Ever Wonder Why Toyota Continually Fails At Sports Cars? Here Are 15 Reasons

15. Winning races isn't essential.

14. Paddles offer more cogs and faster shifting.

13. Their cars GT86 and Supra are a good 25% overpriced for what they are.

12. Toyota is in it to be the average car that average people will love in their average lives.

11. There is no culture of attract them young and level them up.

10. The GT86 is a slider and the Supra handles less well than a Mustang GT or a Camaro SS all while purporting to be a level above.

9. Toyota does not sweat the details of chassis engineering.

8. Their marketing is totally lacking.

7. Mainstream sports cars--like mainstream sedans--will sell if they are perceived as having value. The GT86 and Supra are simply too little car for too much money.

6. The Supra should have been Mustang sized/priced with the turbo 4 being a Celica.

5. Toyota believes in bringing their "B" game to its sports cars and its "A" game to the Camry.

4. Toyota thinks that if it handles as well as Corolla it's good enough.

3. someone was really reaching on that one

2. #reaching

1. #reaching

#Dumb article overall

Good points, and so true

One word: trouble
two words: Hennessy Exorcist
three words: sell my soul

Any counter arguments? Toyota's GT86 and Supra may seem expensive, but what are the cheaper and better for the everyday enthusiast options? A Civic SI? A Miata? A GTI? A Z?

A GTI will bitch slap the GT86 as will the Ecoboost Mustang.

A Mustang GT can do what the Supra does for $20K less.

Mustang is a muscle car, still. What else?

You clearly have not driven a 15+ Mustang if you say it's a muscle car.

The following will EASILY beat a GT86: base Mustang, base Camaro, GTI, Mini Cooper S, Veloster Turbo, the retired Fiesta/Focus STs, Civic....

The GT86 just isn't that amazing. It's more skinny-tired early 2000 Camry in its suspension responses.

The GT86 and the Bupra never ever should have happened. Do a sports car or don't. But don't do a half assed job of it. These are not Toyota's.

On what planet did it make sense to let Subaru engineer an RWD sports car? Why didn't Toyota say "Aw hell no" when Subaru's plan was to take the Impreza's FWD chassis, remove the front axle shafts, move the front suspension slightly and throw a coupe body over it. In cross section, the FWD architecture is apparent.

@MD- Common sense would dictate they just don't. The Mustang and Corvette offer so much capability and such a low price, it is really hard to sell against that to a client who really wants a 2 door sports car. At $65K CAD, I would never put money into a new Bupra when I could get a used/CPO Corvette.

I know of a Toyota dealer that hasn't sold a Supra in three months, but they have 3 in stock and say they only have one which has a market value adjustment of $15K upward. They rotate the Supras to make it appear that they are selling. A friend wanted one but the dealer was list+15 take it or leave it. I made a few calls to LA and found one with $10K off list over the phone. My buddy now has that Supra.

@MD- Why did he insist on having one? Not your job to change people's minds but I don't see a future for this car or it holding its value on the used market.

He has one of every generation Supra sold in the USA. He loves his Supras the way I love TVRs and Interceptors.

I do think you need a consistent market presence with continuous marketing and development programs to generate and maintain a loyal customer base in the sports car segment. Going in and out of the market and introduction delays makes it that much more difficult to find customers.

Sports cars and Toyota do not belong in the same sentence. You cannot take their sports cars seriously from a company that has a history of cheating in motor sports, e.g. WRC, F1, NASCAR.

WEC, i.e. Le Mans... they got close. ;)

Yeah, racing in Le Mans when none of the major big players, e.g. Audi, Porsche is something worth bragging about. NOT!

"Bitch Slap??"

WTF??

Come here, I'll demonstrate it on you.

Doesn't fail as sports car, fails on design and naming