GR86 – A good car. But I don’t think it’s one of the greats. Good, but not great.
(in stock form) I think it has the potential to be amazing and one of the best cars EVER, but I think you need to spend money on it…
This is my personal review after driving the car from 10 miles all the way up to 3100 miles. I have modified my car, made it to my taste. I have driven the car for over 95 hours according to the car screen information section.
As for my driving history… I’ve driven Vans… I’ve had a Jaguar F-Type 5.0 litre, I’ve driven Discoverys / Range Rovers and 3 GT86s. I’ve driven Caymans, 911s and I’ve driven these cars on tracks and road. I’ve even had a Caterham and loved it! I’ve driven Skodas… I’ve driven VW. I just love cars… I’ve driven everything haha. I am an experienced driver and track cars and go to car events. Although, I never had chance to track the GR86.
As for the GR86 I feel this is a very fair and robust test. I’ve driven the car to its absolute limits in terms of grip, engine and everything. I’ve driven it hard (after warming it up) and it’s put a smile on my face.
However, no car is without compromises and I think the GR86 has too many for me and ultimately, it’s why I’m going to walk away.
Firstly let’s talk about the good.
Let’s move onto Bad points:
Review:
The car feels amazing to drive hard. I don’t think it feels good at slow speeds. I think the engine is unrefined. I think it sounds like a diesel sometimes at low speeds… it’s quite disturbing.
It feels fantastic to throw round corners, and with my exhaust (cobra non-res) it feels like I’m going a million miles an hour. When in reality I’m at road legal speeds – which is good for your licence! But, this car biggest short-coming is also that… it isn’t fun to go round a slow corner and then get to a big straight and just been waiting and waiting for the power to kick up. I’m red lining in these situations, im shifted down to second gear… the car needs to pick up faster and it just doesn’t. It feels seriously underwhelming in these conditions. Equally, when you hit a motorway and some little diesel is right behind you because your car looks like it’ll do 200 mph… but in reality it struggles to get to 100 in a respectful time… (not that I am advocating doing 100mph, but it’s hyperbole)
However, I love the rest of the car. So, what does this car need? It needs a supercharger – I dislike turbos. But Supercharger… yes. Love that whine and 70-100 HP on this car and wow it would be ruthless… truly mind-blowing.
But I can’t do it. I can’t drop £3k on wheels, I can’t drop £2-3k on big brake kit and then £5k on a super charger. I just can’t do it. Financially, it doesn’t make sense to do. You kill the warranty and the car isn’t worth dropping £10k on. It just isn’t.
What have I decided to do?
Well I am thinking of a few options. My life is changing for a few reasons and I may require a bigger car a 4x4… my Landrover is out of action at the moment it blew up. And I’ve sold my F-Type to Motorway… so I’m still thinking what to do.
GR Yaris – No – ugly – boring – and still quite slow. I’ve test drove one and was seriously underwhelmed. Yes the 50-50 distribution in track mode is cool, but meh it don’t make it better. It’s a hatchback and it’s dull to look at. Also, 3 colours? Are you kidding me? Red, white and black? Just a joke.
2022-23 GR Supra – A contender – it’s a BMW with a Toyota warranty for 10 years. What’s not to love? (£45k 3.0 litre one – I wouldn’t even blink at a 2.0.)
2022-23 BMW – G42 – m240i – A contender – it’s the same engine as the Supra the B58 and its 370 horse power (42-47k)
Supra and the m240i both have lovely well-made interiors. You can feel the quality.
So… it’s between those 2 “fun cars” as I would call them.
But my third and final option is to buy just 1 multi-purpose 4x4… some luxury car at £70-100k…. that isn’t a range rover because I’m never buying a Jag/LR product ever again. I’ve had 2 engines blow up now in my LR. It’s actually the thing that made me sell my Jaguar… as I was debating keeping it. But now its out of warranty 3 years old I just can’t…
I think I am leaning towards the m240i/supra option and then buying myself a replacement 4x4, maybe even a double-cab pickup as I like to have a work horse – dog mobile.
--------
Anyway cars are subjective, you have to drive them to know and the reality is after 3k miles I don’t feel the same love for this car.
What I will say is this. This is my 4th GT86 …. I’ve had 3 86s and this is the 4th as a GR obviously. Perhaps that’s why it doesn’t feel so special to me. It just feels like a minor upgrade, not even a major one really.
Don’t get me wrong, these are good cars and the smiles you get from them… fantastic. But they’re not quick, they’re also quite thirsty, quite basic.
Too long didn’t read:
Handling – sublime. Really love it.
Power – dislike it
Looks – Love it
MPG – She’s a thirsty girl
Interior – A bit dated – poor vs competitors
---
My Score/Rating:
7/10 – with the potential to be a 9/10 if you are prepared to drop money on forced induction, big brake kit and bigger wheels/tyres (due to increased HP, you would need them).
(in stock form) I think it has the potential to be amazing and one of the best cars EVER, but I think you need to spend money on it…
This is my personal review after driving the car from 10 miles all the way up to 3100 miles. I have modified my car, made it to my taste. I have driven the car for over 95 hours according to the car screen information section.
As for my driving history… I’ve driven Vans… I’ve had a Jaguar F-Type 5.0 litre, I’ve driven Discoverys / Range Rovers and 3 GT86s. I’ve driven Caymans, 911s and I’ve driven these cars on tracks and road. I’ve even had a Caterham and loved it! I’ve driven Skodas… I’ve driven VW. I just love cars… I’ve driven everything haha. I am an experienced driver and track cars and go to car events. Although, I never had chance to track the GR86.
As for the GR86 I feel this is a very fair and robust test. I’ve driven the car to its absolute limits in terms of grip, engine and everything. I’ve driven it hard (after warming it up) and it’s put a smile on my face.
However, no car is without compromises and I think the GR86 has too many for me and ultimately, it’s why I’m going to walk away.
Firstly let’s talk about the good.
- Car looks amazing – proper head turner. I get people constantly looking at it. Like its an exotic car… I think it helps having a small registration plate too. Really helps that exotic feel. Now this is a good and bad thing, but we’ll talk about the good for now. It makes you feel like the car is worth a lot more than £31k that’s for sure. It feels special. It makes you feel special. I’m quite a modest person, but even I enjoy that attention… it appeals to the inner cat in all of us.
- Power band – the torque is far improved than the GT86… you can drive this car at 3-4k rpm and have max performance, rather than having to red-line every single gear to get absolute every horse galloping.
- Handling – steering wheel feel is fantastic. Really good feedback. Good steering wheel, and the body handles brilliantly. I can line up corners and taking apex’s very easily.
- Car is planted – It really is stable… I’ve pushed this car hard in very adverse weather with traction control off and really drove hard and deliberately tried to get the rear end out. It’s like its stuck on rails, in a good way, it’s brilliant. The PS4s are superb and the feedback is excellent, you can tell when the tyre is going to give.
- 10-year Warranty – providing you service it with Toyota. That’s 10 years of worry-free motoring… it simply does not exist in any other brand. (Kia is 7 years)
- Cheap – lets face it… we moan about stealer prices…. But £300 for a service nowadays is “cheap”. The brakes are cheap, the oil is cheap. Everything is cheap in comparison to some brands. I remember taking my Mercedes AMG for a service and they charged me £300 for the privilege of putting some oil and lubricants on the sunroof… absolute (insert your favourite explicit word here).
- Unique – there’s only going to ever be a handful of these cars on the road… 400 is nothing. Unless they release a second batch and even then, it’ll still be rare.
Let’s move onto Bad points:
- Limited horse power – so this car isn’t fast. It never will be fast and you’re kidding yourself if you think it is fast. What this car is, is a momentum car just like the previous GT86. It’s better, the power band is more accessible and there is certainly more power. I’ve wanted to love this car… I’ve tried to force myself to love it. But it lacks power, and it is a major flaw. It’s clear to me that they couldn’t add a Turbo to this because it would be better than the Supra easily…
- Exotic looks - beautiful - but parking is a nightmare. You and I both know it... it looks something special. People (the general public) are nobheads at the best of times. It's a bit of a worry leaving your car as some idiot that doesn't realise its a £31k Toyota think's you're showing off... Attention is good and bad, sometimes you just want to cruise around and not bring attention to yourself. Equally, when you're in bad areas and unfortunately we all have to go to them sometimes... it's not such a nice experience. You draw the wrong attention...
- 10 year warranty – yes… you heard/read that right. The 10 year warranty is amazing, but it also stops you modifying this car. Why would you ever risk your warranty? So it’s a double edged sword. It stops you fixing the things that this car needs.
- Poor MPG – this is a light weight car and to be honest I’m at 24-25 mpg… I drive hard but yeah this is low. Previous GT86’s were 30… and my i20n was 32-35… this is quite poor in comparison. I don’t really care, that much… I still keeping putting in the v-power but yeah it isn’t a cheap car on petrol tbh. If you drive it line a granny and get 40 mpg. Good for you, but you’re not driving the car, not really.
- Insurance - I've had some pretty rare cars before, some pretty powerful cars... up to 500 hp, and this is more expensive than them? Have a look at the end of this review of my future car choices... all of these cars are CHEAPER by over £100 a year than my GR86, which makes ZERO sense. 230 horses vs 400.... and less valuable? It is mind boggling why this car is grouped so highly.
- Clunky gear box – I think it’s too notchy, second gear when cold isn’t great to shift to. When it’s warm its quite nice, but it takes quite a long time to warm up… a good 20 minute drive really, same applies to the differential oil at the back. Car requires a good warm up before it feels right. You might see this as a nag, but, I’m willing to bet most peoples commutes are 15-30 minutes on average. Is your car even fully warmed up by then? Probably not
- Clutch – it just isn’t perfect. It’s not quite right, you get use to it and people will say such lines as “it makes you a better driver”. I’m sorry, I’ve driven manuals for over 15 years in all the big performance brands and names, never have I come across such a clutch at low-speeds like this one. I’ve got use to it, and I can drive it very well now. But it isn’t right… just because you get use to something, doesn’t make it right. It’s a poor clutch, on a poor spring, mounted to a notchy gear-box. Driving this car hard, and you never ever notice the clutch nor gear-box being a problem… it’s clearly been tuned and setup for hard-driving. But the problem is, majority of drives are not hard-spirited drives with nothing else on the road.
- Wheels/Brakes – Needs bigger wheels at the back, staggered setup for sure. Needs bigger, better brakes too. (this would be for FI route)
- No forced induction option – discussed already.
- It’s a sports car, it isn’t practical. It’s a 2-seater… maybe 3 at a push. It’s low down to the ground, not the easiest car to get in/out of in some parking places. Because of how wide the doors are.
- Poor interior – better than GT, but it’s still lacking. It feels cheap in places. The screen is already dated in my opinion. Lack of tech features that really should be standard nowadays, particularly from Japanese brands. Have a look at Hyundai and Kia… i20n, i30n. No heads-up display, no customisable options. Compare this to Hyundai and you’ve got over 72 settings to adjust to make your own personal individual car.
- No rev matching – auto blip should be on this car, why isn’t it? It really should be. Yes, I can heel toe, but it isn’t as good as computer that is blipping to the exact RPM required for the downshift, I am doing… and sometimes I want to be lazy. It should be a button just like it is on the Yaris.
- Poor cousin – We are the poor cousin compared to the Yaris and Supra. I feel like they’ve deliberately made this car worse. This platform has the potential to be better than the Yaris and better than the Supra, but they don’t want it to be.
- Exhaust – it’s silent? Is this a prius or a GR86? Who knows!? You have to modify the exhaust. Again… see i20n for their exhaust… which falls under the same emissions. So, it can be done, Toyota just didn’t want to.
- Cold start – ironically, the only time the exhaust isn’t silent. Why is it so loud? Why does it last so long? Why can’t this be turned on/off.
- Price point – 31k is a good chunk of change for what is an unfinished car. Let’s say you spend £9k on this car… and make it perfect. For £40k you can buy some very good cars stock…
- Boring colours – subjective – but there are no fun colours for this car from the factory. Where are the greens? Where are the yellows? The bright, the obnoxious, the “wow”. The electric blue was kinda wow… but years ago. They’re late the party now with the blue. Where was the Mclaren bright orange GR86? This car is crying out for some colours.. I was genuinely looking at wrapping my car in some sort of Green in the future.
- Fragile paint work – the paint is quite poor to say the least.
- Dealing with Toyota garages – They can stamp GR performance centre on their brand. They still are mainly servicing hybrids and some yaris’. It’s very dealer dependent on who you get. You can find great garages that have amazing technicians. But mostly not, they’re use to serving little old dears not performance enthusiasts. It’s a different niche.
- Poor headlights – the LED headlines on dipped beam are one of the poorest lights I’ve ever used. I actually think the original GT86 lights were better. Full beam is a different story, it’s brilliant. The lights how they follow the steering wheel and the little dance they do when you start the car. Fantastic.
- Body kits – extras – No rear spoiler as standard on our cars is a joke.
Review:
The car feels amazing to drive hard. I don’t think it feels good at slow speeds. I think the engine is unrefined. I think it sounds like a diesel sometimes at low speeds… it’s quite disturbing.
It feels fantastic to throw round corners, and with my exhaust (cobra non-res) it feels like I’m going a million miles an hour. When in reality I’m at road legal speeds – which is good for your licence! But, this car biggest short-coming is also that… it isn’t fun to go round a slow corner and then get to a big straight and just been waiting and waiting for the power to kick up. I’m red lining in these situations, im shifted down to second gear… the car needs to pick up faster and it just doesn’t. It feels seriously underwhelming in these conditions. Equally, when you hit a motorway and some little diesel is right behind you because your car looks like it’ll do 200 mph… but in reality it struggles to get to 100 in a respectful time… (not that I am advocating doing 100mph, but it’s hyperbole)
However, I love the rest of the car. So, what does this car need? It needs a supercharger – I dislike turbos. But Supercharger… yes. Love that whine and 70-100 HP on this car and wow it would be ruthless… truly mind-blowing.
But I can’t do it. I can’t drop £3k on wheels, I can’t drop £2-3k on big brake kit and then £5k on a super charger. I just can’t do it. Financially, it doesn’t make sense to do. You kill the warranty and the car isn’t worth dropping £10k on. It just isn’t.
What have I decided to do?
Well I am thinking of a few options. My life is changing for a few reasons and I may require a bigger car a 4x4… my Landrover is out of action at the moment it blew up. And I’ve sold my F-Type to Motorway… so I’m still thinking what to do.
GR Yaris – No – ugly – boring – and still quite slow. I’ve test drove one and was seriously underwhelmed. Yes the 50-50 distribution in track mode is cool, but meh it don’t make it better. It’s a hatchback and it’s dull to look at. Also, 3 colours? Are you kidding me? Red, white and black? Just a joke.
2022-23 GR Supra – A contender – it’s a BMW with a Toyota warranty for 10 years. What’s not to love? (£45k 3.0 litre one – I wouldn’t even blink at a 2.0.)
2022-23 BMW – G42 – m240i – A contender – it’s the same engine as the Supra the B58 and its 370 horse power (42-47k)
Supra and the m240i both have lovely well-made interiors. You can feel the quality.
So… it’s between those 2 “fun cars” as I would call them.
But my third and final option is to buy just 1 multi-purpose 4x4… some luxury car at £70-100k…. that isn’t a range rover because I’m never buying a Jag/LR product ever again. I’ve had 2 engines blow up now in my LR. It’s actually the thing that made me sell my Jaguar… as I was debating keeping it. But now its out of warranty 3 years old I just can’t…
I think I am leaning towards the m240i/supra option and then buying myself a replacement 4x4, maybe even a double-cab pickup as I like to have a work horse – dog mobile.
--------
Anyway cars are subjective, you have to drive them to know and the reality is after 3k miles I don’t feel the same love for this car.
What I will say is this. This is my 4th GT86 …. I’ve had 3 86s and this is the 4th as a GR obviously. Perhaps that’s why it doesn’t feel so special to me. It just feels like a minor upgrade, not even a major one really.
Don’t get me wrong, these are good cars and the smiles you get from them… fantastic. But they’re not quick, they’re also quite thirsty, quite basic.
Too long didn’t read:
Handling – sublime. Really love it.
Power – dislike it
Looks – Love it
MPG – She’s a thirsty girl
Interior – A bit dated – poor vs competitors
---
My Score/Rating:
7/10 – with the potential to be a 9/10 if you are prepared to drop money on forced induction, big brake kit and bigger wheels/tyres (due to increased HP, you would need them).
Last edited: