GR86 GR86 - My review after 3k miles and why I'm selling it.

James-UK

Totally Hooked
Apr 16, 2022
323
561
93
Lincolnshire
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.

  • 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.
So, I’ve tried to bullet point good vs bad because I think it’s easier to see however here are my actual thoughts.

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).
 
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Shame the cars not for you and that you're moving on so soon, especially after some of the mods you've made...but at least you'll be able to return a little profit while doing so. Can see merit in some of what you're saying, although I disagree with other bits (power mainly...the power is appropriate for the car and it's design brief now, that might not satisfy you personally but I'm don't think it justifies calling it flawed). But as you say, everything's subjective....I've really fallen for the GR86 personally.

One thing that stood out to me...why do you think it needs bigger rear wheels? As you've noted, it's not like the car is overpowered so traction isn't a big issue, and one of you major plus points was how planted and stable the car felt. Is this just a preference on your part?

Regardless, all the best with whatever you decide to do. Hope you're not left out of pocket selling on the GR :)
 
Shame the cars not for you and that you're moving on so soon, especially after some of the mods you've made...but at least you'll be able to return a little profit while doing so. Can see merit in some of what you're saying, although I disagree with other bits (power mainly...the power is appropriate for the car and it's design brief now, that might not satisfy you personally but I'm don't think it justifies calling it flawed). But as you say, everything's subjective....I've really fallen for the GR86 personally.

One thing that stood out to me...why do you think it needs bigger rear wheels? As you've noted, it's not like the car is overpowered so traction isn't a big issue, and one of you major plus points was how planted and stable the car felt. Is this just a preference on your part?

Regardless, all the best with whatever you decide to do. Hope you're not left out of pocket selling on the GR :)

Wheels are on the list of mods for me that I would do with forced induction, wouldn't do the wheels without putting FI on tbh. Unless you want to just change the aesthetics of course.
 
It's an honest, detailed appraisal James, and you've had the time to drive and judge the GR86 so I respect your position.

Perhaps your tastes and vehicular needs have adapted since your GT86 (x3) ownership.

Hopefully the GRY crew don't wander in to this section and read your views on that... ;)

Seriously, all the best in your automotive journey - I'd be interested to hear what you choose next.
 
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.

  • 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.

  • 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.
So, I’ve tried to bullet point good vs bad because I think it’s easier to see however here are my actual thoughts.

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).

I've read your full report James and since I have only driven the GR86 on a 40 minute unaccompanied test drive and haven't lived with the car as you have my views are somewhat limited.

However, what attracted me to the GR86 was the old school nature of the car, a naturally aspirated manual gearbox lightweight taking me back to my youth. A car not overburdened with technology that requires your efforts to truly enjoy its potential.

In the past I've owned two 5 litre V8 Mercedes. an Audi RS4, VW Corrado VR6 to name a few and my present F Type was initially to be the 5 litre V8 version but ended up buying what many believed was the sweet spot of the range a V6S . I love this car.

However, I have never forgotten my MGC GT. You had to work that car to make progress and I loved it.

The GR86 in many ways is a modern take on the MGC and I long for a return of having to put effort into driving quickly.

The Mercedes, Audi and F type (all automatic) are effortless and gain illegal speed quickly and are great cars. But they lack true driver involvement because they are to powerful.

However, I do agree with you on price, I had worked out for myself that the GR86 would end up costing me £40,000 due to the changes I wanted to make ie. wheels and tyres, brembo brake kit and exhaust replacement.
 
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I've read your full report James and since I have only driven the GR86 on a 40 minute unaccompanied test drive and haven't lived with the car as you have my views are somewhat limited.

However, what attracted me to the GR86 was the old school nature of the car, a naturally aspirated manual gearbox lightweight taking me back to my youth. A car not overburdened with technology that requires your efforts to truly enjoy its potential.

In the past I've owned two 5 litre V8 Mercedes. an Audi RS4, VW VR6 to name a few and my present F Type was initially to be the 5 litre V8 version but ended up buying what many believed was the sweet spot of the range a V6S .

However, I have never forgotten my MGC GT. You had to work that car to make progress and I loved it.

The GR86 in many ways is a modern take on the MGC and I long for a return of having to put effort into driving quickly.

The Mercedes, Audi and F type are effortless and gain illegal speed quickly and are great cars.

But they lack true involvement because they are to powerful.

However, I do agree with you on price, I had worked out for myself that the GR86 would end up costing me £40,000 due to the changes I wanted to make ie. wheels and tyres, brembo brake kit and exhaust replacement.

You have had similar cars to me, I think you will find the GR86 a bit slow to be honest. Maybe not initially, but long-term.
I hope I am wrong, one of the few times I'd enjoy being wrong to be honest. In the end cars are all subjective - what works for one, doesn't work for another.

I think if Toyota would let us tune this car and not let it void the warranty I'd probably keep it. Lets say with bolt ons and a good tune you could get an extra 30 hp. I think that would be fine. I think 230 is too low, 250... sure, 260 great. 300 perfect. That's where I'm at really...

It handles so well, it's lovely to drive. The steering is on point, you really feel connected to the road. However, even when you drive it at its hardest, at its limit, smashing that downshift to 2nd.... pushing it onto redline, shifting up to 3rd at exact moments. It's lacking that tiny bit of UMPH. That push isn't there. Thats where the car lets itself down to me. It just needs a bit more UMPH. Not huge amounts. But yeah... 30 hp wasn't enough.

To me the GR86 is like a NA Tuned GT86... if we NA tuned the GR86 we'd probably gain another 20-30. But, how can you do that on a 10 year warranty car? It just doesn't make sense. I'd love to tune it and keep it... but I can't kill the warranty like that. Not when you've got major potential issues with items like RTV sealant.

Ultimately, sadly, this is why I haven't tuned it.

But I'll keep checking back here and I look forward to when you receive your car, I'm curious to see what you think. As you have driven very similar cars as I have. I hope that you feel differently than I do because honestly the rest of the car is amazing and I was so happy with it!
 
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It's an honest, detailed appraisal James, and you've had the time to drive and judge the GR86 so I respect your position.

Perhaps your tastes and vehicular needs have adapted since your GT86 (x3) ownership.

Hopefully the GRY crew don't wander in to this section and read your views on that... ;)

Seriously, all the best in your automotive journey - I'd be interested to hear what you choose next.

I think my tastes have evolved since my ownership of GT86s. But also, I think my driving ability changed too... I think the GT86 and GR86 for that matter will improve your driving as a whole because you really have to drive the car to its limits to extract every little bit of performance. That in turn does make you better... I think I just expected more from the GR86 and sadly, it hasn't delivered.

It's an evolution for sure, not a revolution and I think I had hyped myself up for a revolution. The same flaws in my GT86's are still in the GR86. As are all the amazing features and wonderful parts. No car is perfect and I think our cars have very few compromises in reality, I just think we're missing some power. So my quest to find a perfect car continues haha.

My first 86:

IMG_20200301_152052.webp



white-edited.webp




My second 86 was white too... so no point haha.
My third 86:

IMG_20210226_152306.webp



IMG_20210226_152314.webp
 
Good to have this other side for balance. Easy to get carried away now that suddenly 'everyone' is so positive about the GR86.

I don't want a GR86 because I've owned a mentioned NA tuned GT86 also much improved in handling, and I sold that because I felt I have mastered that car. No point in repeating that exercise in what effectively is twice the price point now where I live.

As for the GR Yaris. Mine is modified already to adress subjective shortcomings (relatively minor as I 'fine-tune' all my beloved driver's cars), I'm happy to keep my 10 year warranty for unrelated parts....
 
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This is a really interesting thread and a useful counterpoint as @Onehp says to all the gushing praise the GR86 had received.

This praise is mostly deserved in my humble opinion (so far), but as you quite rightly say @James-UK cars are subjective.

Best of all is the respectful, measured, considered discourse despite the being some differing views.
 
Agree with some of that but not all. Some of your views are because you've experienced faster stuff more regularly and have totally done the 86 platform so there's nothing to gain for you from it which is fair enough. It's why I'm done with FWD cars as apart from the FK8 Type-R, there's not one that would make me go back to it as I've learned all I can from it.

I'd agree paint is a weakness. It's too soft. You have to be so careful even breathing on it. Brakes could be better but that's an easy fix, as is noise which I've done and any geo tweaks. Since manufacturers can't make cars one dimensional there will always be compromises. I find the infotainment fine. Does all I need it to do.
 
Best of all is the respectful, measured, considered discourse despite the being some differing views.
Well screw that, this guy wears crocs and we cannot trust a word he says!

Enjoy your ugly 2 series BMW, at least it'll fly under the radar with all the other boring shitboxes on the road.

🤪
 
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Well screw that, this guy wears crocs and we cannot trust a word he says!

Enjoy your ugly 2 series BMW, at least it'll fly under the radar with all the other boring shitboxes on the road.

🤪
@Pappyjohn - I think it was your good self who requested on my woke, left liberal elite 'thank you' thread that you wanted it to be a little more Pistonheads on here... ;)
 
Well screw that, this guy wears crocs and we cannot trust a word he says!

Enjoy your ugly 2 series BMW, at least it'll fly under the radar with all the other boring shitboxes on the road.

🤪
Go for the new m2 and you'll get extra brownie points for the front end. 😁
 
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Great write up. It's a surprise as you seemed super keen on the car until now.

At what point did you decide the car wasn't for you or was it a feeling you had the entire time?
 
To me the GR86 is like a NA Tuned GT86... if we NA tuned the GR86 we'd probably gain another 20-30. But, how can you do that on a 10 year warranty car? It just doesn't make sense. I'd love to tune it and keep it... but I can't kill the warranty like that. Not when you've got major potential issues with items like RTV sealant.

Ultimately, sadly, this is why I haven't tuned it.
I guess this is a moot point if you've already made your decision, but I don't think the warranty should stop you (or anyone) if tuning is what you want to do. Yes, you would probably risk the warranty on the powertrain, but surely the same applied to your previous GT86s...and didn't you tune them also? I presumed you had, as if even the new car doesn't have enough power to satisfy you, I can't see how you would have enjoyed 3x GT86s with ~25bhp/ton less. And it's not like the entire warranty will be null and void.

As for the RTV sealant issue, this seems to have been a storm in a teacup. I remember everyone losing their minds about this, proclaiming it would lead to the destruction of every BRZ/GR86 on the road. Yet the car has been out for over a year now, is in the hands of thousands of owners worldwide racking up lots of miles, and I don't think there have been more than a handful of engine failures that could be directly attributed to RTV sealant problems. And if you were going to void the engine warranty to tune the car, then it wouldn't be much more work to just drop the sump and clean up the oil pickup.

What I'm getting at is that it feels that you are trying to spin the 10 year warranty as a negative for 'preventing' you from tuning, which is a little unfair. It might dissuade you from doing so, but it's no different to the GT86 - that also had a long warranty, yet still, it didn't stop people from tuning them with good results. If you really feel that an extra 30hp would give you the perfect car, then I wouldn't let the prospect of possibly voiding part of your warranty stop you.

But then I suppose you've already arrived at the conclusion that you may as well buy a car with an extra 30hp anyway, so maybe I'll stop rambling.
 
I would go the 240i route but it would have to be incredible to get past the looks, because my god is it hideous, honestly one of the worst looking coupes to embrace 4 wheels. Not fancy another Porsche James?
 
Thanks James for your review,

I agree with the comments about the infotainment system, i'm hoping there will be an upgrade for it some time in the future. The exhaust could be better and the brakes need to be better. I like the size of the tyres, there's enough grip to drive quick but you can still get it to slide if you want to and they are cheap to replace. I can replace all four tyres on the GR86 for the same price as one rear tyre on my old Z4. Fuel economy, yes it's a bit thirsty compared to other similar bhp turbo powered cars but it's not horrendous. I'm a big fan of NA engines, if i could afford it i'd buy a Porsche Cayman GT4, or an LFA or the GMA T33. Personally i don't understand the comment of the GR86 being slow. Slow compared to what? 0-60mph in 6 seconds is pretty good. I've owned much faster cars and on UK roads you just can't enjoy them or find the limits with out losing your license. When all is said and done, i can't see any other sports car for £30K that i'd want to buy. Even up to £40K there is nothing that appeals.
 
I guess this is a moot point if you've already made your decision, but I don't think the warranty should stop you (or anyone) if tuning is what you want to do. Yes, you would probably risk the warranty on the powertrain, but surely the same applied to your previous GT86s...and didn't you tune them also? I presumed you had, as if even the new car doesn't have enough power to satisfy you, I can't see how you would have enjoyed 3x GT86s with ~25bhp/ton less. And it's not like the entire warranty will be null and void.

As for the RTV sealant issue, this seems to have been a storm in a teacup. I remember everyone losing their minds about this, proclaiming it would lead to the destruction of every BRZ/GR86 on the road. Yet the car has been out for over a year now, is in the hands of thousands of owners worldwide racking up lots of miles, and I don't think there have been more than a handful of engine failures that could be directly attributed to RTV sealant problems. And if you were going to void the engine warranty to tune the car, then it wouldn't be much more work to just drop the sump and clean up the oil pickup.

What I'm getting at is that it feels that you are trying to spin the 10 year warranty as a negative for 'preventing' you from tuning, which is a little unfair. It might dissuade you from doing so, but it's no different to the GT86 - that also had a long warranty, yet still, it didn't stop people from tuning them with good results. If you really feel that an extra 30hp would give you the perfect car, then I wouldn't let the prospect of possibly voiding part of your warranty stop you.

But then I suppose you've already arrived at the conclusion that you may as well buy a car with an extra 30hp anyway, so maybe I'll stop rambling.
This. For me the warranty is 3 years. The second I pay for it, it will never see a dealer again, save perhaps a yearly pilgrimage up to RRG Macclesfield. And even before this I fully intend to change for better brake pads and other small things like the exhaust, etc to customise it a bit. Voiding warranty is the price you pay. If it goes wrong it's on you but you know this before you do it.

One thing I've learned over the years is power isn't everything and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you like straight lines and relying on power to make progress that's fine but it's never been about that and neither have I which is why it's ideal for me. The power that's corrupted me is my bike and is why I don't chase it in cars anymore. There's no point once you've had bike fast. It's so visceral that no car can compete. The roads I daily and the roads I play on it's ideal. When I went up to North Wales I was playing with R8 V10's, Megane R26's, track spec Golf GTi's and even a GR Yaris on the way home and it didn't feel out of place once and all the drivers on that trip got it.

The GR86 like it's predecessors and the MX5 is a car designed to be tinkered with. You can take it down any path you want and forever tinker with it which is part of the fun. If you don't like something, change it. The infotainment is a simple double DIN and there's tons of options out there should you want to. Every car has faults and weak points but that's what tuning is. Find the weak spots, improve, test and repeat. Most of us have some ideas where we'd like to take it already which is cool and I'm fascinated to where we all end up at the end of it. For me the 86 I'll keep long after I end up getting a sensible daily again and settling down. No car is perfect but this does a good 85-90% of what I want from it. 5% will be small things, the rest will be a 2nd daily for carrying but that's a long way off.
 
It's a good job we're all different, otherwise we'd all be driving around in the same car (ok, I know that most of the population seem to be the same and are driving around in SUVs nowadays!).
Thanks for taking the time to do a detailed review, it was an interesting read.
Some of us want power, some handling, all of us would like both, but then there's the fact that cars cost money, and some are willing to spend far more than others.
I had the itch that needed scratching of more power - I went from an Abarth 124 Spider to an F-Type and then a 3.0 Supra, the Supra was much more enjoyable to me than the F-Type, but neither were as fun as the Abarth. For me the GR86 has given me the fun I was craving again from the Abarth, plus better handling, more power and way more practicality - perspectives really do come from what you are comparing to.
No car is perfect for all, which is why exhausts and wheels are swapped, some add spoilers, and others prefer the looks without, but it's always an option to change to suit, it all depends how far you're willing to risk it with the warranty.
Good luck on your search for your next car, and I'm sure the next owner will be very grateful this wasn't the car for you.
 
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