VW Launches Aventureiro Version Of Its Most Popular Brazilian Model

Quite of few of you have asked me to do a history of VW do Brasil’s most sold car ever: the Gol. No mean feat, considering the runner-up is probably still the Beetle. I’m currently working on a history of the car (that I hope will be up soon), but as an appetizer, let’s check out VeeDub’s latest Brazilian offering. If you happen to like it, it’s an intriguing piece of work. If you don’t, you’ll probably think it’s just confused.

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Brazil: VW And GM Squander Brand Equity

Wolfsburg must be fuming. Among all the good news coming in from all corners of the earth, there’s a market that insists on being the proverbial thorn in their side. That’d be my little ole Brazil, which is, en passant, the world’s fourth largest. And it’s a market where Volkswagen has been nearly forever. Well-known Brazilian automotive journalist Fernando Calmon, writing for the just-auto website, reports a major shakeup in automotive brand values in Brazil (can you feel the ground shaking a little?). Mr. Calmon, citing the Brand Finance consultancy, reports that the most valuable car brand in Brazil is…

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Brazil in August 2010: Tudo Azul

Contrary to English, “azul” or blue has positive connotations in Portuguese (yes Brazilians speak Portuguese not Spanish – close, but no potatoes). “Tudo azul” means everything is fine, the road is clear. Maybe a close equivalent would be that line in that old song, nothing but blue sky. According to the giant Brazilian web providers UOL’s site, August has again recorded record car sales in Brazil. The market was up 3.99 percent on the month (good for a total of more than 296 thousand), but better yet, it was up 19.82 percent on August of 2009. Year-to-date, the market is up an even more impressive 27.68 percent!

As you’ve been reading my columns, you all know we’ve been watching closely the Gol versus Uno fight for first place. Can you guess who came out on top?

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VW And Peugeot Do Brasil: We've Got The Pickup Blues

The first few months after the launch of a new product is seen as critical by car makers. This is the time they take the pulse of the market and determine whether or not the product struck a chord and is going to be a hit or not. Well, venturing bravely into new territory in Brazil, you would not be wrong if you said that Peugeot and VW swung and missed. Peugeot’s Hoggar and Volkwagen’s Amarok are going nowhere fast and are making their makers feel the blues.

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Citron Launches Crazy Exclusive Model for (Wacky? Tacky?) Brazilian Taste

It all started back in the late 90s when Brazilian Fiat (possibly inspired by the Volvo Cross Country) decided it would launch a car that looks like and off-road car, but that really doesn’t want to be taken off-road. They called it the Fiat Palio Weekend Adventure (station wagon) and Fiat Strada Adventure. You see, Brazilians are crazy for what we call jipes (get where that comes from?), but SUV type vehicles remain positively out of the range of the average Brazilian wallets. So tack on some plastic cladding, raise the suspension a few inches, maybe throw in some mixed terrain tires, and there you have it. The recipe for what is called in the Brazilian market an aventureiro. Though not restricted to our market, this gimmick has really caught on down here. It’s our creation. It’s our obsession.

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Brazil in July 2010: Up, Up and Away!

Up on the month! Up on the year! Second best month of the year! Cars now selling more than before, even with incentives gone! Wow, our tropical wonderland just gets better and better. Sales are up 15.27 percent on June and 4.27 percent better than the same month last year, for a grand total of 285,299 (according to Brazilian car mag’s Quatro Rodas website). Comparing to the last two months ( here and here), both month-to-month and year-to-year (8.48 percent better) numbers register positively. However, incentives are gone, so naturally sales should be down. Not! Now, I’ve read far and wide on Brazilian internet sites, car rags and whatnot, and nobody has had the guts to explain what’s going on. So I’ll call like it is (or, at least as I see it). There’s a new phenomenon out there. I’m branding it the Uno effect. Not to be modest, but I called it first ( here and here). I want my laurels!

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Toyota Shells Out Big Bucks: 600 Million For Third Brazilian Factory

It’s a little known fact, but Toyota’s first factory abroad was in Brazil. Toyota started producing their Bandeirante (known elsewhere as Land Cruiser, full history here) locally in CKD mode in 1958. In 1962, the factory in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo state was inaugurated. There, Toyota do Brasil produced the 4WD, almost unchanged, until the year 2000. The site is still productive, but now only makes parts. In the 90s, they inaugurated another factory in Indaiatuba, SP state, too, to produce the Corolla. In September, construction of the third Toyota factory in Brazil will begin in Sorocaba, São Paulo state.

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Brazil Goes Gaga Over Imports

There seems to be no end for the good news for German (and assorted Asian) companies. Paulo Kakinoff, president of Audi do Brasil, declared to Brazilian car enthusiast site Webmotors that “logistics for importing motor vehicles is overburdened and factories abroad cannot serve all markets”. José Luiz Gandini, president of Kia do Brasil and Abeiva (Association of Car Importing Companies) said to said site: “It’s common for the customer to wait 60 days for a car.”

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Brazilians Celebrate The World Cup With Their Cars

Now that the World Cup is reaching its end, and Brazil has been eliminated, traffic is getting back to normal. Not to mention safer because authorities usually turn a blind and sympathetic eye to some traffic violations perpetrated in the name of the sport. Can’t stop the celebrations! Anyway, during this month-long event whenever you went out driving you’d see people draping their cars in the flag, putting little flags on the doors and other “decorations”. It’s rather interesting to see import driving Brazilians being so nationalistic. Funny thing was, as soon as Brazil was eliminated, the flags disappeared. This I guess is the norm for talking badly about our country, among ourselves and to foreigners, too (though to a lesser extent) is a national pastime. Do Brazilians only love their country in victory? Are we only patriotic in World Cup times?

The video is courtesy of Brazilian car rag Auto Esporte’s website.

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Brazilian Smart Is Ever So Smart

Smart is such a nice little word. It has so many different meanings. So it’s fun to play with and show just how smart you really are. For example, I could have titled this post: Smart Makes Smart Car for Smart People with Smart Money. Or: Smart Makes Smart Car Move. Or even: Smart Makes Smart Marketing Moves. However, I´ll stick with the title as is since Smart is proving itself so smart in the Brazilian market. In more ways than one. One of the synonyms for Smart is “on the ball.”

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Brazil In June 2010: Flip Flopping

In Brazil sales numbers are also coming in. See tables below. The story is the opposite of last month. This time around: month to month, good; year to year, bad. Flip flop!

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Brazil Gets New Punto. Or Old? Well, It's Complicated

Fiat do Brasil launched today the Punto in 2011 guise. It’s all about the engines man! Out goes GM’s very-long-in-the-tooth and old-school, not to mention wasteful and power-challenged 1.8L mill, and in come new 1.6 and 1.8L (both with 16v) lumps. So all good and new. Right? Not so fast…

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GM Invests $1.1 Billion. In Brazil

GM is tired of playing third fiddle in the growth market of Brazil. Come on, being outdone by Italians and Germans? Gotta pay to play, so GM do Brasil announced a new investment package for operations in Brazil. That according to car site Webmotors. The money will be pouring in to the tune of R$2 billion or US$1.1b. GM corporate honchos said R$1.4 billion (US$777 million) will go to raise production capacity and modernize its plant in Gravataí, Rio Grande do Sul. The gaúcho plant now produces the Celta and derivatives. The objective, according to the suits, is to (finally!) retire the Celta line in Brazil and other emerging markets and substitute it with the Onyx family line. Will that get GM ahead?

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Brazil in May 2010: Top Selling Cars and Makes

As reported earlier, sales in Brazil in May were a mixed bag. Compared to April, sales slid 9.6 percent (from 278,000 vehicles in April, to 251,000 last month). However, on a year to year basis, sales managed an improvement of 1.7 percent over May 2009. The first five months of 2010 are still going at a record-breaking, best-ever pace (according to Brazilian enthusiast site bestcars.com.br). With the end of incentives clearly causing strain, the question is: How long?

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Review: 2010/2011 Renault Logan Expression 1.0 16v (Brazilian)

One of the reasons I jumped at the chance when invited to write for this site was that I thought there would be a lot of chances to discuss the many fundamental differences between driving in the Southern hemisphere of this world and the Northern one. One big difference is that our cars are small. Why? Taxes. Why? Only Brazilians are passive enough to take this lying down. Although continental in size, Brazil limits itself to driving puny 1.0L engines (almost 50 percent of our market). You might as well think that doesn’t work. Well, it’s time to find out.

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  • ArialATOMV8 All I hope is that the 4Runner stays rugged and reliable.
  • Arthur Dailey Good. Whatever upsets the Chinese government is fine with me. And yes they are probably monitoring this thread/site.
  • Jalop1991 WTO--the BBB of the international trade world.
  • Dukeisduke If this is really a supplier issue (Dana-Spicer? American Axle?), Kia should step up and say they're going to repair the vehicles (the electronic parking brake change is a temporary fix) and lean on or sue the supplier to force them to reimburse Kia Motors for the cost of the recall.Neglecting the shaft repairs are just going to make for some expensive repairs for the owners down the road.
  • MaintenanceCosts But we were all told that Joe Biden does whatever China commands him to!