The Toyota GR Supra marked the return of a nameplate we never expected to see again, a reinvention of a classic grand touring nameplate into a proper sports car with help from BMW. It’s a riot, but its reign of the Toyota showroom could be over relatively soon according to a recent report.
Featuring BMW’s excellent B58B30 turbocharged three-liter inline-six, the option of a manual gearbox, and a lively chassis, the Toyota GR Supra is one of the more compelling sports cars on the market right now, offering serious speed and thrills for relatively reasonable money.
In a report earlier this month on contract manufacturer Magna Steyr cutting 500 jobs, Automotive News reported that “Production of the BMW Z4 and Toyota Supra models, which share a platform, will end in 2026.”
We’ve heard rumors for a while that production of the GR Supra’s BMW Z4 platform-mate is slated to end in March 2026, so there is some foundation here, and Automotive News is a reputable publication, so some solid plausibility exists around that reported date. Needless to say, we’ve reached out to Toyota for comment and will update this article as further information arises.
It’s also worth noting that sales of the GR Supra aren’t exactly brilliant. For 2023, the number of new Supras finding homes dropped 46.3 percent year-over-year, from 4,952 Supras in 2022 to 2,652 in 2023. Through the first quarter of 2024, GR Supra sales continued to decline 45.9 percent year-over-year, so while a summer recovery isn’t out of the question, it also isn’t looking like the likely outcome. So, given those figures, will it be replaced? Well, maybe.
From a financial standpoint, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to build another Supra. However, the nameplate is Toyota’s halo car, forged in the mythos of a million tuna-no-crust line-drops. It’s an icon that gets the people going when they see it on the streets, one that makes the Camry a little bit cooler by proximity alone. That sort of cachet doesn’t come cheap, but it may still be something worth holding onto to hook in new buyers. At the same time, its role in Toyota’s sports car lineup might be filled by another model. From the Celica to the MR2 to the 2000GT, Toyota has a rich performance car history that’s still ripe for exploration. With Akio Toyoda previously hinting at wanting to bring back the Celica, perhaps Toyota’s looking to diversify.
Even if production of the GR Supra doesn’t end in 2026, car models usually have finite lifespans of five to seven years, and with the car going on sale in 2019 for the 2020 model year, it’ll likely close the curtains at some point. Whatever happens, it’s been a magnificent ride. From the bountiful torque to two great gearbox options to being just the right level of edgy, this Japanese-Bavarian sports car is more than alright by us. Alright, so the wind buffeting with the windows down is intense, but that gripe aside, it turns out that we like the tuna here.
(Photo credits: Toyota)
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Meh. I forget these were a thing, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one in the wild.
I guess I’m in the minority who really liked this Supra and agree that it looked far better in person. All of the character lines that seem to clash in photos flow a lot more evenly outside. I didn’t like that the interior was almost straight up Z4, which was already aging by the time Toyota got their hands on it.
This car is like the Nissan Z. I think more than anything, the dealers have strangled this car. Both Nissan and Toyota are hellbent on tacking on thousands extra on their sportscars and that’s one big reason to not buy one. I’d love to get the one Supra I could afford right now, but not with those kinds of markups – that’s instant depreciation and I can live without one.
It’ll be gone in a couple of years and then for a decade, we’ll want it back, and then we’ll have a Supra EV and it just won’t feel the same.
Bring back Celica. Make Supra a Celica with a longer nose and an I6 again.
Adding a targa would go a long way
It’s not a Toyota. Of course it was doomed to fail.
At first, they used the excuse that Toyota didn’t have an I6, then they offered an I4 option that could’ve come from Toyota, but they still insisted on using a shitty BMW motor.
People were just not convinced at their ability to turn a BMW into a Toyota.
They should’ve had Toyota do the engineering and then rebadge it as a BMW.
The REAL Supra is the Evora/Emira. At least it has a Toyota engine LOL
I just never cared for how they look. One can be very, very good at their job but T shirts and shorts don’t look good all the time.
A guy down the street from me had a dark grey Supra. He bought it in late 2021 and sold it a few months ago. I never thought much of them in pictures, but whenever I drove by it I couldn’t help but think it looked pretty good in the flesh. With that said, he hardly ever drove the thing, and it was replaced by a Tesla Model 3.
my neighbor has a purple one. It looks fantastic.
I’ve actually always liked the Supra. I acknowledge that it was kind of cynical to revive the nameplate and that it’s basically a BMW…but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a really good sports car. The numbers don’t lie…these things are fast, and while styling is subjective I’ve always thought they look good. I agree with the take here that pictures don’t do them justice. In person these are very unique and attractive cars.
They also sound good, are way more fuel efficient than most purpose built sports cars, can be tuned to make absurd power, et cetera. They’re really good cars at a competitive price point. If I had 60 grand to blow on a weekend car a manual Supra would be near the top of my list.
The issue has always been that the target audience for this can’t afford to drop $60,000 on a weekend car…and unless you’re single or in a relationship without kids or furry friends a Supra is a ridiculously compromised daily. They’re cramped, visibility isn’t great, the trunk is small, et cetera.
That’s stuff you can live with as a 20-40 year old enthusiast in a $25-35,000 car like a Miata or Toyobaru. Unfortunately it’s a tough pill to swallow at 60 large. You need to be making A LOT of money to be able to afford to spend that much on what’s essentially a toy…and if you can make one work as a daily more power to you, but most people can’t.
It’s a bit of a shame, but what can you do. I’d love to circle back in several years after these have depreciated but they might not actually depreciate. They didn’t make that many and BMW-ness aside they’re still Japanese sports cars from a company with a sterling reputation for longevity. There will likely always be dudes in a cloud of vape smoke who are willing to stretch themselves recklessly in the name of getting that ideal JDM hoon, bro!
GRZ is a lot more livable. It has a back shelf with seat belts that folds down and a decent enough sized trunk, plus it doesn’t buffet with the windows down on the highway until the upper 80s. I’ve fit an amazing amount of crap in mine from 8 tires to 8′ 1×12 boards.
I’ve never liked the design or the BMW-ness of the car. But that aside, I wonder if sales were negatively affected by dealership markups. How do you truly gauge demand if folks are holding back due to price gouging?
TBH, I never got the impression that Toyota wanted to sell a ton of these anyway, and 2019-26 seems like a reasonable lifespan here for them to want to refresh or replace something in this range?
They sound pretty good and look great in tuner guise. I just wish they didn’t design them so amorphous blob-like.
I just wish it was something more in keeping with Toyota’s standards for build quality and engineering excellence, instead of a rebadged BMW.
I think they look so much better in person. Especially in yellow.
That’s what color mine is, so I agree!
It will either be known as a shareholder compliance vehicle to check a box for ‘enthusiast’s/sports car’ in the lineup or a lazy cash-in on the Fast and Furious nostalgia on nameplate alone because my cohort of ‘saw the first FnF’ is now coming of age to buy a “fun” car.
Starts at $46k for 255 hp when you can get a new V8 Mustang with 450 horses for 4k-5k less? It’s no competition to the similarly priced C-Class in creature comforts, while the C-Class is only slower by a second. It gets sillier with the $54k inline 6 model going for the same niche as the Premium/Dark Horse, pushing 385 vs 500 in the Dark Horse.
(I’ll refrain from repeating the ‘badge engineered BMW’ criticism as it’s so common; just replace every comma with a profanity and cap it with a contemptous “what the hell were you thinking?”, and you have my reaction.)
Then you can’t even find one. When you do, it’s marked up. “yo bro it sez ‘Supra,’ open your wallet”. Why bother?
but then you’d have to be driving a mustang.
Correct. I sandwiched the C-Class in there as a comparison because it pushes the same horses for the same price as the base i4 model, better appointed yet only losing a second on 0-60 for anyone who didn’t want to attend a Cars’n’Casualties event.
My point is it’s all over the place and not really stand-out or competitive anywhere, and it’s uncharacteristic of Toyota to not have a defined purpose for their stuff — so why?
It feels like that they made this thing, then rummaged through the nameplate box and picked out “Supra” for it.
Good! Mustangs are a riot. People that care about stereotypes miss out on so much good stuff.
Yeah I don’t care if a Mustang makes 1000 hp for $5k, you wouldn’t catch me in a Mustang any day of the week.
You’re entitled to want to avoid the stench of watermelon vapes, AXE body spray and ‘fuck-it-it’s-getting-repoed-tomorrow’, but the Supra is either accidentally or deliberately aimed at people like that with its’ pricing.
Which is why I’m REALLY confused why they went and made so few of them available unless, again, it was designed to be something for the executive board on the investor level and for the sales guy on the dealer level to have to gesture to when they say “oh yessir here’s our top-o’-the-line sports — performance vehicle.”
So they sold maybe 30K of these over 5 years. That does sound like a failure to me. Did it even pay for the R&D and tooling? One can argue that a halo car doesn’t need to pay for itself, but I don’t associate Toyota with performance no matter how many times they’ve won Le Mans (without manufacturer competition); I associate Toyota with the Camry, the Tundra and hybrids. For me, the “new” Supra never fit in.
Hard to call it a failure in general. Co-developed and mostly outsourced to BMW and a much better “sports car” than a the Mk4 which only sold 11k in the U.S. The Mk4 was a failure (too expensive, too fat) until F&F made it a unicorn of desire by auto enthusiast’s nostalgia.
This, here. I’m old enough to remember when they were current and the class shootout reviews in magazines usually placed it about even with the (already old) C4, below it performance-wise, but higher in build quality. Most people I knew thought they were kind of bloated looking and overweight (for the time, but svelte by today’s standards), better than the meh Mitsubishi 3000GT, but still kind of a shrug. Then they went out of production and the first F&F movie came out and all of a sudden, the kids thought every Supra was a 1000hp monster that handled better than a Lotus.
Right. Same with my kids. They saw one the other day and wondered why that cool looking car was a Toyota. I had to fill them in on the history of the Supra, and even the GT-R / Z cars from Nissan. The Miata is recognizable enough but my kids don’t associate Japan with producing some cool cars.
Even though I didn’t really care for those cars as a kid who was much more into muscle cars and anything domestic, I still loved driving the Supra Turbo in Need For Speed video game as a kid, along with the RX-7 and NSX – ahh the NSX handled like it was on rails.
“My kids don’t associate Japan with producing some cool cars.”
That’s really sad to hear. When I was a kid Japan were seemingly the only ones producing cool cars. The MR2, MX-3, Celica Alltrac, Lancer Evolution VI and VII, 3000GT, RX-7, Cosmo, Mira TR-XX Avanzato R, X-90, Vehicross, R32 through R34 Skyline GT-R, 3000GT, 300ZX, 240SX, Maxima 4DSC, Galant VR-4… We really were spoiled between 1989 and 2002. Domestically we even got a lot of Japanese leftovers like the Escort that was a lightly changed Mazda 323, the Nova/Prizm which was just a Corolla, and the Eagle Talon and Summit which were just the Eclipse and Colt/Mirage. Japan scared the shit out of the U.S. and we treated them like a threat for a good decade after the ’89 Bubble Crisis.
Japan’s “Lost Score” really fucked them up psychologically, and they’re still instituting austerity policies long after economists said the Lost Score ended in 2011 because they basically have no youth consumer base to restart the lower end of the market (driven by factors like Japanese people being socially dysfunctional thanks to the trauma of the push for maximum business efficiency starting in the mid ’90s, compounding with being unable to afford kids). Japan’s own internal economists say it’s still going on, and as such have amended the name a second time to the “Lost Decades.” They can’t absorb the cost locally and their currency’s too unstable to count on global sales, not to mention the U.S. has continued to fuck not only the U.S.’ own economy, but the rest of the world’s economy since 2008 unapologetically and without ceasing. Japan had the economic help to rebuild after World War II unlike Greece and Spain and had a massive infrastructure boom from 1970 to 1991, but Japan may be in just as dire circumstances as the two of them very soon. A side effect of that is we don’t get new cool shit anymore like the galapagos phones, production exoticisms like the Sony AIBO, or low end sports cars like the aforementioned MX-3 or 240SX.
That is assuming they even wanted to sell more of them, this was a joint project with BMW, so it was sharing a finite amount anyway depending on their agreement.
this could have easily been how many they wanted to go through and when they wanted to change it over to something else or retool for a refresh
It outsold the 2nd generation MR2, which only managed 21,000 units over 5 years, and was developed and built entirely in house by Toyota and carried a thinner profit margin, so, against that, it’s probably a reasonable success by sports car standards, but probably still not what Toyota was hoping for in numbers
The numbers look low but checking Cars.com, there’s only 145 for sale new in the whole country. There’s more Toyota dealerships than Supras!
I pass a yellow one on my way to work every day. I must say it looks 100% better in person than it does in pictures.
I’m an old car guy… so I guess I’ll consider one in about 20 years.
No surprise here. Even around me, they’re unicorns.
2021 US Sales were 6830 units.
2022 US Sales were 4952 units.
2023 US Sales were 2652 units.
2024 US Sales were 484 units for January through March. Maybe 2K units this year?
Don’t have a hard number, but I believe 2020 US sales were in the 13-14K range.
Mind you, that’s including the sales bump after offering a manual. The manual take rate is supposedly 50%, so figures would be even lower without one.
Im okay with this. Race the Prius in Xfinity
I never see any for sale at the dealerships by me and if they are they want over msrp for them.
I, honestly, don’t find the current Supra a vehicle that turns my head.
It kind of just blends in, for the most part. It’s not brash, it’s not wild, it doesn’t stand up with a monstrous powertrain.. It just… exists. The new Prius stands out more.
How’s that a halo car?
…really?
I’m not the biggest fan of it – there is a lot of styling in a very small package – but I can’t think of a car on the market that blends in less. Saw a bright yellow one yesterday and it was really distinctive and attention grabbing.
That’s pretty much how the Supra has always been.
It definitely doesn’t look like anything else out there, it’s expensive, hard to get, and fairly rare. Checks most of the boxes for “halo car” except that it’s not made by the company selling it.
If Chevy rebadged a Hellcat as a Corvette, would the Corvette still be considered a Chevy halo car? I don’t think so.
The idea of a halo car is to tell the world “We are capable of building this, and at least a little of the DNA in this halo car is in the more mundane car you’re considering, you should definitely buy a car from us.”
This car tells the world “BMW made another roadster and we glued a Toyota logo on it.” How is that halo?
I think it stands out pretty well. Whether or not that’s in a good way is pretty subjective, but I think it at least looks better in person. Definitely agree about the new Prius, though—the things are always getting my attention in a good way (unlike the horrifying nightmare that was the previous one). Something about the proportions, I think, that catch the corner of my eye even before I can get a good enough look to ID it.
I just never could get into the design on this thing.. I could look past the BMW stuff everyone bags it for if the exterior wasn’t so overwrought with “character lines”.