305 kW of power and 650 Nm of torque lurk under the bonnet of the Toyota Land Cruiser 300 3.5T V6 ZX.
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, with the new Nissan Navara and Peugeot Landtrek leading the way. 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 Land Cruiser has earned the reputation for being the Master of Africa over decades of toughness. And even though it might have been capable of towing a whole of caravans before, it never had blistering speed.
The introduction of the 3.5-litre biturbo V6 petrol engine in the Land Cruiser 300 changed all that. As Road Test Editor Mark Jones realised during his high-performance test at Gerotek, this 2.6-ton monstrosity can move!
In fact, its 0 to 100km/h sprint time of 6.8 seconds is so good that it tops the VW Golf 6 GTI on out time sheets!
For more information on our test results, click on the link below.
2021 MOTORING NEWSMAKER NO 1: 2.6-ton Toyota Land Cruiser 300 petrol outsprints Golf 6 GTI!
The rest of The Citizen’s 2021 Motoring Newsmakers are:
No 2: Navara faster than Hilux and Ranger
No 3: Toyota Urban Cruiser or Suzuki Vitara Brezza?
No 4: Prado Land Cruiser gets more power
No 5: Peugeot bakkie makes comeback
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 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 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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