Filed under: SUVs, Trucks/Pickups, Ford
Ford trolling for new Brazilian products
Ford operates three factories in Brazil where it has a 12% market share. According to a Detroit News article in July, 20% of Ford's 2005 worldwide profit came from its Brazilian operations. But it looks like hefty competition from the usual suspects (Honda, GM, Toyota) have the Blue Oval looking for new product. Thus it's no surprise that Ford of Brazil is in buyout talks with Brazilian automaker Troller Veiculos Especias, Reuters reported Friday.
Troller was founded in 1997 and with its 500 employees turns out about 100 vehicles a month. The company makes two models, the very Jeep Wrangler-like T4 (shown above) and the Pantanal pickup. Both are powered by a 160 HP, four-cylinder, 3-liter, common rail, International turbo-diesel. No word yet on when the deal might conclude or how much it would be worth.
[Source: Reuters via Yahoo, with information from The Detroit News]
The Troller T4
Click above photo for larger version.
The Troller Pantanal
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kowell 6:39PM (11/13/2006)
Daddy look!! It's the Ford Wrangler!!!
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JCWhitless 6:50PM (11/13/2006)
That P/U would make a very interesting Ranger...
And the Yeep with some body tweaks would be a nice, cheap Bronco!!
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Stphane Dumas 7:10PM (11/13/2006)
there also hefty competition against Volkswagen and Fiat who are also very popular in Brazil.
A irony is when Ford do Brasil buyed the Brazilian activities of Willys-Overland do Brazil in 1967, Ford builded some Jeep CJ-5 models to 1983 http://www.film.queensu.ca/cJ3B/World/Brasil.html
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bill 7:27PM (11/13/2006)
maybe they need to work on something that doesn't look like a copy of the Wrangler so they can sell it in the states.
oh, and that thing is ugly
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rob 7:30PM (11/13/2006)
I hope Jeep doesn't see this or that Troller company will be getting sued very, very soon.
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felonious monk 7:30PM (11/13/2006)
"A irony is when Ford do Brasil buyed the Brazilian activities of Willys-Overland do Brazil in 1967"
What??
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Jp 7:44PM (11/13/2006)
How is there no copyright, trademark infringement here?
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Stphane Dumas 8:08PM (11/13/2006)
#6 felonious monk,
when Willys closed its North American automobile operations except for the Jeep in the 1950s, they moved the tooling of the Willys Aero in Brasil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willys Meanwhile, Willys accorded to others manufacturers to built the Jeep CJ-3B under licence, IKA in Argentina, Willys do Brasil for the Brazilian market, Hotchkiss in France, Mahindra for the Indian market and Mitsubishi for the Japanese market! http://www.film.queensu.ca/CJ3B/World.html
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RZ 8:34PM (11/13/2006)
Wow, i am not sure even chinese copy cats would go this far, and they have no limits at all.
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big jimmy 8:40PM (11/13/2006)
looks like the ford yj wrangler and commache, jeep please sue
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El Norte 9:08PM (11/13/2006)
Bloody hell, is that actually a wing on the third picture of the fake YJ?
Ford is doomed.
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riverhead 10:34PM (11/13/2006)
Ford will pay more in legal fees to bring this to the states than the actual buyout of Troller Veiculos Especias.
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Terranismo 11:32PM (11/13/2006)
The Troller uses a Toyota diesel 1KD-FTV (from the Hilux and Fortuner), not an International sourced engine.
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Hamud 5:04AM (11/14/2006)
#13 According to Troller's website it is an MWM-International 3.0 with 163 HP indeed.
Always saw Troller as a copy of the Wrangler, now if it gets bought by Ford I hope they change the face of the car at least.
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Guenther 8:08AM (11/14/2006)
The thing stuck to the back of the hard-top is not a spoiler, but rather a dust deflector. Lots of wagon bodied cars and trucks used to have 'em. Sorry to dis-appoint you all, but DCX cannot sue in this case, because they SOLD the rights to buid the YJ. A few years back they were using the original axles, too, but that looks like it was upgraded so it can share parts with the very common japanese trucks. As for the Pick-up, I'm not sure what that's based on... looks like an old Patrol cab, but they dif is on the wrong side. But that would let them share axles.
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Hank 8:39AM (11/14/2006)
Maybe I'm dense this morning, but what does Ford gain here? A company with 500 employees that output 100 units/month? What's that going to do for them? A plasticrap copy of a Jeep? A pickup that looks like a Russian UAZ vomited on a Dakota?
Am I missing something here?
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Rob 9:36AM (11/14/2006)
What a piece of crap. I can't believe they're going to bring this to america.
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Hamud 10:15AM (11/14/2006)
#17 Are you drunk Rob??? Ford of Brazil is trying to buy this company.
And yes, guess the only thing good on this "jeep copy" car is the engine. It's all made of fiber glass, almost all parts of it console comes from other cars here in Brazil, some from the GOL (VW small car), UNO (Fiat small car, the worst car you could ever see) and other crap cars we have around here.
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me 10:46AM (11/14/2006)
you americans are so arrogant. everything not american is crap. thats why the rest of the world hates you.
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C'est Raoul 10:59AM (11/14/2006)
"Sue! Sue!"
Come on! Stop being dumbasses. Don't you think such a model a the YJ (being built for decades) can be built and sold under license in different markets. India, South America, Asia, East-Europ, it's full of ventures like that, with all makes.
(and it has nothing to do with the US market). There is a world out there, outside your belly button.
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