Ford trolling for new Brazilian products

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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


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