New GT86 Might Help Toyota to Bounce Back

Jan 16 2012

When most car buyers sign up for a car loan, they hope the car they are buying will bring them a lot of pleasure.  Most of us will, therefore, concur with what Akio Toyoda, the CEO of Toyota, recently said at the Tokyo Motor Show: “If a car is not fun, it is not a car.  Fun to drive, again.”

Toyoda was responding to the company’s woes during 2011, which started with the furore over a (rare) sticking-accelerator problem and ended with the Japanese earthquake/tsunami and the floods in Thailand that virtually destroyed Toyota’s supply chain.

In the light of all this, the new GT86 must feel like a fresh beginning to Toyota.

It is a sports coupe that was created in cooperation with Subaru, who will market their own version as the BRZ.  The GT86, therefore, has the trademark Subaru flat four 2-litre engine that produces 200bhp – without the turbocharger to which we have become used to in Subaru cars.  It is also a rear-wheel drive vehicle, which is unusual for a Subaru.

While this might sound a bit old-fashioned, the rear-wheel drive still offers an edge when it comes to getting out of trouble in a tight corner.  Subaru used the basics of their Impreza, but removed the front-wheel drive during the development of the new model.

The GT86 will go on sale in June at a price of about £25,000 for the entry level model.  The car promises a top speed of 143mph and an acceleration time for the 0-62mph sprint of below seven seconds.

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