GR86 Test Drives Email!

[BOOSTFAN]

Hope to get a phone call soon then. My nominated dealer is Wakefield, but due to the dealer driver training it will be done via Leeds anyways.
Do you have a date for your car yet?

My initial date was Feb but I changed Colour this week & now its May.
TBH I changed Colour on purpose to put the car back. My real priority is a new Type R, the price of which is announced at the end of this month.
My contact is Swara at Leeds, don't wait for a call, give her a ring.

 

[sgh]

My dealer has had their demo car for a week but still cant offer me test drive due to.... apparently.... missing paperwork from TUK ? They did say my car would be with them on the 2nd Dec. But no email or call asking for money yet. Worst car buying experience ever ? YES... Good job its a special car, and keep telling myself this to stay up beat. 10.14 order.

 

[Grblue86]

I'm testing that car today, received my own personalised video tour of the car yesterday afternoon from the salesman.

You may be testing it after I did. I was the 1pm. A bit bummed they only gave me 30min unaccompanied, it turned into 45min as I was blocked leaving out. Sorry, I left the fuel gauge on

Terrible weather, I hate my dodgy shoulder. I will maybe have to let it go if my shoulder doesn't get any better

 

[Hicko]

Well that was just absolutely magical. I had the car unaccompanied for an entire hour. It’s like a lil baby Porsche! I was really impressed with the seats. Somehow managed to be both comfortable and held me in place. I did a bit of motorway where I was met with a modified ek9 civic type R. We took it in turns to give it some beans then after a friendly thumbs up and a giggle I was onto country roads.

Unfortunately there was a big lorry going slow so I had to overtake on a long straight which is just devastating circumstance Ofc Some nice twisties, stopped at a pub car park to show it the wife who was too busy to come with, then it was back to the showroom.

Honestly if the car was in the colour I’ve picked I’m not sure I could’ve given it back lol. On another note, the car had a nextbase front and rear dashcam system fitted which was barely even noticeable and really well fitted so I enquired, £379 fitted. Sold!

 

[Conscript]

Unfortunately there was a big lorry going slow so I had to overtake on a long straight which is just devastating circumstance Ofc Some nice twisties, stopped at a pub car park to show it the wife who was too busy to come with, then it was back to the showroom.

If there's one area that really showed up the GT86's weaknesses, it was overtakes such as this. Much easier in the GR now it has more oomph, I hope?

 

[Hicko]

If there's one area that really showed up the GT86's weaknesses, it was overtakes such as this. Much easier in the GR now it has more oomph, I hope?

Absolutely, I was quite surprised that I didn’t really need to drop a gear at cruising speeds, it just picks up, very responsive.

 

[Conscript]

 

[Ersakus]

Absolutely, I was quite surprised that I didn’t really need to drop a gear at cruising speeds, it just picks up, very responsive.

First thing you’d do is to drop couple gears down and give it the beans as the power delivery is like on/off switch when overtaking in a gt86. (Just to avoid the dreaded torque dip)

 

[mackie]

Spoke to the main GR person at my dealer finally. Test drive booked for Saturday afternoon

 

[BigB]

You may be testing it after I did. I was the 1pm. A bit bummed they only gave me 30min unaccompanied, it turned into 45min as I was blocked leaving out. Sorry, I left the fuel gauge on

Terrible weather, I hate my dodgy shoulder. I will maybe have to let it go if my shoulder doesn't get any better

I had 40 mins unaccompanied. Left it still reading 28.3 mpg, presumably across a lively mix of driving styles, so that should calm a few nerves. I was also good, and kept it below 4000 rpm. No real noise intrusion below these revs, you can just start to hear it build at about 4000 though.

Impressed with the seats and the driving position, the ride is pretty tidy when pottering and suitably firm when pushing on. It was wet when I was out this afternoon, so nothing silly, but I did circle one of the empty roundabouts in the southern industrial estate and can confirm it's way better than I am. Front visibility good (at least 5'11"), and nicely framed by a thin strip of the bodywork paint, in this case bright blue, outlining the front edges.

Also pretty impressed with how flexible and torquey it feels, as happy in 5th as 3rd at 40mph, and will pull, so you could drive it briskly lazily if you wanted.

Handbrake, gearshift and pedals make it feel sporty - particularly the upright handbrake ergonomics (feels like it's there to facilitate use on the move) and the precise but slightly notchy shift.

Seats and trim felt ok, certainly compared to my low expectations. Rear window was rain-spattered - I'd forgotten about saloons and coupes not having rear wipers since the last time (Giulia).

I'd been thinking I might get away with treating this car as an occasional 3 seater, with the passenger seat slid forwards you'd get a little one in the back. Short people and very short journeys only, I think. I might get away with 2 + dog for lightly packed weekends. The back seat drops down as one, quite easily, and looks like it would take a fair amount of soft shallow luggage - maybe 2 sets of golf clubs without trolleys.

Indicator has soft and hard executions, soft gives you 3 blinks then stops. Hard doesn't always cancel (has to be close to 90 degrees turn, certainly more than 60/70), so on roads you know you'll end up indicating late and sometimes using the soft indicator instead of just indicating full.

The nice man was waiting for me when I returned (nervously) and tells me the system thinks I'm getting a delivery on 23/12 - who's been a good boy this year then.

 

[GRavel Trap]

Thanks everybody for these reviews

 

[Chrisshortys]

I had 40 mins unaccompanied. Left it still reading 28.3 mpg, presumably across a lively mix of driving styles, so that should calm a few nerves. I was also good, and kept it below 4000 rpm. No real noise intrusion below these revs, you can just start to hear it build at about 4000 though.

Impressed with the seats and the driving position, the ride is pretty tidy when pottering and suitably firm when pushing on. It was wet when I was out this afternoon, so nothing silly, but I did circle one of the empty roundabouts in the southern industrial estate and can confirm it's way better than I am. Front visibility good (at least 5'11"), and nicely framed by a thin strip of the bodywork paint, in this case bright blue, outlining the front edges.

Also pretty impressed with how flexible and torquey it feels, as happy in 5th as 3rd at 40mph, and will pull, so you could drive it briskly lazily if you wanted.

Handbrake, gearshift and pedals make it feel sporty - particularly the upright handbrake ergonomics (feels like it's there to facilitate use on the move) and the precise but slightly notchy shift.

Seats and trim felt ok, certainly compared to my low expectations. Rear window was rain-spattered - I'd forgotten about saloons and coupes not having rear wipers since the last time (Giulia).

I'd been thinking I might get away with treating this car as an occasional 3 seater, with the passenger seat slid forwards you'd get a little one in the back. Short people and very short journeys only, I think. I might get away with 2 + dog for lightly packed weekends. The back seat drops down as one, quite easily, and looks like it would take a fair amount of soft shallow luggage - maybe 2 sets of golf clubs without trolleys.

Indicator has soft and hard executions, soft gives you 3 blinks then stops. Hard doesn't always cancel (has to be close to 90 degrees turn, certainly more than 60/70), so on roads you know you'll end up indicating late and sometimes using the soft indicator instead of just indicating full.

The nice man was waiting for me when I returned (nervously) and tells me the system thinks I'm getting a delivery on 23/12 - who's been a good boy this year then.

I swung by Bracknell about 4 today on the way home but the car was out on a test drive!

Spoke to a young sales guy who’s attitude completely stank unfortunately compared to their sales manager who I met a few weeks before (I had been tempted to move garages but won’t now!)

 

[Chris Mc]

Today I was offered a test drive fpr the 17th of December. All the indications are that i will be receiving the car before that date though. Weird.

 

[cakper]

I had my test drive at Toyota Beadles Medway. The salesman that I was in touch with is called Steve - seemed quite excited about the car, and was very pleasant to deal with. I had a car for myself for 30 min and spent extra 10 min before trying out the car seats etc.

General impression: it’s a lovely car to drive! I think the last time I was smiling so much while driving a car was at Brands Hatch in a rally GT86. Very lively, great driving position and visibility, not too noisy inside. The gear knob is well positioned, handbrake definitely invites to be used, overall not much to complain about! From drivers perspective I‘m not a big fan of the noise it makes (something deeper would suit me better), the indicators will need some getting used to, and that’s about it?

As I have 2 kids, I did test the seats for occasional use, I’m attaching some pictures for those interested. The seat for the older kid is definitely usable with passenger in the front, but will depend on height. With the rear facing infant seat the story is not so good, I’m sure my wife will curse me when she will need to sit like that with a baby at the back!

 

[Grblue86]

I had my test drive at Toyota Beadles Medway. The salesman that I was in touch with is called Steve - seemed quite excited about the car, and was very pleasant to deal with. I had a car for myself for 30 min and spent extra 10 min before trying out the car seats etc.

General impression: it’s a lovely car to drive! I think the last time I was smiling so much while driving a car was at Brands Hatch in a rally GT86. Very lively, great driving position and visibility, not too noisy inside. The gear knob is well positioned, handbrake definitely invites to be used, overall not much to complain about! From drivers perspective I‘m not a big fan of the noise it makes (something deeper would suit me better), the indicators will need some getting used to, and that’s about it?

As I have 2 kids, I did test the seats for occasional use, I’m attaching some pictures for those interested. The seat for the older kid is definitely usable with passenger in the front, but will depend on height. With the rear facing infant seat the story is not so good, I’m sure my wife will curse me when she will need to sit like that with a baby at the back!


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I just bought a child seat, the graco slimfit LX which was reduced to 149.99 and from photos I have seen in another forum it should work great. But I am not convinced you can do long distances if your partner is higher than 1.70m

 

[cakper]

I just bought a child seat, the graco slimfit LX which was reduced to 149.99 and from photos I have seen in another photo it should work great. But I am not convinced you can do long distances if your partner is higher than 1.70m

The one on the photo is Cybex Solution Z-Fix. I didn't test it with the kid, as he is in school, but it looks reasonably ok.

Oh one thing I forgot, the mpg wasnt too bad.

 

[doogle83]

Apologies to whoever takes the Bracknell car out next... It got dirty!

 

[GRavel Trap]

Oi @doogle83! - that might be me at 10:00 tomorrow

It does look great with the sun on it though

 

[v8s]

Apologies to whoever takes the Bracknell car out next... It got dirty!

View attachment 9977

I see you made a token gesture to clean the sill with your trouser leg

 

[doogle83]

ok... FINALLY, time for some thoughts

Compared to the Yaris, as someone was asking... it's about as far away from the Yaris as you could get and it really depends what you're looking for in your driving experience. In the Yaris you get an angry little pug of a car with bags of torque, insane levels of grip, amusing turbo wooshes and a ton of pumped in engine noise. You can also fit in a family of 4, including a rear facing child seat. The downsides for me are the high driving position, massive rearview mirror / media screen setup ...and that's about it.

Jumping in the GR86 is a bit of a shock to the senses after the liberties you're able to take in the Yaris. It seems a very fun, lively car to drive and the speedo goes up pretty quickly even if the feeling of speed isn't quite there until you try to go round a corner (Just a lack of torque compared to the turbo I jumped out of 5 mins prior).

The driving position is excellent, as is the visibility out of the front of the car. The GR86 feels a lot lighter, more pointy and most definitely rear wheel drive. I saw a couple of people comparing it to Porsche and I do understand that, but you're immediately aware that the GR86's levels of grip are WAAYY lower than any Porsche I've driven. Some people will love that, others might have started to get spoilt by AWD and tons of grip

Slight downsides to the GR86... the interior feels cheaper than the Yaris IMO, just about everywhere. A big part of it is that media unit which looks bloody awful. The car was very quiet... and maybe I'm just used to pumped in audio but it was lacking any drama at all which is a shame if you want to keep your car stock. The gear knob is well positioned as said above and quite notchy but in bit of a cheap way... not as nicely weighted as the GRY when I jumped back in that to drive home.

The indicator stalk..... yeah, I mean you'll get used to that but what a rediciulous setup. Just do it normally Toyota!

oh, and there are no hooks to hang your suit up in the back, sorry

I'm a towering 5'8" and this is behind the driver's seat once I'd got set up. Aint no body fitting back there!

Slightly more positively, this is behind the passenger seat with me in a 'comfortable' (knees not quite touching the glovebox) position in the front seat.

You could definitely fit a kid back there and a half decent sized human in the front if the kid is in a front facing seat, you're happy with their feet messing up the back of your chair, and they're not going to feel sick with the tiny porthole which is the rear window.

Conclusion... it's very fun, I will buy it. It would be very easy to daily but in stock format I'm not quite sure whether it will be 'special' enough for me to keep long term as a 2nd car, especially when my kids won't come out with me in it. Lots to think about over the weekend but people are most definitely going to love these.