THE Toyota 86 has been given a mid-life update, with the Japanese carmaker rolling out a string of styling, suspension and power tweaks.

The two-door Toyota – which in 2012 was named the Wheels Car of the Year alongside its Subaru BRZ twin – was revealed overnight at the New York Show, wearing a Toyota badge in the North American market for the first time as the carmaker brings its US market-only Scion brand back into the regular line-up.

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Beneath that body, there are revised spring and damper rates, as well as a change to the final drive on manual models. Manual-shift 86s have also had a slight tickle under the bonnet, with a 4kw/9Nm bump to 151kW/214Nm.

Opt for the flagship GTS model and you’ll also score ‘Grandlux’ trim on the dash, seats with silver stitching, and audio controls integrated into the steering wheel.

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Toyota’s decision to dump the Scion badge in the US is a significant one for the carmaker.

Scion was Toyota’s youth-oriented sub-brand that was launched in 2003, selling largely re-badged Toyota models. It was somewhat successful: more than a million Scion-badged cars have been sold, with Toyota claiming that 70 percent of customers were new to the Toyota/Scion brand, and that half were less than 35 years old. Its best sales year was 2007, when it moved 173,034 Scions. That fell to a mere 56,167 in 2015.

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What does the refreshed 86 mean for its twin under the skin, the Subaru BRZ, which is built alongside the 86 in Subaru’s Gunma, Japan, factory? Nothing, apparently.