spot by a narrow margin overall. Unlike the Ford, blokes seemed to appreciate the detail of the D-Max’s design features rather than just its overall “toughness”.
Blokes mentioned that the Isuzu appealed to them because it looked modern, bold, and had the best design of the lot. Toughness was still a key factor in their decision making however this wasn’t the overwhelming feedback like with the Ranger.
This attention to design and what its target audience wants has been reflected in sales numbers, with Isuzu’s total sales up 61% in 2021, and the D-max the 6th overall.
Finishing out the podium in third was the Toyota Hilux where brand value underlines the sentiment toward the looks of the ute. Reliability may not be the sexiest way to describe your partner, but when it comes to choosing a ute, Toyota’s renowned brand value and reliability seem to be the thing that gets blokes all hot and heavy. Sales numbers reflect this with the Hilux the number one selling vehicle in Australia in 2021.
The Volkswagen Amarok came in as the best of the rest and seemed to be the one you choose if you’re not that interested in any. Reflecting the German brand’s conservative appeal the commentary around why blokes chose the Amarok often centred around it being more conservative and less bogan or “if I had to choose a ute, it’d be this one”.
As for the rest of them, blokes weren’t particularly passionate about the way they described any of the other utes, with brand value the common thread.
