April Fools’ Day: 5 cars launched in Brazil that look like April 1st | Fun facts about cars

In day April 1stknown as “April Fools’ Day”, you have to walk on eggshells when reading the news or receiving “information” from friends. A prank could be waiting to catch you. But some things are really true, even if we don’t want them to be. In the automotive industry, many cars that arrived in stores could have been nothing more than a joke on this date.

Thinking about that, Autosport lists models that would not be missed on the market. Among them, we have Chinese clones, a car that looks like a panda bear, a sports car with no power and a premium hatch that plugged the hole. Check out:

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The Chinese automotive industry didn’t start in the last decade, but it was then that it became popular. Brands from the Asian country were not known for their creativity. On the contrary, they made “clones” of known models. And that’s how the Lifan 320, a kind of Mini Cooper that could be sold on Rua 25 de Março, in São Paulo (SP). It was small and of dubious quality, so much so that few are seen on the streets today.

In 2009, Chevrolet needed a premium hatch to take on models like the Volkswagen Polo and Ford Fiesta. The Corsa was aging and the Onix was still in development. The solution? O Agile.

The car with a rather dubious appearance was built on the platform of the old Corsa, from the B generation launched in Brazil in 1994 (the older one was the C). The result of this was a car that was cramped, weak and difficult to drive. It was not successful, despite remaining in line until 2016, when it still coexisted with the first generation of Onix.

Another Chinese copy, but now closer to reality. The Chery QQ was a clone of the Chevrolet Matiz, which we didn’t have in Brazil, but with proportions and appearance almost identical to the original car. However, it suffered from the same problem as the Lifan 320: lack of quality. The car was too weak for our streets until it sold well as it was the cheapest on the market. Still, it’s not very common to see a fully functioning example nowadays.

Geely’s attempt to enter Brazil was short-lived. One of the bets was with the little EC3, a compact hatchback with the face of a panda bear that was assembled in Uruguay. But it also didn’t endear itself to the Brazilian public. It sold little. And the brand’s adventure in the country was also brief. Therefore, very few models are seen on the streets today.

The three-door coupe was a rage. The Veloster’s sporty look caught attention and sold a lot, but some consumers fell for Hyundai’s April 1 prank. At the time, the announcement said that the The car was equipped with a 1.6 turbo engine producing 140 hp.. In fact, the propellant was aspirated with 128 hp. The equipment list was also different from what came in the car.

In 2015, a customer even won a lawsuit against Hyundai Caoa, what it was ordered to give a 0 km model in the previously released specifications. The parties ended up reaching an agreement, with monetary compensation, after all, The turbo version wasn’t even officially imported.

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