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 Even
the most experienced driver, totally familiar with their present car,
needs to adjust very quickly to the workings of a newly acquired model.
Evidently, after first taking delivery of the replacement model the
owner will at first be struggling to adjust and deal with all the new
high-tech features.
So, to drive the new vehicle with complete comfort and safety it is
advisable to learn and fully comprehend most, if not all, the new
features.
With all that taken on board, the driver will be comfortably settled in
the new car rather quickly.
Failing that, the maiden journey from dealer premises to home could
conceivably turn into a hazardous journey.
Brazil’s car market, after decades of next to no change, has also
undergone a profound sea change.
Almost overnight, it seems, the changes ended a cosy carmaking oligopoly
in Latin America’s biggest market.
Volkswagen and Fiat, effectively calling the shots there for decades,
while making the most of their Brazilian cash cow, appear to have been
caught on the hop.
Like a rabbit mesmerised by the headlights of a speeding car, both
Volkswagen and Fiat appear to have been taken by surprise.
Korea’s Hyundai in particular, has brought about the change.
So as not to get caught out by Brazil’s high vehicle import tariffs,
Hyundai went straight into the deep end.
It built a proper car manufacturing plant in what long-looked like
Fiat’s and Volkswagen’s backyard.
Vital homework done, its first Brazilian-made car turned into an instant
hit with locals.
For Volkswagen and Fiat, Hyundai’s arrival in force was reminiscent
of dropping the cat among the pigeons.
The impact was the same; a dose of painful bloodletting.
Hyundai, in what seems little more than the blink of eye, is mopping up
valuable market share chiefly at their expense.
Judged by the latest state of play, the question is not if, but when
Hyundai will dethrone Brazil’s previously long-ruling car sales Kings.
That’s not to say that this unfolding path of events is inevitable.
Of course not.
Fiat, quick to act, already gave notice that it is not willing to
relinquish its commanding and long-profitable standing in Brazil’s car
market without a fight.
To its credit, wobbling Fiat already produced an ace from its sleeve.
Fighting fire with fire, its small and yet most capable Jeep Renegade is
built in Brazil at what Fiat describes as its most
technologically-advanced and sustainable automotive plant in the world.
Construction at the all-new €1.3bn automotive plant only began in
September 2012 and when completed it will form the centre of a
highly-integrated automotive hub with an annual capacity of 250,000
cars.
Latest car sales data says that the global SUV-Crossover bug has now
also affected Brazil’s otherwise reluctant new car buyers.
Given that Fiat’s Brazil-made Renegade, thanks to its new cutting-edge
manufacturing facility, will likely be made cost-effectively, it is also
bound to be heading en-masse to other Mercosur markets.
Once again, it seems, predictions of Fiat’s, or for that matter
Chrysler’s early death are rather premature.
Likelihood now is that Fiat’s recent demise in Brazil will likely give
way to a vigorous bounce back.
Fiat-Chrysler-Chief Sergio Marchionne said as much. Speaking only
recently about Fiat’s brand new Pernabuco car plant Marchionne said in
Brazil “we expect to sell more than 1.3 million cars by 2018”.
In Brazil, Volkswagen is facing the same rough seas as Fiat and that
inevitably raises the question of Volkswagen’s response to Fiat’s
Brazilian rescue plan
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