GR86 What boring stuff (or small improvements) are you looking forward to?

[Conscript]

Obviously everyone is buying a GR86 primarily so that they can pull mad skidz and stuff. And I for one am excited about being able to get back into a car which encourages me to set an early alarm and go for a drive early every Sunday morning. But, I have to confess, that as we creep toward the estimated delivery month, I've found myself getting curiously excited by the prospect of some of the most mundane things lately - especially as an owner of an early first gen:

- Reversing camera. I fitted a cheap generic one to my old car, which cost me a grand total of £8 and an afternoon to fit. It was barely worth that. The guidelines were useless and all I could see was the edge of the bumper. It served a purpose of letting my park more accurately but I am quite looking forward to having a decent, factory supplied one.
- Steering wheel controls - yes, I know they came with the facelift of the first gen. But I never had them. I really started pining after them, especially when I switched to an aftermarket head unit which didn't have automatic volume control based on speed, so was constantly fiddling with the volume.
- Android Auto - obviously.
- Digital dash upgrade - of all the video reviews and walkarounds of the cars, I've spent an inordinate amount of time admiring the modernised dashboard. And as someone who likes to treat my car with mechanical sympathy, I am oddly excited about the prospect of having an oil temperature gauge. Also, boring stuff like a proper trip computer with average speed/MPG, etc, and a better UI for adjusting the rev warning limit and stuff. Yes....I am looking forward to having a car with stuff like that because I am an enormous nerd.
- Heated Seats - I had these in my first gen. However, they were crap. They got nice and hot...but too slowly to be of any use. When wearing jeans, it would often take 10-15 minutes before I even felt the heat from them, and by that time the car was up to temperature anyway. From the research I did, it seems like the heated seats in the first gen were only fitted to some models, and were fitted just prior to delivery, and so were of dubious quality. But in the second gen, looks like they are fitted at the factory. So I am hoping that this time, they actually heat up nice and quickly for those winter blasts.
- A silent high pressure fuel pump. First gen car - chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp, on any fuel that contained even a hint of ethanol. I gather they revised the fuel pump on later models, so I am hoping that carries through to the second gen, so I can finally use V-Power again without hearing the crickets.
- Better track mode/VSC programming. The VSC Sport mode in the early GT86 was a bit - crap, tbh. It would let you slide a little but if you went a bit far, even though you were still in control, it would rather violently nip the rear brakes to straighten you up. They revised the ABS module only after a couple of years which apparently greatly improved the system to allow a bit more play and more gentle correction (and some early owners were even able to retrofit the ABS pump from later years). I'm not really someone who drives like Chris Harris, especially on the public road, but I am hoping the second gen's "Track" mode will allow the car to be a little more playful.
- A rear window I can see out of AND CLEAN - That third f***ing brake light in the first gen was one of the most obnoxious and stupid pieces of design ever. I actually went to to the trouble of lowering it using an adapter someone made, but it used to drive me mad. I am seriously looking forward to the fact that it's gone in the second gen, so I can finally clean the inside of my rear windscreen without raging about it.
- Battery drain. I'm really hoping that they've sorted the keyless entry/alarm system battery drain. My car wont be a garage queen, but I do drive a lot less these days. it would be nice to be able to leave the second gen parked for a couple of weeks and not have to worry about the bloody thing starting.

Over to you guys.

 

[Silver Fox]

Great stuff. These are all good examples of what we'd hope to see to make the car that much better than the GT86.

I too had an early GT, 2012 model. There was very little I didn't love about it to be honest.

So I'm mostly looking forward to the Android Auto (so much better for navigation and hassle free podcast listening), plus the obvious one mid range ooomph.

Having been fortunate enough to get the chance to see the GR in the metal (plus sit in it), I'm surprised how much better the GR looks. Far more exotic and special looking for want of better phrasing. So looking forward to having one of those 'glance over the shoulder when walking away' cars again.

I'd totally forgotten about that effing third brake light!

 

[Conscript]

I'd totally forgotten about that effing third brake light!

The absolute worst. Still baffles me why it was designed like that.
I'm angry just thinking about it.

 

[KobayashiMaru86]

Agreed. All of that. Current car doesn't have most of this so looking forward to it again. Hoping Android Auto is good as I've never tried it, despite it being common now. No more putting music on SD cards.

 

[Conscript]

Agreed. All of that. Current car doesn't have most of this so looking forward to it again. Hoping Android Auto is good as I've never tried it, despite it being common now. No more putting music on SD cards.

It has some bugs, but overall, it's very good. An elegant solution seeing as smartphones are ubiquitous nowadays. Why bother with developing a proprietary infotainment system? Just put Android Auto on it and let your phone handle all that. I had an aftermarket headunit in my old car with it, it was a big improvement.

 

[TigerJim]

I sold my facelift 86 last month in anticipation of an imminent delivery… only for the delays to become known 48hours later!

I adored it and feel a little bit of me is missing without it! But I’m not really going to miss the lottery of closing the boot (nothing makes a car look crap like doors that don’t shut first time!). Plus the way the passenger seat never locked forward when folding to get in the back was annoying!

 

[AndyRC]

Agreed. All of that. Current car doesn't have most of this so looking forward to it again. Hoping Android Auto is good as I've never tried it, despite it being common now. No more putting music on SD cards.

Only “infotainment“ questions I ask these days , Does is have Apple CarPlay (Android)? Does it have DAB ? Where are the USBs ? , when I eventually sell a body part to buy a new iPhone , Where is the wireless charging pad ?

 

[KobayashiMaru86]

Only “infotainment“ questions I ask these days , Does is have Apple CarPlay (Android)? Does it have DAB ? Where are the USBs ? , when I eventually sell a body part to buy a new iPhone , Where is the wireless charging pad ?

Am tempted to upgrade the speakers but keep stock head unit. Used to be car audio was expensive but since the market for it has all but gone it's really reasonable now.

 

[OPC100]

The boring stuff that I'm actually looking forward to is getting in the car at 5am in the morning and doing the 145 mile trip to the office. Mainly A303, A34, A43.... And see how high I can get the mpg and what it's like over a decent distance. Similar thing with any number of customer sites. I have boring / good mpg routes to get to most of the places I need to get to if i just want to go with the flow, but then I have the shortcuts (sometimes longer and twisty) that I've searched out over the years when I feel the need to relieve the boredom and I'm interested to see how the GR86 will handle them both.

 

[Conscript]

Am tempted to upgrade the speakers but keep stock head unit. Used to be car audio was expensive but since the market for it has all but gone it's really reasonable now.

I think I'll do the same. With my old car, I swapped in the Focal IS165TOY door/dash speakers, which was a popular mod to do. At the same time, a bit of sound deadening in the doors. Was a good bang-for-buck upgrade if you just want to lift the sound quality a little without going absolutely mad. Hopefully there'll be a similar upgrade for the new model.

The boring stuff that I'm actually looking forward to is getting in the car at 5am in the morning and doing the 145 mile trip to the office. Mainly A303, A34, A43.... And see how high I can get the mpg and what it's like over a decent distance. Similar thing with any number of customer sites. I have boring / good mpg routes to get to most of the places I need to get to if i just want to go with the flow, but then I have the shortcuts (sometimes longer and twisty) that I've searched out over the years when I feel the need to relieve the boredom and I'm interested to see how the GR86 will handle them both.

Jesus. That's quite a commute...hope you don't have to do it often. But yeah, agreed - I know some people scoff at caring about fuel economy in a sportscar. But, it is a cheap sportscar after all, so bought by normal people who still occasionally want to be frugal. One of the things I liked about the old car was it was cracking good fun at the weekend, but could still return 40MPG on the boring motorway trudge to work. Even now, I don't have to drive to work anymore, but I'll still have to make the trip to see my parents every month or so, and it would be nice to see if the new car can still be driven economically.

 

[OPC100]

I think I'll do the same. With my old car, I swapped in the Focal IS165TOY door/dash speakers, which was a popular mod to do. At the same time, a bit of sound deadening in the doors. Was a good bang-for-buck upgrade if you just want to lift the sound quality a little without going absolutely mad. Hopefully there'll be a similar upgrade for the new model.

Jesus. That's quite a commute...hope you don't have to do it often. But yeah, agreed - I know some people scoff at caring about fuel economy in a sportscar. But, it is a cheap sportscar after all, so bought by normal people who still occasionally want to be frugal. One of the things I liked about the old car was it was cracking good fun at the weekend, but could still return 40MPG on the boring motorway trudge to work. Even now, I don't have to drive to work anymore, but I'll still have to make the trip to see my parents every month or so, and it would be nice to see if the new car can still be driven economically.

No, just a few times a month and maybe more if I visit a customer site nearby. I get the government advisory fuel rates which is currently 25p/mile for petrol over 2000cc, but you need to make it work (or at least try to break even), so can't be getting the back out at every roundabout and hammering it all the way. Plus, you could make it to 12 points quite fast that way.

 

[Conscript]

Thought I'd update this thread with some of the nice little details and improvements I've noticed in the few days since picking up the car (because I am a huge dullard who likes stuff like this):

- Cruise control: now tells you what the target speed is on the dash. Nice.
- The infotainment now doesn't shut off with the engine. It only shuts off when you go to open the drivers door. This means if you pull up somewhere and want to shut the engine off but keep listening to the radio (while waiting for someone for instance) you can do. In the old car, because it was keyless start on a button, there was no way to shut the engine off but still keep the accessory power on. Nice little touch.
- Heated mirrors are better. With the old car you could see the outline of the heating elements as they cleared. Now, the entirety of the glass seems to be uniformly heated. Means it clears with no dead spots. Was never an issue but seems like they are using better quality glass.
- They've added an extra washer jet for the windscreen giving better coverage (shame the bloody washer fluid has been frozen all day though)
- When pulling the passenger seat forward to access the rear seat, not only is there a latch at the top of the seat so you don't have to bend down, but the seat slides forward and locks until you lift the latch again to return it back. It's also easier to return it to the position it was set to initially.
- Rear seats can now be folded down from the boot. Much less of a pain than having to clamber into the rear to press both buttons at once.
- This one is more specific to Android Auto but it never worked properly on my old aftermarket head unit - the maps now switch between day and night mode based on the phone, not the car, when the lights are set to AUTO. So, if its still daylight but your headlights come on (going under a bridge or something) the map stays in day mode.
- Fuel flap doesn't need to be opened from inside thr car anymore. As long as the car is unlocked, you just press on the flap to open it.

Forget the bigger engine, sharper steering and stiffer chassis. This is what we all wanted really (right guys? GUYS?)

 

[Silver Fox]

Thought I'd update this thread with some of the nice little details and improvements I've noticed in the few days since picking up the car (because I am a huge dullard who likes stuff like this):

- Cruise control: now tells you what the target speed is on the dash. Nice.
- The infotainment now doesn't shut off with the engine. It only shuts off when you go to open the drivers door. This means if you pull up somewhere and want to shut the engine off but keep listening to the radio (while waiting for someone for instance) you can do. In the old car, because it was keyless start on a button, there was no way to shut the engine off but still keep the accessory power on. Nice little touch.
- Heated mirrors are better. With the old car you could see the outline of the heating elements as they cleared. Now, the entirety of the glass seems to be uniformly heated. Means it clears with no dead spots. Was never an issue but seems like they are using better quality glass.
- They've added an extra washer jet for the windscreen giving better coverage (shame the bloody washer fluid has been frozen all day though)
- When pulling the passenger seat forward to access the rear seat, not only is there a latch at the top of the seat so you don't have to bend down, but the seat slides forward and locks until you lift the latch again to return it back. It's also easier to return it to the position it was set to initially.
- Rear seats can now be folded down from the boot. Much less of a pain than having to clamber into the rear to press both buttons at once.
- This one is more specific to Android Auto but it never worked properly on my old aftermarket head unit - the maps now switch between day and night mode based on the phone, not the car, when the lights are set to AUTO. So, if its still daylight but your headlights come on (going under a bridge or something) the map stays in day mode.
- Fuel flap doesn't need to be opened from inside thr car anymore. As long as the car is unlocked, you just press on the flap to open it.

Forget the bigger engine, sharper steering and stiffer chassis. This is what we all wanted really (right guys? GUYS?)

*Cough* suit hooks...

 

[Silver Fox]

Great update @Conscript , these do all sound like useful liveable improvements.

 

[v8s]

Re the frozen washer fluid, when I collected my MX5 the only thing in the washer fluid tank was water, no screenwash! Must be a Japanese thing.

 

[TFP555]

Fuel flap doesn't need to be opened from inside the car anymore. As long as the car is unlocked, you just press on the flap to open it.

Wish you'd told me that last week lol

Every Toyota I've ever owned (there's been a few) has had the little lever in the drivers footwell.

Luckily the lady behind in waiting was very patient with me.

 

[PaulT]

- The infotainment now doesn't shut off with the engine. It only shuts off when you go to open the drivers door. This means if you pull up somewhere and want to shut the engine off but keep listening to the radio (while waiting for someone for instance) you can do. In the old car, because it was keyless start on a button, there was no way to shut the engine off but still keep the accessory power on. Nice little touch.

I can't remember, but on the GT86 could you not press the start button without your foot on the clutch or brake to get accessory mode, press again to get ignition but no start, press again to turn off?

 

[Conscript]

I can't remember, but on the GT86 could you not press the start button without your foot on the clutch or brake to get accessory mode, press again to get ignition but no start, press again to turn off?

Yeah, but if the engine was already on, then there was no way to get to accessory mode without shutting down completely. You hit the start stop button and the engine shut off and killed power to the head unit. You could press the button once more with your foot off the clutch to get back to accessory, but it was irritating if you'd been listening to something over Bluetooth as it needed to reconnect, which took ages.

 

[Conscript]

Re the frozen washer fluid, when I collected my MX5 the only thing in the washer fluid tank was water, no screenwash! Must be a Japanese thing.

When they worked they did seem a bit soapy so I guess there must be some screenwash in there.

But I left home at about 7am this morning to drive to my parents, which is a 1h 40m drive. And they still hadn't thawed out by the time I arrived. As you can imagine, 100 miles of motorway in this grimy weather with no way to wash the screen wasn't all that fun. I ended up having to stop and squirt water from my drinks bottle over the screen.

 

[Electric Blue]

Thought I'd update this thread with some of the nice little details and improvements I've noticed in the few days since picking up the car (because I am a huge dullard who likes stuff like this):

- Cruise control: now tells you what the target speed is on the dash. Nice.
- The infotainment now doesn't shut off with the engine. It only shuts off when you go to open the drivers door. This means if you pull up somewhere and want to shut the engine off but keep listening to the radio (while waiting for someone for instance) you can do. In the old car, because it was keyless start on a button, there was no way to shut the engine off but still keep the accessory power on. Nice little touch.
- Heated mirrors are better. With the old car you could see the outline of the heating elements as they cleared. Now, the entirety of the glass seems to be uniformly heated. Means it clears with no dead spots. Was never an issue but seems like they are using better quality glass.
- They've added an extra washer jet for the windscreen giving better coverage (shame the bloody washer fluid has been frozen all day though)
- When pulling the passenger seat forward to access the rear seat, not only is there a latch at the top of the seat so you don't have to bend down, but the seat slides forward and locks until you lift the latch again to return it back. It's also easier to return it to the position it was set to initially.
- Rear seats can now be folded down from the boot. Much less of a pain than having to clamber into the rear to press both buttons at once.
- This one is more specific to Android Auto but it never worked properly on my old aftermarket head unit - the maps now switch between day and night mode based on the phone, not the car, when the lights are set to AUTO. So, if its still daylight but your headlights come on (going under a bridge or something) the map stays in day mode.
- Fuel flap doesn't need to be opened from inside thr car anymore. As long as the car is unlocked, you just press on the flap to open it.

Forget the bigger engine, sharper steering and stiffer chassis. This is what we all wanted really (right guys? GUYS?)

To continue the theme of dwelling on vanishingly insignificant points, a random one you might be able to answer - on my test drive, I had Android auto connected, headlights on (on, not auto), but the display was locked on full 11 brightness. When I went to settings to reduce the brightness, the brightness slider was greyed out and stuck on 11. I could only change the contrast. Any ideas?