Jaco Van Der Merwe

By Jaco Van Der Merwe

Head of Motoring


Corolla Cross outsells Polo pair – 2021 Motoring Newsmaker No 14

New Toyota SUV became South Africa's best selling passenger car in its first month.


Two-thousand-and-twenty-one was an interesting year for the South African motoring landscape.

Some things changed, like an acceleration towards greener cars, while others stayed the same like Toyota topping the monthly sales charts.

In this series of 2021 Motoring Newsmakers, The Citizen looks back at the top 20 most popular online stories of the year. The series is dominated by South Africa’s most popular body style, bakkies, while the Toyota Land Cruiser 300 was by far the most viewed single model on our website. Other local favourites in the form of hot hatches, fuel efficient hatchbacks, big, mean SUVs, compact SUVs, Mercedes-AMGs and BMW M cars also drew their fair share of attention.

The Toyota Corolla Cross was one of the most anticipated cars of the year and it did not disappoint. Starting at R349 900, Toyota made the locally-assembled SUV’s price very appealing. And the Japanese carmaker included two hybrid models in the line-up, ensuring the Corolla Cross is very frugal in a time when consumers is struggling to keep up with the rising fuel price.

The Corolla Cross hit the ground running as far as sales go, becoming South Africa’s best selling passenger car. The Corolla Cross outsold the popular VW Polo and Polo Vivo in its debut month.

To read more on the Cross’ superb debut month and see which other popular passenger cars made the Top 10 list for November, click on the link below.

2021 MOTORING NEWSMAKER NO 14: Corolla Cross makes huge statement by outselling Polo pair

To see the rest of our 2021 Motoring Newsmakers, click on the links below.

No 15: BMW X5 M Competition pips Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S

No 16: The Golf GTI for nerds

No 17: Never be late in a Merc GLS 580

No 18: Toyota HiAce 54 years young

No 19: New Ford Ranger revealed

No 20: Toyota Land Cruiser gets stuck the mud

Access premium news and stories

Access to the top content, vouchers and other member only benefits