The Holden Ute is a coupe utility built by Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors since 2000. Before then, Holden marketed their Commodore-based utility models as the Commodore Utility. Even before 2000, the Holden Ute name was widely used because the word "ute" is a colloquial term used commonly in Australia for a utility vehicle or pickup truck. Holden's performance division, an independent company called HSV assembles a high-performance version called the Maloo. Between 2003 and 2007, Holden built a stretched, crew cab version of the Ute with four doors and seating for five, called the Holden Crewman and between 2003 and 2005 a alloy tray version known as the Holden One tonner.
The Ute launched with a locally-built 3.8 litre Ectotec V6 engine of Buick design. A 5.7 litre Generation III V8 engine option was also available, but this was replaced by the 6.0 litre Generation 4 in 2006, and updated to the L98 specification later on that year. In 2004, Holden replaced the venerble V6 with a 3.6 litre Alloytec unit.
The Australian-assembled Ute will be sold in the United States as the Pontiac G8 ST starting in 2008 along side the four-door Commodore-based G8 sedan.
