The Toyota GR86 arrives in Malaysia up-specced and with a big price tag.
In a world of mundane, plastic electric cars, Toyota is still selling a sports car. The second generation “86”, now called the GR86 was introduced to the Malaysian market early last year as part of UMW Malaysia’s big push for new GR products. Like the GT86 that precedes it, the GR86 is co-developed and built by Subaru, with Toyota providing the D4S injection system, unique GR styling, as well as bespoke tuning and suspension calibration. If you’re looking closely enough, the GR86 really does show its Subaru roots. Switchgear in the cabin is the same if not similar to what one might find in the Forester and the fact that it rolls off the line at Subaru’s own Gunma plant with a boxer engine should tell you all you need to know about the car’s origins.
Yet this car wears a Toyota badge, is sold alongside other Toyota models and can be maintained by Toyota’s service network. It’s a largely Subaru product that is marketed to Toyota customers to give the impression that the brand does sportier things than its standard range of cars. But this is actually true to the original spirit of the legendary AE86.
Just like today’s 86, the original AE86 was a marketing exercise. Toyota moved the Corolla from the rear-wheel driven 70-series chassis to the front-wheel driven 80-series chassis and brought a more modern look and feel to the range. How was Toyota to continue to offer a sportier Corolla as it had been doing since 1972? How could the company convince buyers that their new Corolla wasn’t a less exciting model than the car it replaced? Well, in a nutshell they modified the chassis from the older rear-wheel driven Corolla, and slapped the styling of the new front-wheel driven Corolla on its body and interior. With the right engine, gearbox, and suspension tuning, they produced one of the legends of the 1980s – the AE86.
The original 86 was made on older Corolla bones to sell the new Corolla. The new one is made on Subaru bones to sell the new image of Toyota as a youthful and sporty brand. That out of the way, how does the GR86 perform as a car?
Performance
The Toyota GR86 is one of the best cars I have driven. It has the right amount of power and pace to give you genuine sports car sensations, but not enough power to put you in too much danger. This is the peak of ‘slow car fast’. 0-100km/h takes 6.8 seconds with the automatic transmission, which is about how quickly a BYD Dolphin does it, and that’s one of the most affordable electric vehicles out there. So it really isn’t fast for a sports car.
However, it does feel a lot more rapid than its electric peers because you’re sitting extremely low to ground and you’re getting a lot of communication from the pedals, steering and suspension. The engine sings so perfectly clearly through the firewall I suspect it’s being artificially enhanced through the speakers, but it does sound amazing.
Brake pedal feel is spot on in the GR86, pushing back against your foot and giving you minute control over stopping power. Upshifts on the 6-speed automatic are quick and the engine is willing to rev up to 7,000 rpm when asked. We would have preferred a manual unit as the GR86 was made for such a gearbox, but this was what we got. The steering too is balanced enough to provide enough feedback while not being too firm to use on daily drives.
All-in-all, it is tuned to give you the controls and feedback of a serious performance machine, while still being practical enough for ANYONE to get behind the wheel with confidence. While it’s not something you could describe as comfortable, it’s definitely a lot more forgiving than a lot of cars in this category. This applies to both the suspension and the steering.
Where it does fall apart is in comparisons. The GR86 is an entry level sports car – nobody, not even Toyota, make any assertions to the contrary. By right, its main competitor is (not counting its twin, the Subaru BRZ) the Mazda MX-5. Philosophically, the MX-5 has always had a fun-loving nature about it. The GR86 on the other hand demands to be taken very seriously.
It wants to be a serious sports car, and with a more powerful engine or hydraulic power steering, it might have been. However, if you judge it by the standards of serious sports cars in the form that it’s sold, it’s really at the bottom of the sports car ladder. It’s not that fast and lacks the brand clout of even a base model Porsche 718 or BMW Z4.
In this new generation, it’s not even that cheap any more and has to stand up to electric vehicles that go faster and work better as daily drivers. That is the GR86’s biggest weakness. But now on to its biggest strength.
Design
Without a doubt, the exterior design of the new 86 has improved by leaps and bounds. The new car looks so much more polished and refined with more upmarket appointments. It’s hard to pin down how exactly the look of the car got so much better in just one generation, but to me it’s a lot less busy and better proportioned.
Where there are angles, there’s a lot more harmony between them. Where headlight clusters were once bulbous, now they are flattened and streamlined with the rest of the body work. Even the spoiler is now neatly integrated as a ducktail. You also don’t get the sense that the GR86 is being shouty and the sporty bits aren’t over done – there’s no exposed carbon fibre and not too much aggression in its face.
Certain aspects have also been obviously modernised. The bee-sting antenna makes way for a shark fin antenna. The individual LED clusters that make up the daytime running lights and brake lights have been substituted with uniform LED strips.
Despite making things cleaner, the GR86 still has a lot of character to it, particularly when you pay attention to its character lines from the side profile.
In summary, there is not a bad angle to this car, and it looks right at home next to the more expensive German rivals we mentioned earlier.
Where the design suffers a little is in the cabin. Here the toned-down look has both minimal flair and limited utility. The way UMW Toyota has specified the GR86 lends some pretty nice touches.
We especially loved the red carpet lining, red stitching, red leather door cards, real leather on the seats, studded metal pedals and GR branding throughout. Most surfaces are wrapped in either suede or fake leather too. Those aspects lend a sense of occasion to the vehicle.
Otherwise, there’s some room for improvement. The protrusion at the top of the glovebox serves no purpose and interrupts an otherwise clean dashboard look. The screen size should be at least a couple of inches larger. The plastic material used next to the handbrake housing is prone to scratches.
Besides these rather minor complaints, we quite liked the interior of the cabin. It goes for an athletic look without coming across as tacky and that’s about as much as you could ask for in a starter sports car. The cabin also shows how well the GR86 is equipped, with Apple CarPlay, a fully-digital instrument cluster, Toyota Safety Sense, automatic climate control and a lot of other goodies thrown in.
Of course, don’t expect to actually get any use out of the rear seats. We folded them down when travelling interstate and found that it made the boot a lot more reasonable in size. With the seats up, the boot’s floor is interrupted by the hump of a spare tyre. Still, it’s pretty great that you still get one of those in 2024 and you can always throw it out to make more room and cut weight if you prefer.
Value
In most markets, the Toyota GT86 is marketed as an affordable sports car. In the US, with fabric seats and less equipment, you could get an 86 for about US$30,000, or about RM140,000. Unfortunately, thanks to our taxation structure and rapidly declining currency, UMW Toyota has no choice but to fill it to the brim with options and charge RM305,000. At such a price, the GR86 really does lose its appeal. The more fun-loving MX-5 is cheaper, as is its twin, the Subaru BRZ. At such a price, even a used Porsche 718 would make more sense to the buyer who has RM300K to spend on a weekend car.
Still, if you’re someone who absolutely wants something with respectable performance to buy new and keep around for the next generation, then the Toyota GR86 isn’t a bad choice. It comes with the same great 5-year warranty as any other Toyota and the brand has service centres all across the country. If the aftersales package is part of the appeal for you, then maybe there’s a case for buying this over the two Japanese direct competitors. It is, after all, a pretty solid and loveable car.
2023 Toyota GR86 (Auto) Specifications
Engine: Boxer 4, 16-Valve, DOHC, Direct + Port Injection, Petrol
Capacity: 2387 cc
Gearbox: 6-speed Conventional Auto
Max power: 234 hp @ 7000 rpm
Max torque: 250 Nm @ 3700 rpm
Top Speed: 216 km/h
0-100 km/h: 6.8 seconds
Price: RM305,000
