Cars, like everything in life, have a lot to do with the environment. This became clearer to me the first time I traveled to the East and my eyes were perplexed by vehicles whose shapes were so foreign to them that my brain was not really capable of digesting them. Until I started to see the architecture, the urban design, the sideboards, the way people dressed. In this place, the extravagantly designed minivans and huge chrome grilles weren’t as out of place as my aesthetic sense insisted on. Japan, China and Korea have cars that in their countries look… I am reluctant to use the word “fine”, so let’s just say, acceptable, when they hardly would be anywhere else. I imagine that the same must happen to an Oriental who travels to the United States for the first time and sees an F-150 Raptor or a Ram TRX. Those pickup full-size, like the oriental minivans, they will hardly find room to flourish other than in North America. And excuse my American friends who believe they own the continent, but Mexico is included in it, even if it doesn’t always have room for toys of that size, just ask the inhabitants of beautiful Guanajuato. And like all countries, Brazil, from where I just returned, has its peculiarities.
It wasn’t something that I realized while living there, but in Brazil the vast majority of cars are small. When you haven’t left a place, what seems normal to you is your surroundings. And it took me more than two decades of living in Mexico to realize that in Brazil, a Ford Ecosport looked like a generously sized pickup truck. It is natural that it be so. The South American country was colonized by the Portuguese when they divided with the Spanish the conquests of distant territories. With the vast majority of its major cities being on the east coast. The distance to the other capitals of the continent, added to the language barrier, isolated the country. The closest thing to the “civilized” world was and is Europe, a six-hour flight from Recife, which is about eight hours by plane from Miami. Not all of them have the luck – or the misfortune, according to some – of being neighbors of the American Union.
What you want and what you can pay for
Of course, the Europeans saw a business opportunity in Brazil, mainly Volkswagen, which began selling the Vocho – there called Fusca or Fusquinha – in 1950 and manufacturing it in 1959, eight years before Mexico. The Americans also settled there and General Motors, that fights for first place with Fiat – current leader – and VW, only has Stellantis as a rival thanks to the incentives that the Lula government got to set up a Jeep factory in Pernambuco. Sure, plus the fact that Fiat bought Chrysler in 2009. The Italians came to Brazil relatively late, in 1976, but they understood so well that what the Brazilians could afford was just what they had to offer, that less than three decades later they had already passed everyone else. Yes, Brazilians like big and powerful cars like everyone else, but they can’t pay for them and they can’t import them like “chocolates”.
This combination of geographic and linguistic isolation with a greater European than American influence – the Asians arrived much more recently – is reflected in the vehicle fleet, which found its own solutions for its needs and budget that were attractive to other markets. The Pointer was the leader on Aztec soil for a couple of years, before its low quality -yes, that was true until just over 10 years ago- knocked it out of the privileged position. EcoSport, also designed and built in Brazil, it only left the lead in Mexico because Ford couldn’t produce enough. Until today, howeverpeople are happy with pickup subcompacts like the Ram 700/Fiat Strada or the VW Saveiro.
Yes, Brazil is a land of small cars, for this reason the Corolla is the car most frequently chosen to be armored, a Civic is considered luxury, the Kwid is seen as Renault wants to market it in Mexico, as a pickup truck. Because they will rarely see it next to a Lobo or a Suburban like here. And for the buying power of most, their first truck isn’t exactly a Duster.
