Way, way, back, a German company called Volkswagen came to Brazil to develop this backwater market. Now, Brazil has overtaken Germany. According to Jato Dynamics consultancy, Brazil has confirmed its position as the fourth largest world market. Read More >

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. Read More >

After testing the Brazilian waters with imported models, and after having received a passing (-by) grade from our man in Brazil, China’s Chery decided to go whole hog and build Cherys in the land of  Samba.  Chery has signed an agreement with the municipality of Jacareí, a city in the interior of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, to set up a car assembly factory in Brazil, reports Macauhub. Read More >

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… Read More >

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? Read More >

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. Read More >

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. Read More >

China’s Chery started selling cars in Brazil last year. They were shipped from a Chery factory in Uruguay. The Brazilians like the cars so much, especially the TIGGO SUV, that Chery decided to drop $700m on the Brazilian market, and to have an assembly plant up and running in Sao Paulo by 2013. Read More >

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! Read More >

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. Read More >

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.” Read More >

As part of our ongoing coverage of the new Fiat Uno, undoubtedly Fiat’s Brazil most important launch yet (see here and here and here, too), not to mention the biggest launch this year in our market, I’m bringing you this little video of the car. Grab your dictionaries and for those of you knowledgeable in Spanish, can you make anything out? Priceless the faces this car provokes on the streets (as you can see at the very end of the video).

Fiat honchos have promised me a car to test drive. Until it happens (the World Cup is over, so things are coming back to normal), take the video like an aperitivo. The video is courtesy of Brazilian website vrum.com.br.

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.

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.” Read More >

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! Read More >