Subjectivist wrote:Tanada wrote:good video albeit a little frightening in terms of how dedicated our species is to spreading car culture to the furthest ends of the Earth. No wonder China is internally consuming 20 million new vehicles a year as well as importing a few million more to offset the millions they are themselves building for export at very low prices to growing neighbors and markets in Africa.
I was a little surprised to see the Brazil numbers being so high. I am conditioned to think of South America as a consumer market but not a consumer producer, if that makes any sense.
Brazilians have had a huge domestic car manufacturing industry since the 1970s, the same goes for electronics, domestic appliances, bicycles, and a number of other products. This is a consequence of the fact that the government charged humongous import taxes on many industries during the military dictatorship to promote the development of domestic options.
When I was a kid it was very normal for members of the Uruguayan middle class to go to the Brazilian border once or twice a year and buy food, clothing, appliances, bicycles, TVs, stereos, etc. because they were very cheap and of a decent quality. Brazilian cars, light trucks, and motorcycles were also very popular in Uruguay in the 70s and 80s.
The Brazilian VW Beetle was the most common car in South America for decades, I remember that in Peru in the late 80s the VAST MAJORITY of the cars were Brazilian VW Beetles. Now almost all cars, trucks, and motorcycles in Uruguay are Japanese, Korean, or European. American cars were not popular because they used too much gas, and gasoline was very expensive there, and still is in many Latin American countries. Most cars in those countries are compacts and subcompacts, and very fuel efficient.
