The Simca Profissional was a successor to the

Simca Alvorada The Simca Alvorada was a stripped version of the Simca Chambord automobile, the first model to be built by Simca do Brasil. The Chambord, which was a direct copy of the French built Simca Vedette, had first left the production line in March 1959 ...

, which was itself a stripped version of the entry level

Simca Chambord The Simca Vedette is a large car, manufactured from 1954 to 1961 by French automaker Simca, at their factory in Poissy, France. The Vedette competed in France's large car market at a time when the economy was finally returning to growth, and en ...

Simca do Brasil Simca do Brasil was a subsidiary of the now defunct French automaker Simca and started out in the late 1950s assembling the Simca Vedette imported in kit form from France and selling it in three versions, the Chambord, Présidence and Rallye. Lat ...

had responded reluctantly to the demand by the Brazilian government of president

Juscelino Kubitscheck Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...

that every car manufacturer must offer an affordable basic version within their range. The idea was to give as many Brazilians as possible the opportunity to own a car.

New incentive, new version

In 1965, the Brazilian government created a new public financing tool through its publicly owned bank

Caixa Econômica Federal Caixa Econômica Federal (, ''Federal Savings Bank''), also referred to as Caixa, is a state-owned Brazilian financial services company headquartered in Brasília, Brazil. It is the fourth largest banking institution in Brazil, as well as the ...

that would allow Brazilians to finance their vehicle over four years with a monthly interest rate of 1%. This obviously was to attract a new range of clients and

looked into how to make the Alvorada even cheaper in order to make it attractive for, for example for

taxicab A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choi ...

drivers.

Plastic replaces leather

The Simca Profissional appeared in 1965 with three colour options (yellow, green and cream white), no chrome (even the bumpers were painted in dark gray, no trimmings), the already very simple interior of the Alvorada was downscaled further with plastic seat covers and the door covers were dark and naked cardboard screwed onto the metal. But the Profissional was 30% cheaper than its far posher brother, the all chrome and leather

. The production numbers of this version apparently were never documented and, unlike the

, the Simca Profissional had no distinct range of chassis numbers so that this version is mixed in with the production figures cited for the

Production figures

* 1965 - 1966 = number of units produced not documented by

References

*"Automóveis Brasileiros" by author

Enio Brandenburg Enio is a given name. It may refer to: * Enio Conti (1913-2005), American football player * Enio Sclisizzi (1925-2012), Canadian ice hockey player * Enio Iommi (1926-2013), Argentine visual artist * Ênio Andrade (1928-1997), Brazilian football ...

, FBVA,

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

–

Brasil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area an ...

*"The Automobile in South America - The Origins (

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

)" by author

Álvaro Casal Tatlock Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warri ...

, FBVA, Rio de Janeiro – Brasil *"Automóveis de São Paulo" by author Malcom Forest, FBVA, Rio de Janeiro – Brasil {{refend

External links

/ Simca Club Brazil
Profissional Cars introduced in 1965