Volkswagen Brasilia

On September 1970, Volkswagen of Brazil's president Rudolf Leiding, made a challenge for the company's major designers. He wanted to recreate the Beetle but with a Brazilian flair and with the Brazilian market in mind. That car was the Volkswagen Brasília

At the time, the Beetle, the Bus and the Karmann-Ghia were the only air-cooled VWs that proved successful in Brazil. For Leiding, the new Volkswagen should be practical, economical and larger than the Beetle as well as utilize reliable German engineering.

In three months, more than 40 prototypes were made, most of them with bold designs, with wide, inclined windshields. But the prototypes were expensive and VW was looking for a new cheap car, to compete with the brand new Chevette, from Chevrolet.

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Recent Changes
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Styles and Major Options
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Pricing
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Gas Mileage
The 1974 Volkswagen Brasilia, with dual carburetors, could run 10.4 km with one liter of gasoline on a highway. The urban fuel consumption is around 14km/L.

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As seen on the FuelEconomy.gov website, the City/Highway MPG averages are as follows:

Engine and Transmission
At it's debut, the Brasilia had a 4-cylinder, air-cooled boxer engine with one carburetor. The rear-engine, rear-wheel drive had a gearbox with 4 speeds. In the 80's, Volkswagen also offered an alcohol-engine option, with 1300cm³ and 49HP.

Performance
The brazilian car magazine Quatro Rodas made a comparative test between the VW Brasilia and it's main competitor, the GM Chevette, in March 1980. In the accelaration test, Chevette proved to be more quick than the air-cooled VW: as the Chevrolet took 19,7 seconds to go from 0 to 100km/h, the Brasilia did the same thing, but with 23 seconds. Chevette's max speed was 138km/h and Brasilia could reach only 129km/h. At the fuel consumption test, the Chevrolet won again, making 15,4km/L. The Volkswagen ran 13,4km/L on that day. Due to it's rear-engine rear-drive, the car wasn't very stable at high speeds and some Brasilia owners modified the car's suspension to make the VW lower (and than less unstable). Some people also changed the 5,90 x 14 original tires to 175/80-14 radial tires. To stop the car, Brasilia was equipped with disk brakes on the front wheels and drum brakes on the rear wheels.

Reliability
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Safety
At 1977, Brasilia started to use dual circuit brakes and it's steering wheel was modified to be safer in case of collision.

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Main Competitors
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Hybrid Models
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Unique Attributes
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Interior
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Worldwide
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Design quirks and oddities
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Awards
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