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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.
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.
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.
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.
