Wallet, keys & armored cars.

AS TRAFFIC HOLDUPS BECOME AS COMMON AS red lights in downtown Sao Paulo and other Brazilian city streets, armored cars--not sport utility vehicles--are emerging as the new trend.

One of the manufacturers, Kroll company subsidiary O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, set up a plant in Brazil in 1996 and now rolls out 50 vehicles a month in the South American country, more than twice what it produces in Mexico.

The company's estimated US$18 million in revenues this year should account for 40% of the company's global business for armored cars manufacturing.