Also, in 1928, a rubber plantation village was open in Pará to supply tires and other parts, called Fordlândia.

The Corcel was one of the most popular cars in the 1970s, it sold well as a four-door sedan and the two-door coupe was launched for younger buyers.

Of those the more prestigious was the Ford Corcel GT with more power, a black hood and aggressive looking racing stripes on the sides.

When Chevrolet launched the Opala in 1968, and it proved to be very popular in both the 2-door and 4-door models, Ford needed urgently a competitive replacement for the outdated Aero.

It received the Taubaté 2.3L 4-cylinder engine in 1975 and was heavily revised in 1977 but sales still declined and the Ford Maverick was quietly discontinued in 1979.

During the world oil shock of the 1970s, Brazil began what is now a thriving industry of ethanol fuels extracted from sugar cane.

The difficult economic situation in South America in the 1980s due to astronomic inflation rates forced manufacturers to look into options that would help to save money.

The Brazilian and Argentine subsidiaries of Ford and Volkswagen decided to merge into a new holding, named AutoLatina, in 1987.

Each brand maintained their own corporate image, the marketing and sales structures, as well as independent dealerships and service shops.

The joint car project resulted in new models like the Ford Verona (known as Volkswagen Apollo) that was launched in 1989.

In 1990 the Ford Versailles (a facelifted version of the Volkswagen Santana), was launched in an increasingly more positive economical climate.

This was partly due to the 75th anniversary of Ford do Brasil and partly because the dwindling sales figures on Ford's end prompted the American carmaker to seek independence from Volkswagen, to regain total control over all operations and to apply the lean production methods that had improved competitiveness in their home market.