It’s been a while since we perused Gumtree, the Australian analog to Craigslist, for a set of wheels. While there is plenty of quiet complaining about American cars heading over to Europe, you don’t nearly hear as much about people bringing in cars from Australia that are worthy. Japan, yeah, but not Aussie metal, and that’s a shame in our eyes. It might have something to do with us drooling over the forbidden fruits via YouTube videos for years, possibly. The concept for the Rough Start abroad program is fairly simple: using the currency conversion at the moment we find the vehicle, we do our best to stick with the $5,000 vehicle acquisition budget, but given the nature of such a buy, we do get a little loose with the price point if something really catches our eye. We also hunt for vehicles 25 years or older because of the annoying import rule the United States has regarding vehicles. Caught up? Cool…now let’s take a look at today’s find.

What we have here is a 1979 Holden Ute…er, flatbed. This is a solid, basic Holden car, which means 202ci inline-six, four-speed manual trans, two seats, and from the doorhandles forward, a passenger car. The front nose clip has been replaced to an older Holden HQ piece, which is an aesthetic upgrade from the original HZ nose. The flatbed out back is a useful piece, but it is a bit uninspiring…a good custom flatbed would look much better. The body is fairly straight and we don’t know if the ‘roo bar up front would come in the deal or not. Could you enjoy the HZ as it is? Yeah…but would you leave the six in it? A stout small-block would be nice. But if you chose to bring this Holden stateside, you could do whatever you wished. As for price, here’s the breakdown in U.S. Dollars: $4,183 is the asking price, and from where we sit, we’d pay it on the spot. It looks like a nice driver, the body is straight and we don’t see any rust. What would you do with it?

Gumtree Link: 1979 Holden HZ Ute