Troller Logo

A troll from the beaches of Ceará

Most car names are chosen to sound fast or expensive. Troller chose a creature from Norwegian folklore. The company explains that its name is a Brazilian adaptation of the English word troll, a being from Scandinavian legend that lives in the forests and caves of Norway. According to Troller, the troll protects its visitors, is faithful and loyal, brings luck, and loses its patience when its habitat is threatened. The comparison was deliberate: a vehicle with a reputation for getting through difficult terrain, and an engine the company itself describes as aggressive.

The story starts in the northeast of Brazil. Troller’s own timeline says work on the first vehicle began in 1994, and that the earliest units were sold to rally drivers, which turned competition into the brand’s development laboratory. In 1997 the company was founded as Troller Veículos Especiais S.A. in Horizonte, in the state of Ceará, and line production of the first model started the same year: the RF Sport, with a 1.8 petrol engine. A 2.0 with 110 cv followed in 1998.

The founder’s name doesn’t appear on Troller’s official pages. Brazilian press is consistent, though. According to CNN Brasil and the Fortaleza newspaper O Povo, the car was the idea of Rogério Farias, who wanted something to drive on the beaches of Ceará, and CNN Brasil reports that the business was sold in 1997 to the entrepreneur Mário Araripe. The same two sources date the brand’s birth to 1995, two years earlier than the company’s own founding year.

Fibreglass, diesel and a fourth place at Dakar

The T4 arrived in 1999, according to CNN Brasil, with a fibreglass body on a steel ladder chassis and, until 2001, petrol engines of Volkswagen origin. A 2.8 MWM turbodiesel took over in 2001. Then the trophies started. Troller’s awards page lists a fourth place on its first Paris-Dakar in 2000, victory in the Rally dos Sertões the same year, and a world cross-country title in the T 3.2 Diesel category in 2001. For the 2005 Sertões the company built a competition version of the T4 for 21 customers, which it calls the largest team in the history of that rally.

In 2007 Troller was bought by Ford Motor Company Brasil. The factory in Horizonte was remodelled in 2008, and in 2009 a new T4 appeared with more than 500 new or changed parts and an interior that drew on Ford’s supply chain. That was also Troller’s record sales year. Limited editions followed: the Expedition of 2010, just 100 cars in yellow and matte London Gray, each sold with a jacket embroidered with the owner’s name and blood type, and the 2011 Desert Storm in matte Atacama beige, winch included.

A blade-shaped T in a red square

Troller’s last logo, the one on its official website, has two parts. On the left is a red rounded square carrying a silver letter T. The T leans forward and its stem is cut at an angle, so it reads a little like a blade or a chisel. To the right sits the word TROLLER in heavy red capitals with a chrome-style highlight along the top of the letters. On the cars, the badge went in the centre of the grille.

Troller never published an explanation of the badge itself. The only official meaning is the one attached to the name: the loyal, protective, short-tempered troll described above. So if you read the red as aggression or the blade as a reference to cutting through the bush, treat that as a theory. It isn’t in the company’s own words.

What Troller did explain was the design language around the logo. When the second-generation T4 was revealed in São Paulo in June 2014, the company said the body graphics were drawn to recall the shape of a gear, associating strength with precision. The front grille was shaped as a stylised T with a honeycomb pattern, the raised bonnet carried the Troller logotype in relief, and the flanks wore a 4×4 logo next to a Brazilian flag, which Troller called a sign of pride in where the car came from. The project was led by chief designer João Marcos Ramos at Ford’s design and engineering centre in Camaçari, Bahia.

In March 2018 the brand added a new signature line, Trilhe o Novo, roughly “blaze the new trail”, launched with a short film called Manifesto on its social channels.

One model, many lives

Troller was essentially a one-car company. The T4 was a short two-door 4×4 with a composite body, and almost everything else the brand made was a variation on it. Here are the versions that mattered.

Landmark Trollers, decade by decade

• 1997: RF Sport. The first model to go into line production, with a 1.8 petrol engine.
• 1999: T4. Presented in 1999 according to CNN Brasil; fibreglass body, steel chassis and, from 2001, an MWM 2.8 turbodiesel.
• 2006: Pantanal. A single-cab pickup on a stretched T4 chassis. CNN Brasil reports that Ford recalled the 77 units sold over a risk of chassis cracks and bought them all back.
• 2014: New T4. An all-new second generation with a five-cylinder 3.2 Duratorq diesel of 200 cv, six-speed manual gearbox and electronic 4×4 selection. It won the Rally dos Sertões in 2015.
• 2016: T4 Bold. A limited run of 180 two-tone cars shown at the São Paulo Motor Show alongside the futuristic Xtreme concept.
• 2020: TX4. The T4 with an automatic gearbox, on sale from early 2020. It was the last new Troller.

Ford announced on 11 January 2021 that it would stop manufacturing in Brazil. According to the notice on Troller’s own site, T4 production ended at the end of September 2021 and parts production at the end of November, after which the Horizonte plant’s assets were sold. The Troller name stayed with Ford. For the parent brand’s own blue oval, see the Ford logo, and for more on how badges like these are built, read how car logos are designed.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Troller name mean?

According to Troller, it is a Brazilian adaptation of the word troll, the Scandinavian legend that lives in the forests and caves of Norway, protects its visitors, is loyal, brings luck, and loses its temper when its habitat is threatened.

What does the Troller logo look like?

A red rounded square with a silver, forward-leaning letter T whose stem is cut like a blade, next to the word TROLLER in bold red capitals. Troller never published a meaning for the badge; its only official explanation concerns the name.

Was Troller owned by Ford?

Yes. Ford Motor Company Brasil bought Troller in 2007 and ran the Horizonte factory until production ended in September 2021. The brand name remained with Ford.

Where were Trollers built?

In Horizonte, in the Brazilian state of Ceará, where the company was founded in 1997. Design, engineering and production were based there, while sales and marketing worked from São Bernardo do Campo, near São Paulo.

From Ceará's beaches to Dakar: the troll's dossier

Founded

1997

Founder

Rogério Farias

Country

Brazil

Headquarters

Horizonte, Ceará, Brazil

Parent company

Ford Motor Company

Current emblem

A red rounded square with a silver, blade-like letter T, next to TROLLER in bold red capitals

Known for

The T4, a composite-bodied Brazilian off-roader with rally wins at Dakar and the Rally dos Sertões

Status

Defunct

Website

Official website ↗