Johannesburg - Since its launch in 2020, the Toyota Urban Cruiser has become one of South Africa’s top-selling passenger vehicles, but soon it will be no more.
According to Autocar India, Toyota’s Indian division has discontinued the Urban Cruiser, which is built by Maruti Suzuki and closely based on the Vitara Brezza. The vehicle is only built in India, and at this stage it appears that a replacement, based on the new generation Brezza, is not going to happen.
We reached out to Toyota South Africa, and a spokesperson confirmed to us that the current model remains on sale, but that a replacement was also on the cards.
“Global product timings may differ between markets. While Toyota South Africa Motors has a replacement model confirmed, details of which will be communicated at a later stage, the current Urban Cruiser remains in stock and on sale.”
However, it remains to be seen how much longer stock will last, so if you are interested in this relatively inexpensive compact SUV, which currently costs between R280 400 and R353 600, it’s probably best to act quickly.
With average sales of around 1 890 units per month in the last quarter, the Toyota Urban Cruiser often swaps places with its Corolla Cross sibling for the title of SA’s best-selling SUV.
But what will replace it? Indian media outlets have stated that a Brezza-based successor is unlikely, so there’s no obvious answer at this point.
Autocar said the Urban Cruiser was ditched because a replacement based on the new and more expensive Brezza would be priced too closely to the recently launched Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder, which is a larger vehicle based on the SA-bound Suzuki Grand Vitara.
While it’s not impossible that Toyota SA might consider the Hyryder for our market, it could potentially clash with the locally-built Toyota Corolla Cross. It would also be more expensive than the current Urban Cruiser.
Another possibility is the upcoming Toyota Taisor, which various media outlets are speculating about. Apparently this will take the form of a crossover based on the Baleno/Starlet hatchback, and we assume TSA would consider a name change, given the country’s crime rate.
Toyota also sells a small Daihatsu-based SUV called the Raize in select Asian markets, which could potentially plug the Urban Cruiser gap if the pricing equations worked out.