[1] The company spent US$100 million developing and producing the car, which is heavily based on the second generation Ford Orion, and competed mainly with the Chevrolet Monza in the local market.

[1] In 1986, Argentine and Brazilian subsidiaries of Volkswagen and Ford formed the Autolatina joint venture, leading to a series of badge engineered cars.

[5] Code named Nevada, the Verona development cost US$70,000,000 to Ford do Brasil, and aimed to create a competitive car for the midsize segment without excessive spending, due to the bad financial situation of the subsidiary at the time.

It was considered to build a four-door Ford Orion in Brazil, but two-door sedans were more suitable to local demand, which led to the creation of the Verona.

[3] Base model was the LX and could be equipped with green glasses, rear window defroster, AM/FM stereo and power mirrors, while the GLX was the upscale trim level and could be equipped with fog lights, aluminum wheels, lumbar support adjustment, Bosch radio/cassette player with code to inhibit theft and power mirrors.

In a 1989 road test conducted by a Brazilian magazine, the Verona 1.8 L managed to go from 0 to 100 km/h in 11,72 seconds and reached a maximum speed of 168.3 km/h.

[12] These are shorter gear ratios, stiffer shock absorbers, different dashboard with orange lighting (unlike the Verona, the Apollo do not share its dashboard with the Escort), smoked tail lights very similar to the ones from the Ford Sapphire, chrome-less rear window frames, fixed-height front seats, painted mirrors (GLS trim) and airfoil.

Both Verona and Apollo had cambering issues as well, partially due to rear suspension's project that was not adequately designed for a saloon.

[15] The Verona discontinued in 1992 was relaunched in late 1993, this time sharing its body style with the third generation Ford Orion and only available as a four-door sedan.

[1] That same year, a new version was added to the line, the sportier 2.0i S, available with Recaro seats, air conditioning, cassette player and disc brakes in four wheels.