The Brazilian subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will stop production in December of a four-wheel-drive vehicle that has been a symbol of the local car industry.
The Bandeirante has been a legend in Brazil since the first units, powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine, rolled off Toyota's local plant in November 1961.
The plant, located in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, represents a special conquest for the carmaker, being its first Bandeirante model-manufacturing unit outside Japan.
Toyota will use the plant where the Bandeirante is manufactured to make parts for its Corolla car produced in another plant in the municipality of Indaiatuba, some 120 km northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil's industrial heartland.