It is rumored that Toyota is generally planning a comeback to the Starlet name. Right now, however, the Japanese are content to do it on a Suzuki in South Africa.
You know the car as the Suzuki Baleno. At least technically. But in South Africa they say Toyota Starlet.
Yes, it is good enough. Although Toyota is generally rumored to be working on reviving the Starlet name for a small, lightweight hatchback, the model name actually already exists.
In South Africa, the Japanese borrow the Suzuki Fronx, which is technically identical to the Baleno model that has been in Denmark, and call the car the Toyota Starlet Cross.
This can be seen from the importer's website .
The only thing that separates the two models is slightly different LED lighting in the headlights and then a couple of Toyota emblems. In fairness, it must be said that Toyota and Suzuki do exactly the same here at home.
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The Suzuki Swace is 1:1 the same car as the current Toyota Corolla. Yes, that is, apart from the logo on the front and back of the car.
Back in South Africa, the 'new Starlet' is kept alive by a 1.5-litre petrol engine with 105 horsepower and 138 Nm. The car is available with either a five-speed manual gearbox or a four-speed automatic gearbox. Besides that, the car is incredibly scrappy on the equipment side.
In fact, almost uncannily basic. The base model has just two airbags. Both hill-assist, which can keep the car stationary on a steep slope, and cruise control are optional extras.
Toyota also borrows from BMW. The current Supra is – although the Japanese say they have redesigned it – technically identical to the BMW Z4.
And so we could go on. When Chevrolet was still in Denmark, the sedan model Cruise was nothing more than an Opel Astra with a different logo. Dacia's cars, which by the way have just become Denmark's cheapest with automatic transmission, are old Renaults and so on…
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