Just got back from 2 weeks in Salvador de Bahia Brazil. All kinds of VW stuff (I have some pics) but no diesel cars. My brother (temporary resident of Brazil) tells me no diesel cars because of tax breaks on the price of diesel to subsidize trucks. saw NO mark2 cars. saw aircooled beetles and vans, same vans with water cooled engines still made in 2011. I'll post a link to the local version of Kijiji when I get the other computer fired up. Pictures of pickups, big trucks, and buses by VW too.
Food was great!
<a href="
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46374047@N05/8585738424/" title="spacefox 1 by fakebook1, on Flickr
I'm having a heck of a time trying to load pictures, but this will get you to the page. Thought I had more than this.... some were taken by my son on the fly in the pickup and are pretty blurry.
In Brazil, they made some sort of "commercial vehicle," looked kind of like one of those cab-over-engine box trucks, that was powered by a VW 1.6 diesel. I've seen pictures. It looked exasperatingly slow. They also had some sort of Jeep like vehicle that had like a 3 liter, 4 cylinder turbo diesel and 5 speed. DO WANT!!! I think you could get the same engine in the Ford Ranger there (and in most of latin america).
Did you see any Ladas? I actually kind of like them.
Huh, I knew the beetle lived on later, and some of the 80's water cooled stuff, but not the Bus.
Wonder why more newer parts for that kinda stuff don't end up over here?
I ship stuff all over the world at work, isn't that hard. Only a few countries are
picky about "used auto parts".
I think the Bus... actually lived longer than the Beetle. They're still used as fleet vehicles in those countries where they were recently sold.
The ones in pictures that you see, that have the black plastic grilles, are water cooled. The ones that don't are air cooled. I think they were produced somewhat concurrently.
In Brazil, they made some sort of "commercial vehicle," looked kind of like one of those cab-over-engine box trucks, that was powered by a VW 1.6 diesel. I've seen pictures. It looked exasperatingly slow. They also had some sort of Jeep like vehicle that had like a 3 liter, 4 cylinder turbo diesel and 5 speed. DO WANT!!! I think you could get the same engine in the Ford Ranger there (and in most of latin america).
Did you see any Ladas? I actually kind of like them.
The jeep type thing is called a Troller, built on a ranger chassis. Company went broke, but Ford (after being pushed by the Brazillian government) bought it out and is still producing the vehicle. (My brother is down there as a ford engineer, only reason I went). He's driving a four door four wheel drive diesel ranger, same engine and chassis. Won't pass emissions in north america. He's talking about buying a troller and driving it home when he's done there, about an 8 or 10 thousand mile trip. Might be fun.....
Saw one Puma one night in a parking lot at a restaurant, not sure if it was air cooled vdub or chevy powered.