The Brand Finance consultancy said General Motors and Volkswagen slumped in the Brazilian ranking of most valuable brands last year, compared to 2008.

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GM dropped from 8th to 13th position and VW even further, from 4th to 12th. Fiat, the current market leader, held 10th place. 

The results were expected due to the definite difficulties faced by the two brands. Volkswagen was struck by four recalls for the Gol, the German brand’s flagship in country and the best-seller here for 23 years in a row, in a little over one year.

The consultancy also detected a worsening in service, a field in which VW used to excel with the country’s largest service network of over 600 locations.

As for Chevrolet, Brand Finance assessed customer complaints on product quality of models available here. It was also hit by consumer concern over the bankruptcy of the former parent company in the US that was widely reported in Brazil in 2008 and 2009.

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