ATTN: the article was published in January 2019, whereas the new (re-badged) Toyota Starlet is scheduled to launch in South Africa from mid-September 2020. You need to re-correct the “fails to mention” statement since you are 1.5 years late to comment on this post 🙂

The article fails to mention that Toyota Starlet nameplate has been resurrected in Africa, they are selling a rebadged India-made new Baleno (SZ3) under this name in Africa. In India the new Suzuki Baleno (SZ3) is also marketed as Toyota Glanza, Glanza used to be one of the trim levels of Starlet in UK. It was a used or new JDM import though but found more popularity in UK.

Only 1 or 2 samples of 5th gen could also be seen around.

One of the main reasons of demise of Starlet was its high price. Initially Starlet was good and its competition from Daihatsu and Suzuki wasn’t that good. But their later offerings in the 90s were much better than before and offered a better value proposition whereas Starlet had become much bigger and expensive too that is why Starlet could not maintain its popularity after 3rd gen.

P.S.: Green writing with white background, these are toll-free number plates for welfare institutions, however only Edhi vehicles can be seen with this type of number plate. Maybe an article can be done on the various types of number plates available.