86 Reasons

Podcast Episode: 0213
Why did we get a new Toyota Sports Car?

    Why did Toyota make a new sports car when the industry is dying out?  AutoLooks takes a look at why the 86-BRZ siblings were brought out and why they went back to their past to find out how to build the ultimate entry level sports car that would work in the market today.

     ​Well, I was back in college and I was at an old electronics store Future Shop to be exact when I found it, this DVD. My buddy and I had gotten into Japanese animation shows through Dragon Ball Z and, well, let's just say, Pokémon got a lot of us into it. But we were expanding out and getting into new shows and I found this new one with a car I'd seen as a child but I never thought it was that cool. The show was Initial D and in it was an 86 Corolla and in North America, as we call it, it was an 86 Corolla GTS, but on the other side of the pond it was an AE86. Yeah, you all know the car I'm talking about. That black and white Panda Racer from Initial D Takumi takes that thing through the mountain passes and does amazing things with it. That was a vehicle there and during one of the biggest times in drifting in Japanese culture in the 1980s, all from a grocery getter created to help families out. Well, it seems that this car is back and the company behind it, through a joint venture to make more profit, offer their product platform. Today we're going to be taking a look at the brand new AE86 and its BRZ sibling.
 
      Welcome back to the AutoLooks podcast. I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our main host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by, check it out, read some of the ratings, check out some of the reviews and go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all Corporate Links websites to all the major automotive corporations from around the globe. Like I said, big or small, we have them all on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by Podbeam.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. So, like I said in the beginning, the AE86. 

       This was a car that blew up on the scene all thanks to a little shellcode called Initial D. Now, initial D started out as a manga series, essentially just a comic book, turned into a television series in the late 90s and blew up this tiny little Corolla GTS showcasing what we could do. But during the days just after Fast and the Furious, when people started looking at just going fast in a straight line as boring, a couple people were playing around with the idea of sliding around and similar to this conception, like monster trucks. Back in the 1970s, formula d became a secondary show to main automotive events. Within two years it blew up on the scene. It became a host racing series as we know it today.
 
      Formula D and drifting. Well, the little Corolla GTS was one of the most famous cars for drifting, next to the Silvia and the GTR. We all remember those cars for drifting. We all remember those cars for having fun. Sports cars you have to remember the 1980s and 90s were filled with sports cars.
 
     This was a generation after the Baby Boomers. The baby boomers had muscle cars and their kids or their very young siblings were just getting into the market and they all wanted to have fun, just like their previous siblings or parents. And like them, they were getting into the automotive market at a young age. So, they were getting in and they wanted fun, fast little cars. Now, sure, the oil embargo in the 1970s really put a nail into the coffin of the big, burly V8 cars that you found everywhere during the 60s and 70s. But even though we had an oil embargo and a lot of vehicles were getting smaller, sure, four-cylinders and V6s weren't heard of back in the days of the muscle car era. But now they were. You could tune these cars to go faster, you can have fun with them. 

​      And because the Japanese had blown up on the scene in the 1980s with the Asian invasion, even though they pre-existed 20 years previous to that, they were blowing up and with it they brought all their fun little cars, these tiny little cars with not a ton of horsepower but a ton of potential. Where in North America we were used to getting these big, burly V8 with all the power in them, right off the factory floor, the Japanese weren't Due to the gentleman's rule in their home country. They weren't producing these sports cars with the maximum amount of horsepower that they could, and people wanted that. So, people started tuning them. We started getting products like the AE86, the original Sup, the RX-7s, the 300ZXs, all these amazing sports cars. We grew up with them. We had them. They were fun, they were fast, they were amazing little cars. By the time the fast and furious came around, the party was over. Sports cars were dying breed.
 
       In a last-ditch effort in the early 2000s, try and rejuvenate the sports car industry as being very unsuccessful In the days of the early 2000s, with a generation not willing to jump into a vehicle at the age of 17, with higher restrictions for driving, more safety concerns and an inability to do as much customization as you could during the 80s and 90s. Due to these new regulations, the aftermarket industry was changing and with it the cars were changing and the consumers were changing. Consumers were moving away from sports cars because a generation was being lost in this industry. The Fast and the Furious showed us all these amazing cars we had in the 90s. We were able to buy them in the early 2000s for dirt cheap and do all this stuff to them. But because the aftermarket industry relies on the used car market to give it what it needs, a lack of new interest into all these new sports cars was waning Coupes, convertibles and sports cars. 

​      By the financial crisis in 2008, that market had taken a major hit and we had lost some of the great ones. The Eclipse was on its way out, the Supra was gone, the RX-7 was completely gone and all of the small ones the MR2, the Celica, the 200SX, the 240SX, the MX-3s, the MX-6s hell. The S2000 was on its way out. There was no more CRXs or Del Sols. All of those fun cars were disappearing and they were disappearing at an alarming rate. No more coupe models, no more could you get an Accord coupe, and the days of the Civic coupe were dying out Hell. The days of the Civic hatchback were completely numbered in the North American marketplace by the financial crisis. We were losing all of this fun and, as we talked about in a previous podcast, the lack of fun in the automotive industry. The 2008 financial crisis was essentially the major nail into the coffin of the automotive industry.
 
      After that, people started waiting longer. We now had a new generation, this up-and-coming millennial, where it was split between the ones who wanted to have cars at a young age and the other half that said no, I'm just going to move to an urban city so I could just walk everywhere. We were more about being healthy. We didn't care about living in suburban hell and having all these cool cars and just driving everywhere, because congestion was a bigger problem than any generation before us. We weren't jumping into bed with brand new vehicles. We didn't want something and we were more likely to make our first purchase of a vehicle by the time we turned 25 than by the time we turned 18. That's seven years and within seven years, by the time you turn 25, you don't start looking at the fun industry, you don't look at the sports car industry. You look at getting your family around, getting your friends around.
 
      How many of us me being myself, somebody in his 40s, anyone out there listening in their 30s, or even 40s, or even 50s? How many of you remember being that one person with a car driving all your friends around because none of them had cars? How many of you know somebody who lived in a city where one of your friends had a vehicle where you can go out on the weekends out of town, but everybody else just took public transit? They didn't think of vehicles. How my brother, who's three years older than me he's 45, has never owned a vehicle in his entire life. I have four right now, but because I decided to forego getting a vehicle at a younger age, by the time I entered the marketplace, sports cars were harder to come by Hell. Even coupes and convertibles were harder to come by, and even the prices of new ones out there were extravagant. 

​      The days of the Ford Mustang being an affordable vehicle for somebody who was in high school to get their hands on before graduation no longer existed. The days of tiny little sports cars like the Toyota Paseo and Nissan 200SX were gone. You couldn't even get these small, tiny little micro sports vehicles. Those days were numbered. But with the 2008 financial crisis, General Motors decided to get rid of a lot of divisions and cut loose a whole bunch of partnerships it once had. Ford managed to get rid of its premier automotive group and Chrysler had completely gone bankrupt and was bought out by Fiat. General Motors cleaned house. It got rid of all the underperforming divisions, with Saab being killed off, hummer being killed off, Pontiac being killed off, Saturn completely gutted and gone. The ones they knew were still profitable, that they didn't own themselves. They would sell off. They sold off their controlling interest in both Suzuki and Subaru.
 
     Toyota at this time was blowing up, whereas the new generation was more environmentally conscious. In 1997, they released their Prius, the first-generation Prius, which actually was a sedan, not a hatch. By the time, the third generation was upon us, we were in love. We loved the Prius, we loved these hybrids, we loved saving the world. By the time, we were getting into vehicles. We were getting into these environmentally friendly vehicles. We wanted to save the world. We didn't want to go out and have fun.
 
      So, we now have an entire decade lost to the sports car industry. There's nothing out there. The aftermarket industry has nothing to work with. All they have are sedans Hell, today, all they have are CUVs. But with the sell-off of Fuji Industrial, the parent company of Subaru, Toyota took an interest and with their global market share growing and finally surpassing General Motors, Toyota finally realized where the heresy of Toyota took an interest and with their global market share growing and finally surpassing General Motors, Toyota finally realized or the heresy of Toyota took over that they had lost the fun in the brand. There was no Supra, there was no Celica, there was no MR2. Even the Camry XSE was bland and boring. He saw that his car company was boring. Sure, they built some of the best quality vehicles on the market. They hit every part of the marketplace in every major segment and they ruled nearly every single segment. But he realized they may have ruled that, but there was no fun in the brand Putting together a crack team. He decided to start looking into creating a brand new Supra, realizing that this generation that was lost and never got into the sports car industry would eventually look back and hit their midlife crisis and understand. 

​       I never had fun as a kid. I graduated high school, I buckled down. I went to college or university, got an education. I got a job. I got a family. I settled down. I did all this Besides going out with the guys and partying on weekends when I was in college. I never did anything. I didn't go out street racing, I didn't go out on weekends and have fun on back roads. I didn't get to drop the top and let the wind blow through my hair.
 
       Looking back at their parents and even their older siblings having that in the 90s those amazing sports cars they started to yearn and want to be a part of that. They may have said I bought a five-speed vehicle, but I bought a five-speed sedan as my first vehicle. It may have been fun and fast. It may have had either a five or six-speed manual transmission. That made it fun, but that was still not fun. Having two doors is a completely different world. Having to force your friends to get into the back seat by pushing forward your front is a completely different thing. And then there's that cool factor. Your kids are getting older and even though you may have something that's cool, you may have gone out and bought the Dodge Durango SRT. That's got balls, deep power. You didn't have anything else. That was cool.
 
       With a generation now looking at the fun vehicles of the past, an entire decade lost to this industry, there's a limited volume of vehicles still in existence, which is now driving up the cost for used sports cars. Toyota, understanding this, said to themselves we need to enter a marketplace and get back. After the youth marketplace, there are still kids out there who want a fun, fast sports car when they get out of high school. Hell, well, they're even still in high school. We need to bring back what the original Ford Mustang brought to the North American marketplace. We need to bring a cheap, affordable sports car to the masses. But unfortunately, in today's marketplace, doing it on our own is not feasible. Well, by this time they had taken that share of Fuji Industrial that General Motors had sold off and taken control of them, owning 33% of Subaru. They knocked on their door and they said Hey, do you want to get back in and bring back the old Subaru SVX and Subaru Impreza SDIs from the 1990s? And Subaru said yes, we've been looking for a project to throw our Boxster engine in to go fast. We don't want to bring back a two-door Impreza because we know the coupe market doesn't survive.
 
     People aren't looking for coupes these days. People are looking for sports cars. Unfortunately, the old AE86 was built off of a sedan platform. The Corolla came in both four-door, notchback and hatchback models. Hell, there was even a wagon version of it. But we couldn't do that. We know those cars were great, we know they were cool and people look at them now and would spend a fortune to get them. But we want something fun and fast and we want something that'll appeal to both a new generation and a previous generation that's hitting middle age and wants something fun but doesn't want to break the bank. They're that generation that's looking at these Mustangs saying, huh, that's cool, but that seems like something my dad would buy. My parents own a Challenger. Do I want to go out and buy one these days? No, not really. Do I look at a GT86 and say, yes, I want something like that. I grew up watching initial d. I want to go drifting. I've seen this car in formula d, I want to do it. I want to get into this marketplace.
 
       And Toyota, along with their counterpart at Subaru, managed to secure a deal to build a brand-new sports car, knowing that these sports cars would be the exact same for two different companies, but not impede on each other's sales, because people still perceive a Subaru as a Subaru and a Toyota as a Toyota. They have completely different clienteles and it'll be the first Subaru in decades without an all-wheel drive system in it, something that we haven't had since the SVX, and people are realizing the SVX once existed. This odd-looking sports car from Subaru, did exist at a point in time in history and people want that again. So, Toyota took a look at it. They told Subaru we'll work with you on the design, you guys build the engine and we'll build the platform, because we have an idea for what we want to do with this platform. We want to hit every part of the sports car marketplace in every different segment of the aftermarket industry with this one vehicle. We're going to do it and we're going to do it together. And within three years it went from concept to reality. And when it hit the market, it had three variations. In North America we had the Scion FR-S, because Scion still existed in North America. It was our youth brand for the Toyota industry. So, Scion got the FR-S, Subaru got the BRZ and overseas Toyota got the GT86.
 
      But why did they bring back the 86 names. The 86 had a lot of meaning. It didn't just give reference to the previous 86, the AE86, for being a front engine, rear drive layout, the FR. It was lightweight, it was positioned to go drifting, but the bore and stroke was 86 millimeters by 86 millimeters and the diameter of the exhaust tip was also 86 millimeters. 86 had a little bit more reference than just the original platform. 

      Toyota wanted to bring back what Initial D had created in the world. They never looked at the 86 from its past as a big sports car, as a high-demand product that people wanted. They just saw it as an old-fashioned coupe. It was a bit boxy and, yeah, a bunch of people tuned it up. But when initial D blew up on the scene it gave rise to a vehicle that nobody ever thought was amazing. Toyota built it for lightweight and to be thrown around in mountain passes, and that's what they wanted to do with the BRZ 86. They wanted to make sure this thing can live up to the original hype of the AE86, but they wanted to share the costs because they knew the sports car industry wasn't big and they knew sports cars are a fickle world, Hell. Look at the Supra. It was still in production when the Fast and the Furious came out and yet it still wasn't saved by the movie due to its price point. Same with the RX-7. These were vehicles that that movie couldn't even save. They were great products that couldn't be saved by a motion picture.
 
      So, Toyota knew that they had to do something with this vehicle to ensure its longevity in the marketplace. Using lightweight aluminum, they kept its weight down and its price point down. They kept it close to an entry-level vehicle, one of the few vehicles you could still get for under $30,000. And it's a sports car. Most sports cars in today's market, even including the Miata, are over $30,000. Entry level for most compact vehicles, for what the average consumer looks at now, is $45,000. I'm speaking Canadian funds, but still, that's expensive. So, when you're looking at a vehicle that you can get for $25,000 in a marketplace where even used vehicles are going between $15,000 and $20,000, they hit that market. Hyundai had been pushing this market with the Veloster for the past little while, but people seeing it as a new age CRX and more of a hatchback than a sports car. Its image wasn't there. So, Toyota and Subaru knew that they had to make sure that their sports car looked like a sports car as well. They kept the price point down, they kept the weight down, they made sure it could handle mountain passes, go drifting and drag racing while street cruising all in one solid vehicle. They had to open it up through the gentleman's rule to make it so they could be fully customized by anybody in the aftermarket industry. This thing had to be a blank slate for the aftermarket industry, a canvas for them to work on, and they did that Upon its release.

 The triple header of the FR-S, the 86, and the BRZ all showed us that sports cars were here. Now entering its third generation and being whittled down to just being the 86 and BRZ due to the demise of Scion, these sports cars are still going strong. Toyota has no plans to get rid of them, even with bringing back the Supra. They are now looking at bringing back the MR2. Both Nissan, Honda and even Mazda are considering bringing back entry-level sports cars. The market is starting to rebound and the sports car industry is starting to grow slightly thanks to the ability of making them more efficient than their bigger brothers and a new generation that still wants to have fun but doesn't want to do it while imposing on their future.
 
      The AE86 showed us that you can have so much fun in such a small package, and Toyota and Subaru have done that again, creating two sibling vehicles that'll go down in history as timeless classics. Sure, with the lack of a hatchback doesn't make it completely an AE86. And showcasing to the world in concept forms, both convertible and even shooting brake styles for the GT86, Toyota has showcased to us that they have even thought about opening up this marketplace to more body styles and, with the addition of GR models, they're showcasing to us that you can have fun with just about any product they have. Toyota has rejuvenated the fun in their brand while dipping into the past and finding a classic that was not even built to be fun, but one that became a hero in the sports car industry. Kudos goes out to Toyota and Subaru for bringing these vehicles back. Bringing to life the old Corolla GTS, AE86, and the SVX, they have given life to a future that has a possibility of fun yet again. With Toyota being interested in building a new electric sports car with the brand new MR2 to go after marketplaces for an environmentally friendly future and a brand-new exploding EV and hybrid marketplace, the sports car industry may be coming back, and the 86 BRZ teammates are the ones that brought it back for us.
 
     Toyota and Subaru have done it again. They've given us what we needed. They've given the world not just what we demanded, but what we thought we really didn't need. These two cars are helping to change our perception of fun yet again. They're starting to showcase to us that you don't have to be rich to have fun.
 
     In a time, frame where we're starting to look at autonomous vehicles to just bring us about without even driving, there are still a lot of us out there that want to get that last little bit of fun in before the world tells us we can't have fun anymore. A fun, fast, entry level sports car is what we really needed, and its loss in the late 90s and early 2000s is one that one major car corporation has decided to bring back. The Miata has been going strong and has kept that market alive. But Toyota, Subaru, they may have just given us what we all wanted. So, in the end you have to take a look at it. Did Toyota do the impossible? Everybody said nobody wanted sports cars anymore and they said we need to have something fun and sticking it out. For the past decade they've managed to showcase to the world that you could still have entry-level fun in the automotive world.
 
       With a world so bent on technology, purist vehicles like this are very hard to come by and, as the resale market has finally shown us, purist vehicles are the biggest ones in demand and fetch the highest prices. A five-speed gated Ferrari from the 1990s is worth more than an automatic built today. Why? Because everybody wants to look back at the past and see how free we once were in this amazing industry, and it seems that two companies just don't want to let go of that. So, do we really need these sports cars? Yes, does the market demand it? Yes, is it going to grow in the next decade? It will, as we change to an alternative fuel source. This market can only get bigger in the future. ​

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    Big or small, we have them all on the Corporate Links website page. On the AutoLooks.net website, the AutoLooks Podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by Podbeam.com. The AutoLooks Podcast is both owned, operated, edited and created by the one and only Everett Jay, the host of the AutoLooks.net podcast and owner of the AutoLooks.net website. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. So, from myself, Everett Jay, the AutoLooks.net website and the whole Ecomm Entertainment group, strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride from the entry-level sports car market. Thanks for watching.
 
Everett J.
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