Toyota 86 to be a part of the company’s future fleet of sports cars

ABU DHABI: Toyota has cleared things well in time about the discontinuation of the 86. It says that the Toyota 86 will remain to be a part of the company's fleet of sports cars and there isn’t any plan to dump it. This came after the news about the 86 and Subaru BRZ twins which stated that they might never see another generation.

So, the Japanese automaker has announced it loud and clear that the 86 is not going anywhere. “Will continue to live in some form or another,” said Nancy Hubbell, Toyota US’s spokesperson.

What this means is that you’d be able to purchase the Toyota 86 in the coming months/years. Earlier, it was assumed that new GR Supra would replace the Toyota 86 but after today this can also be ruled out. Though it’s not as concrete as a rock but for the time being, we can assume it to be.

Moving on to the Subaru BRZ, a while ago, the company confirmed the replacement model for the BRZ. So, it’s definite that we are going to see the next-gen BRZ. It’s about time too as the current BRZ is available on the market since 2012. The debut of a newer version should definitely be on cards for the automaker. The same is the case with Toyota 86, however, if we are going to get its successor or not still remains to be seen.

Toyota going all by itself for developing its own sports car is also questionable considering the past when Toyota joined Subaru. Toyota was unable to develop the sports car of their own hence the collaboration was done. It would now be interesting to see how does Toyota move forward.

It’s worth noting that the sales for Toyota 86 fell from 6,000-8,000 units annually to just 4,146 units in 2018 in the US. The steep cutdown in sales was due to the arrival of a new rival in the form of Mazda Miata.

What do the two companies have in store for us is something we’d be looking at closely. Stay in touch for more stories and regular automotive updates.