Again a international Motor Company exercises their insatiable appetite for control for the market and their dissatisfaction with any attempt of coming of the new and the independent in the automobile industry domestic and through out the world.
As it happened with the American “Tucker” auto maker in the 40’s in the USA and later on in the late sixties and early seventies with the brasilian auto company DKW Vemag.The DKW cars were made in São Paulo, Brasil, by a group called Vemag (Veículos e Máquinas Agrícolas S/A). Until the association with Auto Union, in 1956, Vemag imported and provided parts for Studebaker and Scania-Vabis in all over the country. It was a time of fast industrialization. The first DKW-Vemag model, launched towards the end of 1956, was a little station wagon with a three-cylinder two-stroke engine, 900cc and 40 bhp. This car would be called "Vemaguet". Two years later, DKW-Vemag begun the production of a sedan four door (almost like the Sonderklasse), and also the Candango off-roader (it was known in Germany as the Munga).
In 1960, the brazilian DKW cars had been equipped with the same 980cc and 50 bhp engine from the German Auto Union 1000. A lot of modifications took place during the following years. By the `60s DKW was one of the most popular cars in the country.
The DKW Sedan was renamed to Belcar. At races, DKW had a lot of success and soon a sport prototype, named Malzoni was created. The most interesting Vemag model was the Fissore - an elegant and expensive two door sedan designed in Italy that used DKW parts. This car was made only in Brazil (between 1964 and 1967), but "carozzeria Fissore" also created different models for Auto Union in Germany and in Argentina.
Unfortunately, the financial administration of Vemag wasn`t as good as the cars. In 1967, Volkswagen do Brasil took control of DKW-Vemag. The assembly lines were dismantled to produce the Volkswagen 1600 boxy sedan (an ugly version of the VW Notchback). At the same time, VW bought Auto Union in Germany.
And as VW did with this brasilian concurrent the Ford motor company is now doing it again with another national auto maker; after acquiring the Troller SA; that that was a very successful constructor of all terrain vehicles and was based in the northeastern state of Ceará, now as VW did with Vemag and it’s cars that had the quality of making between 19 and 25 kilometers with a liter of gasoline;Ford is attempting to get rid of all memories of the Troller vehicles in the hands of brasilians and destroying them under the allegation that they have flaws and are unsafe under extreme circumstances.
The memory lane bring me back that after the demise of the very economical Vemag vehicles come the first oil embargo that catapulted the prices of gasoline and started a world wide shortage of oil and the advent of The Oil Embargo” in the 1970’s and at least in Brasil, the most economical vehicles were The VW Bug (just a coincidence) and the Ford Corcel, both vehicles never did more then 10 kilometers per liter.
And now for some reason that I repute insidious; Ford decided to throw in the oblivion those very reliable and never before questioned about their stability, frame or suspension integrity vehicles; I do believe that this act of aggressive business cannibalism has deepest meaning then the simple end of a concurrent ; it symbolizes the power and the supremacy of a company that represents a image of a country against the weakness and prostitution of another inferior one.
If I owed a Troller vehicle I would keep it no just to state a independent moral point; but also because the less they are more value is added to the ones that exist.
