10 years ago, Brazilians bought more entry-level cars and medium sedans, but SUVs were already growing to take the place of these models
Do you remember 2016? 10 years ago, the ranking of the best-selling cars in the country was still taken by compact hatchbacks, the Toyota Corolla sold more than any SUV and we had the Fiat Toro as the big launch of the year.
The new car market was very different from the current one. Instead of having three compact SUVs in line, Volkswagen had three options for compact hatches. Those looking for an electric car only had the BMW i3 as an option, while among the hybrids there were the Toyota Prius, the Ford Fusion or the BMW i8.
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The most different part was the offer of Chinese cars: Jac, Chery, Lifan, Effa and Geely were the options. In 2016 they were cars that appealed to the cost/benefit ratio because they came well equipped as standard, but had build quality below the national average and poorly prepared network.
None of them appeared among the 50 best-selling cars, the best-placed brand was Lifan with 2,858 registrations throughout the year. It sold less than Suzuki, Volvo and Land Rover. Completely from the current scenario, where BYD, Caoa Chery and GWM sell good cars in volume that surpasses traditional brands.
In 2016 the SUV market was growing, especially after the arrival of the Honda HR-V and the Jeep Renegade the previous year. The big news were the national Jeep Compass, the Nissan Kicks and the third generation of the Tucson.
Even without the number of options we have today, SUVs were already the third best-selling body type in the country. They lost to compact hatches and subcompacts, but have already surpassed medium and compact sedans.
The Caoa group also represented Hyundai, taking care of imports and producing in Anápolis (GO) the three generations of the Tucson along with the HR. Yes, the 2004 Tucson was still in line in 2016 along with the second generation, called here IX35, and the recently launched third with the name All New Tucson.
Today this plant produces only Chery models and Hyundai’s Korean parent company started to run all the brand’s operations here. At the time, the Piracicaba (SP) unit only made the HB20, the Creta only arrived the following year.
The big launch of 2016 was the Fiat Toro. It is a pickup truck derived from the Jeep Compass platform, with an intermediate size between traditional compact and medium with chassis. It didn’t create this formula, as it arrived months after the Renault Oroch, but it did better.
The Toro had a more neat interior and came well equipped. The flex engine was the 1.8 E.Torq, undersized for the model, but it was the one on the shelf. The highlight was the 2.0 turbodiesel, which came with a 9-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive.
The diesel engine bridged the gap between the Toro and the medium-sized ones, offering good performance and low consumption. The monocoque body and independent rear suspension allowed it to run closer to a car, without the skipping of pickups with leaf springs.
The medium-sized segment was also on the rise: practically all of them had a newly launched generation, only the Nissan Frontier was outdated. Diesel engines were more powerful and the cabins were stuffier. Toyota Hilux, Chevrolet S10 and Volkswagen Amarok continue in the generation that was made in 2016.
A trend that was still starting in 2016 was the standardization of multimedia centers. The Chevrolet Onix, which was the best-selling car in Brazil, popularized the equipment by offering the first generation of MyLink in almost the entire line.
The automatic transmission was also becoming standard and with good boxes. Only Peugeot, Citroën and Renault had models with four gears, the standard was already six or the CVT.
For enthusiasts, there were still cars with manual transmissions that were not entry-level models, such as the Honda Fit, the Volkswagen Golf TSI, the Fiat Bravo T-Jet, the Honda Civic Sport, the Toyota Corolla GLI, the Citroën C4 Lounge THP and the Ford New Fiesta. That’s just talking about ordinary cars.
The sports car offers were more comprehensive than the current ones: Renault produced the Sandero R.S., Fiat had the Punto T-Jet and imported the 500 Abarth, Suzuki brought the Swift Sport, Citroën offered the DS3, Subaru imported the WRX and Honda still had units of the Civic Si 2.4 in stock. All with manual transmission. For those who don’t care about it, there were the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Jetta 2.0 TSI.
Thanks to advances in legislation and market competitiveness, current cars are better equipped than those of 2016. The consumer could still arrive at a dealership and leave with entry-level cars without a radio, without air conditioning, without power steering and without front electric windows. The Renault Kwid, the cheapest car in Brazil today, has all this as standard.
Dual airbags and brakes with ABS were already mandatory since 2014. Seeing something more than that on the list of safety items was rare in compact cars. The Toyota Corolla was heavily criticized for not having stability control, for example.
Today cars are better equipped, safer, with more efficient engines. But during these 10 years we lost something that existed in 2016: variety. Even with SUVs in line, brands offered hataches and sedans.
Today SUV options have grown, while hatchbacks have become entry-level cars and compact sedans try to snatch old customers from medium-sized ones. Another standardization was in the offer of the automatic transmission, the manual was left only for entry-level models or for imported sports cars costing more than R$ 400 thousand.
