The practice of stripping out a top-selling light car and re-introducing it as a wallet-friendly budget one is nothing new in our market. Toyota launched the venerable Tazz, essentially an entry-level Conquest, in 1996 and CAR tested the R35 505 CitiGolf rival in October that year.
What the Tazz lacked in features (think along the lines of no rear wiper, cigarette lighter, power steering, air-conditioning) it made up for with reliability and longevity. The fact that so many of the original pre-facelift models are still providing affordable motoring to South Africa’s masses bears testament to this.
Powered by a 1,3-litre carburettor-fed four-cylinder motor, the Tazz was by no means a firecracker with a top speed of 156 km/h and zero to 100 km/h sprint of 14,63 seconds. But affordability and fuel economy were (and still are) the Tazz’s real hallmarks.