Brazilian '76 Ford F-100 Bumpside factory-fitted with the 2.3L OHC 4-cylinder engine

It's already well reported the Brazilian production run of the full-size Ford trucks/utes/bakkies usually were one or two generations behind their international counterparts, so the Bumpside arrived only after its phaseout in the United States, and actually soldiering on for a timeframe of three generations until it was replaced by the Bricknose, which on its turn had already been superseded by the Aeronose which had a much shorter production run in Brazil. Among some features exclusive to Brazil, both in order to keep up with local content regulations and to save on expensive retoolings of its Ipiranga factory which was located in the Ipiranga borough of São Paulo city, there was a 4-cylinder version of the F-100 with the 2.3L OHC engine made in Taubaté from '76 to '85. The oil crisis was hitting hard in Brazil, where the F-100 used to be fitted only with Y-Block V8 engines prior to a local introduction of the 2.3L OHC, and a Diesel derivative named F-1000 which in fact was basically some sort of short-body equivalent to the American F-250 featuring an outsourced 4-cylinder engine meant for agricultural machinery quickly tuned for truck usage to address an urgent need for increased fuel efficiency back in '79.

Most Americans often think I'm saying in jest whenever I mention the 4-cyl version of the F-100, which also had the option for gasoline or ethanol-powered trims of the OHC engine, while it's much easier (or less difficult) to spot the gasser. That's precisely the case of this '76 F-100, which I quickly recognised as the 4-cylinder version due to the badge on both sides of the bonnet. Odd enough, no 6-cylinder was available for the Bumpside Ford in Brazil until a 221cu.in. (3.6L) Thriftpower Six made in Argentina started being imported from Argentina to Brazil in the early '80s for an ethanol-powered version of the F-1000 which in fact never outsold its Diesel-powered counterpart. And even the F-100 started to have a lower sales volume at that moment due to competition with the Diesel-powered F-1000 in a Brazil, so the limited availability of the 4-cylinder F-100 through an entire 20-year Brazilian production run of the Bumpside Ford from '72 to '92 already makes it quite rare, not to mention some conversions to either V8 (usually the 302 Windsor) or Diesel which also had their peaks of popularity. 

The owner of this '76 F-100 told me the truck has been with his family since new, bought by his father who also owned a Maverick with this same engine (also in a Brazilian specific version). He also told me the truck was never restored, which is even more impressive for a nearly 50-years old truck. And one thing I'm sure, such a rare Brazil-specific trim of the Bumpside Ford will definitely catch attention even from a Chevrolet-loving redneck, such as myself...

The 2nd-generation Chevrolet Trailblazer is an example of why it was a bad move from GM to retreat from most right-hand drive markets

Initially released in 2012, made initially in Thailand and Brazil with additional production in India and Russia added at a later stage, the 2nd-generation Chevrolet Trailblazer has been made since 2020 only in Brazil, and received another refresh for the 2025 model-year, including independent rear suspension which improved the riding comfort compared to previous model-years which still had a rear solid axle just like the Chevrolet Colorado truck it derived from. Having been fitted with 2.5L and 2.8L 4-cylinder turbodiesel engines in Thai and Indian versions, with a 3.6L gasoline-powered V6 available in the Thai model as an export-only option which had also been offered in Brazilian and Russian trims, since 2020 it has been made only in Brazil, and at least since 2022 with the 2.8L turbodiesel exclusively, after GM retreated from most right-hand drive markets including Thailand and Australia. It might be perceived by some folks as "outdated", but it's still among the best of its class, and now with independent suspension all-around it would be still desirable in some markets where GM unfortunately retreated, not limited to Australia or Thailand where the Chevrolet Colorado was also available (rebadged as a Holden for the Australian market as usual) but also in South Africa and India where GM retreated earlier in late-2017 while Isuzu kept making its badge-engineered versions of the Chevrolet Colorado and Trailblazer. All while Chinese companies such as SAIC and Liuzhou Wuling which already had some affiliation with GM took over some of its former branches in countries such as India...

Was the Volkswagen Kombi at some moment more relevant than the Beetle itself?

It's undeniable there would be no Kombi without the Beetle, but it's quite obvious the boxy bodyshell of the good ol' Kombi took the versatility of the Volkswagen air-cooled engine and rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout to a further extent. From a small cargo freighter to a family hauler before minivans were so widespread, going further to become the perfect mobile lodging for hippies, ultimately the Kombi made itself as much famous as the Beetle, and maybe was favored by some more lenient regulations to which a commercial vehicle could get away with. But ultimately, how accurate could it be to claim the Kombi took over some of the appreciation which was supposed to be most devouted to the Beetle?

It's worth to notice how the Kombi effectively outlived the Beetle on regular production worldwide, and even the outdated Brazilian facelifted Kombi from '76 to '96 retained a foothold on CKD assemblies for markets where its European and South African replacements were deemed too expensive to be a viable contender against an emerging competition from Japanese and Korean automakers in the '70s and '80s, even in Indonesia where in '85 the Kombi assembled from Brazilian CKD kits was the only Volkswagen model available prior to the brand being phased out to only return to Indonesia in the '90s without the Brazilian Kombi or the Mexican Beetle, and less commited to its roots as the people's car. Meanwhile in Brazil, as the Beetle had been phased out in '86 to only resume production from '93 to '96 on what got known as the Itamar series due to direct involvement of former Brazilian president Itamar Franco, the Kombi remained the only true-blooded rear-engined Volkswagen in Brazil from '86 to '93, and started to face serious competition for the first time in '90 when restrictions on vehicle imports implemented in '76 were finally lifted by former president Fernando Collor de Mello, paving the way for imported vans such as Korean copies of the Mazda Bongo to a Spanish-made Mercedes-Benz which had its fair share of the market for ambulances in the '90s. And even the return of the Beetle to the Brazilian market was conditioned to the Kombi receiving the same benefits provided for the Beetle under the people's car program, to which an amendment had to be made so the air-cooled 1.6L engine would be in pair with liquid-cooled 1.0L engines from then-modern compact cars in order to qualify for a lower taxation.

Sure from a logistical standpoint it would make more sense to import a few Mexican Beetles, where it was only phased out in 2003, than to resume production in Brasil for only 3 years from late-'93 until mid-'96, in contrast to the Kombi which against all odds soldiered on until 2013 in Brazil after fewer updated which included the replacement of the air-cooled engine for a water-cooled 1.4L EA-111 in a flexfuel trim which enabled it to run on gasoline and ethanol either pure or blended. Maybe it was much easier for most people on the market for a compact car to transition from the Beetle to whichever could be deemed more modern, while the Kombi still influenced even its Japanese contenders which tended to retain the forward-control configuration, despite retaining a conservative front-engine, rear-wheel drive configuration which would trade-off some mild off-road ability to easier access to the loading bay. In the end, even though the Beetle and its worldwide success paved the way for the Kombi, later on it was proven harder to single-out an effective replacement for the Beetle other than the Kombi itself under some specific circumstances where the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout remained favorable for driving through rough terrain, and ultimately the Kombi remained relevant as some of its more serious contenders still drew inspiration from its design somehow.

Brazilian Chevrolet Alvorada

Brazilian car manufacturing history had its fair share of country-specific models, often dictated by some local content regulations when production volumes and the overall economy didn't seem to justify much investment to keep up with the same standards of other markets which were either more mature or less strict to a higher foreign content. A good example of such was the Chevrolet Alvorada (Sunrise), which was a double-cab derivative of the Chevrolet 3100 Brasil. Applying some styling cues of the Task Force series to the same cabin of the previous Advance Design series, the Chevrolet Brasil series ran from '58 until '64 when it was replaced by the first local variant of the C-Series, and the Alvorada ran from '61 to '63. It was only factory-fitted with the 4-bearing 261cu.in. straight-6 gasoline engine and a 3-speed manual transmission, but this '63 Chevrolet Alvorada that I spotted at the parking lot of Fenac in Novo Hamburgo at the Expoclassic 2024 had been converted to Diesel, most likely with a Perkins engine such as the 4-236 or Q20B which were offered in Brazilian versions of the C-Series through the '80s until mid-'90s.