Jaco Van Der Merwe

By Jaco Van Der Merwe

Head of Motoring


Peugeot bakkie is back – 2021 Motoring Newsmaker No 5

French carmaker takes aim at Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger by re-entering bakkie market with Landtrek.


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 Peugeot bakkie making a hugely anticipated return to the local market was undoubtedly one of the biggest motoring stories of the year. After not playing in the segment for decades, the Peugeot bakkie is back in the form of the Landtrek.

It might be a bit early for South Africa’s pair of most popular bakkies, the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux, to have reason for concern, but the first impressions of the Landtrek were quite solid. To see a video of the Peugeot bakkie in action, click here.

For The Citizen’s full analysis of the new Peugeot bakkie, click on the link below.

2021 MOTORING NEWSMAKER NO 5: Peugeot Landtrek: What you need to know about South Africa’s new bakkie

The rest of The Citizen’s 2021 Motoring Newsmakers are:

No 6: Golf GTI smokes BMW 128ti

No 7: Is 190 kW Amarok worth R1-million?

No 8: Toyota Starlet can run on fumes

No 9: This Isuzu bakkie has X-factor

No 10: Mercedes-AMG E63 S sledge hammer of a sedan

No 11: Land Cruiser: Which is better, petrol or diesel?

No 12: Kia cans bakkie plans

No 13: Mercedes A35 Sedan the thinking man’s AMG

No 14: Toyota Corolla Cross outsells Polo pair

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

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