There’s no denying the biggest disruptor in the ute market this year is the election hot topic of the ute tax. To paraphrase The Clash, should it stay or should it go? Most New Zealanders would have a definitive answer – nobody likes the thought of the two surest things in the Universe – death and taxes.

Losing the ute tax will certainly find favour with most on the surface, but considering the largest part of NZ Company Vehicle readers looking to or already owning/leasing a ute will be GST-registered, they’re probably savvy enough to work out how to claim a paltry $4k back at the end of the tax year.  

So as far as a pre-election bribe, the ute tax is only going to be an issue for the masses who don’t use a ute for business but have them as cool cars for the school run, shopping trips and generally as the household primary transport.

And that’s not what utes were built for in the first place really, it just happens to have grown that way because of the law of demand and supply. Consumers demand it, so manufacturers supply it.

Chances are, if films like Back to the Future hadn’t made pickup trucks so cool back in the 80s, we might still be driving around in cars as opposed to utes.   

So, the ute tax then is something of a storm in a pre-election teapot.

The other big disruption in the Kiwi ute market was the arrival of the Volkswagen Amarok – a ute which has still to see New Zealanders get out, drive them and find out for themselves just how good a package this ute is.

No, there isn’t one in our driveway on long term test nor is there any Volkswagen advertising in this magazine, so this is an unbiased consideration.

But in addition to being a good looking and hard-working ute, the Amarok introduces something unusual – sensible ladder progression in the range. Each model’s specification, starts with a very solid base and as you go up the ladder, adds to it incrementally, making sure buyers are getting exactly what they expect without having to add-on cool stuff as optional (cost) extras.

This is a forward thinking, 23rd century postulation reflecting a Star Trek quote from Captain Jean Luc Picard – “In our time, we are no longer obsessed with the acquisition of personal wealth.”

If you substitute ‘personal wealth’ with ‘corporate greed’, you’ll see what I mean about being forward thinking. Wouldn’t it be great if we could think of business as a servant to all instead of the one?  

With upstart brand Volkswagen being the ute news story of the year, what are the Big Guns doing? Well, Ford has just announced a plug-in hybrid Ranger, but it won’t be here until 2025 and Toyota has advised – in addition to the extremely hard-to-get GR Hilux – it will field a diesel electric hybrid version for 2024.

Almost as good as election promises really, but wait, there’s another piece to the puzzle as we have it on good authority there may be other non-ICE arrivals in the ute market coming in before either of the traditional top shot callers have a chance to roll their utes off the ships.