That's your prerogative mate. I just personally don't see the point. Plenty of cars will haul boats, vans have a larger cargo space, etc. In fact, my SUV has as much boot space as my mate's ute, the only difference is he doesn't mind chucking dirt in there, where as I'll use a trailer on the rare occasions I need it.

My whole point of all of this isn't that utes are useless and should be banned or anything, but that they are in most cases not the best vehicle for the job, and people chose them to feel manly or whatever, not because they need one.

Of having large vehicles on the road? Sure, I never claimed I wasn't. But I tend to only use it for long trips with the kids, hauling a trailer or going somewhere I need AWD. The rest of the time, including to and from work, I drive a hatch back that uses 20% the fuel and easier to park.

I personally know two tradies with 4WD vans, and of the builders who worked on our house back when we were building, half had 4WD vans.

Sure, it's just as easy. But then why have a ute with a canopy when a van can hold more cargo, and has a bigger roof for long items like ladders, pipes and wood? And even if we say a canopy is great, most of the actual tradie utes I see don't have any bed cover. The ones with canopys are invariably white collar workers.

Just today, I saw 5 utes with signwriting on my morning commute. One was a landscaper hauling bark, fair enough. The others were a engineer, an farm insurance company, an electrical wholesalers and a power tool salesman. They sure needed those utes didn't they?

And if you’re self employed, you can do whatever you want with your work vehicle.

Of course, although you have to be careful about how to claim the gst and tax on fuel etc. You are supposed to track work-related use separately.

Most tradies are not self employed though. I rarely see sparkies, plumbers or builders driving in their company vehicles during the weekend. I have a sparkie mate, and he's the only one in the whole company who is allowed to use his van for personal use, all the others aren't (except the boss of course).