Toyota 86 GTS 2012 Review

Living with the new Toyota 86 for a couple of weeks, you start to realise how many tuned, modded and ‘ricer racer’ cars are around. And that’s because what they’re around is you, every time you take the 86 out on the road.

Sitting on your tail through entire suburbs, revving their engines beside you at lights, keeping level in the next highway lane for kilometres – all wanting a closer look at this landmark car. 

The Toyota 86 has disrupted the brand’s seemingly endless roll-out of anodyne wheeled whitegoods – for which the boss Akio Toyoda publicly apologised not long after taking the top chair. It’s also set to disrupt the market, becoming the new bang for bucks benchmark in the manual version, even in the upper spec tested here.

VALUE

The aim was always to make the 86 affordable, and the starting price for the manual 86 GT is a market-changing $29,990, with auto $2500 across the range. And that price point will be worrying a few other brands. Global demand and exchange rates are likely to push it up by September, but Toyota will want to keep it as strategically low as possible to maximise market impact.

The GT rides on 16-in alloys (full-size spare is steel, but gets a cheer for even being there these days), and has daytime running lights, power-fold mirrors and a rear foggie. Standard interior kit includes all the expected mod-cons, and the becoming-expected features like voice recognition. There’s a sporty three-spoke steering wheel – the smallest on any Toyota – and touches of sporty fabric (think wetsuits) on shift and brake levers.

On the $35,490 86 manual GTS – tested here -- look for 17-in alloys with full-size alloy spare, auto-levelling high-intensity headlights, and a premium audio/comms system with 6.1-in touchscreen and SMS/email text-to-voice among the features. As an affordable, rear-drive 2+2 stylish sports car, it’s hard to find other apples to compare against. There’s more choice in rear-drive two-seaters, but buyers looking for an affordable one will have already bought the Mazda MX-5. And could be regretting it now.

That leaves you waiting to see what happens with the Toyota’s clone -- the Subaru BRZ, which will arrive in a higher spec level -- or looking at other options in the same price range. Ranging in a tight price-tag scale between $38,990 and $40,700, you get some desirable front-drive choices: RenaultSport Clio 200 Cup, Volkswagen Golf GTi, Mazda3 MPS and Mini Cooper S would be at the top of the list. In that range you also get the AWD Subaru Impreza WRX hatch. And handing over another $7000 or so gets you into the Volkswagen Scirocco R.

DESIGN

It’s a well-proportioned headturner, and one of the few cars that looks good from the rear at this price – or at most price levels, really.  But that styling also means the rear three-quarter view is abysmal. It makes the most of a small body to give a fairly useful capacity. Nobody wants to be in the rear seat of any two-plus-two coupe for long, but it offers more flexibility – we won’t say practicality – than a two-seater. There are child seat fixing points back there, although it’s not easy access to load a struggling toddler into. 

For track day fans, the boot takes four spare wheels with the rear seat down, and the headrests can be reversed to nestle a helmet. Key cabin cues are the small steering wheel and large tacho, red-stitched leather/alcantara upholstery, and the mandatory aluminium pedals and sill plates. There are some miscues: cheaper plastics, faux carbon fibre accents and the strange piston-flanked 86 logo that looks dinky at best. The centred tacho is clearly marked, but the analog speedo set to the left has a cluttered dial that takes a lot of peripheral effort to check.

TECHNOLOGY

Subaru tipped in the basic engineering, including both the chassis and the engine – chosen because its compact size allowed it to be mounted low and towards the rear of the bay. The naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre flat-four engine has an appetite for revs, with the peak 147kW of power hitting at 7000rpm and peak 205Nm of torque at 6400-6600rpm. The engine carries both carmakers’ names as it’s aided by Toyota’s latest four-point D-4S fuel-injection system which is claimed to add 10kW and 20Nm more than would have been possible with simpler port-injection.

Toyota also brought the new six-speed manual and sequential auto transmissions – the latter with paddle-shifters and some Lexus IS-F input for sharper shifts and a few bars of downchange blips to hum along with in Sport mode. Porsche’s Cayman 2+2 coupe was used as the benchmark for steering and handling, with the stiff and low-squatting 86 underpinned by MacPherson strut front and double wishbone rear suspension.

SAFETY

Not tested here yet, but will be hunting a full five-star ANCAP rating. Equipment includes seven airbags, anti-lock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution and brake assist, traction and five-mode stability controls.

DRIVING

You can’t help being sceptical about Toyota promising passion. But just about every box has been ticked and promise delivered. The 86 is alive and kick-arse. Steering feel is excellent, with good weighting and feedback. The car is taut and agile, turning in nimbly and gripping the road aggressively. The six-speed manual is one of the best around: short, sweet and snickety. Even hardened stick-shunners could be won over by this one. It gets off the line smartly, and delivers decent in-gear acceleration, despite there not being any sense of huge power or torque on tap. 

The engine doesn’t quite match up to the rest of the car’s capabilities – but there will be a mob of tuning brands working to put that right. Induction sound is piped back into the cabin via a rubber tube, and that improves when you push it up above 3500rpm, but the engine’s note is not soul-stirring. That aside, it’s nearly everything most people could want in terms of bang for the buck. But you can’t help thinking some turbo effort would boost the fun. Subaru has been spotted testing in Europe with a turbo-hinting bonnet bulge, but Toyota is keeping their version on the pure path.

VERDICT

It’s a landmark but not quite the stuff of legend. A better engine could take it to the next level, but Toyota is on a winner with this one. You’ll want to take the long way home and you’ll arrive with a smile on your face.

Toyota 86 manual GTS

Price: from $35,490 as tested
Warranty: 3 years/100,000km
Resale: No previous model
Service interval: 12 months/15,000km
Safety: 5 stars (est)
Engine: 2.0-litre boxer four-cylinder, 147kW/205Nm
Transmission: six-speed manual, RWD
Fuel economy: 7.8L/100km,   98RON
0-100km/h: 7.6 secs
Weight: 1222kg
Spare: full-size