Toyota Starlet Cross cracks top 5! SA's best-selling cars & crossovers

In its first full month on sale, the Toyota Starlet Cross placed a lofty 5th on the list of South Africa’s 10 best-selling cars and crossovers. Here are August 2024’s figures…

Despite being a fresh entrant to the market, the new Toyota Starlet Cross managed to break into the top 5 of South Africa’s best-selling cars and crossovers in August 2024, slotting in just ahead of the locally built Volkswagen Polo hatchback.

To refresh your memory, Toyota SA Motors’ most-affordable crossover hit the market just 10 days before the end of July 2024 yet managed to rack up 590 sales in that short time. So, how did it perform in its first full month on the market?

*Toyota’s new Starlet Cross rocketed up the rankings in its first full month on sale.*

Well, Toyota registered as many as 1 181 units of the new Starlet Cross in August 2024, enough for it to place 5th on the list of Mzansi’s best-selling passenger vehicles for the month. Almost all sales came via the dealer channel, with only 13 units listed as “single” registrations (vehicles the automaker keeps and licenses for its own use).

Interestingly, while the new Cross-badged model rocketed up the sales charts, the Starlet hatchback – which placed a healthy 4th in July – fell clean from the top 10 in August, with its sales tally dropping 31.1% month on month to 842 units.

Refreshed Toyota Starlet sold strongly in June 2022 — *The Starlet hatch dropped out of the passenger-vehicle top 10 in August.*

As a reminder, the Indian-built Starlet Cross – which is based on the Suzuki Fronx (which managed 724 units in August) – is positioned as Toyota SA Motors’ most-affordable crossover, undercutting the Urban Cruiser by R42 600, with the 4-strong local line-up starting at R299 900 and running through to R359 300.

In August 2024, SA’s new-vehicle market declined 4.9% year on year to 43 588 units. That said, the new passenger-vehicle segment grew 3.1% year on year to 30 022 units, with some help from the car-rental industry (which accounted for 16.7% of that figure last month).

*Now facelifted, VW’s SA-built Polo Vivo still leads the passenger-car charge.*

As was the case in July 2024, the Kariega-built Volkswagen Polo Vivo (1 937 units) – which has just benefitted from a facelift – was at the very top of the pile, boosted by 478 sales to the rental industry and a further 230 to government. Meanwhile, the Prospecton-produced Toyota Corolla Cross (1 630 units) retained a strong 2nd position.

The Hyundai Grand i10 likewise held steady in 3rd, with this Indian-built model’s final figure of 1 328 units excluding light-commercial vehicle sales (the Grand i10 Cargo), which further amounted to 65 units in August 2024. The outgoing Suzuki Swift, meanwhile, climbed 4 spots to 4th, finishing the month on 1 190 units, including a whopping 597 units sold to the rental industry.

*Suzuki’s outgoing Swift remains a popular choice in Mzansi.*

Then came the new Toyota Starlet Cross (1 181 units), a mere 9 units behind in 5th position, just ahead of the locally made Volkswagen Polo hatch (1 149 units) in 6th. The Chery Tiggo 4 Pro (1 072 units) thus slipped a ranking to 7th, while the Nissan Magnite (991 units) likewise fell a spot, to end up in 8th.

Finally, the Haval Jolion (953 units) climbed a spot to finish in 9th position, while the Suzuki Ertiga (892 units) returned to the table to grab 10th, forcing the Toyota Vitz from the list.