By Kamil Kaluski
The 2020 Toyota Supra was just shown at the Detroit Auto Show. And, well, after years of teasing, not everyone is in love with it, particularly much of the internet. While I am sure that it will be a damn fine sports car, I can certainly understand everyone’s disappointment with it. For one, it’s a BMW with a different body. Second, with less than 400-horsepower and a price of nearly $50,000, it doesn’t seem like much of a bargain, compared to, say a 460-Ford Mustang GT for ten grand less.
Because what the 2020 Supra is, the internet has instantly been overwhelmed by memes on its expense. Here are some I found amusing. Feel free to add whatever I may have missed.
Ross Ballot
Price tag aside, much of the reaction reminds me of the 3rd Gen MR2, where Toyota delivered a totally different car to what people who wanted an updated SW20 turbo expected, so was panned as being a bit “hairdresser”, but with the benefit of hindsight, once you looked past power figures was the most driver focused and hardcore of the lot and a real gem.
I’m not saying this is directly the case here, but you have to wonder if the Supra badge is a hindrance, expectations built on an imaginary perfect spec modified previous gen car, ignoring swathes of non turbo automatics, and what the reaction would be if people were capable of viewing it in isolation as a modern car for very different times. If it was a lexus, the reaction would probably be rapturous.
As with everything else, the sceptical and the hilarious just get a very loud voice these days. I’m sure it’s great sports car, and for tuners and to get wild on it, some time needs to pass either way. It certainly fixes the main critique towards the Subyota – lack of power. No one is surprised that comes with a higher price tag. And the reduced output of the engine compared to BMW looks like a classical move to preserve the machinery, Toyota-style.
On an unrelated note, the Volvo 66 GL: I own two.
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Love it. Also, I love all the new Volvos. XC50 reviewing coming soon. And I kinda want the V60 T6.
There’s no “kinda” with me. I definitely want a V60.
So, she’s from a conservative Swedo-Chinese background and you’re the scruffy Dutch hipster with a faint smell of something that isn’t tobacco?
Sigh. Well, at least you threw in the word “faint.”
The smell is burning variomatic belts obvs
I don’t get it, only because it’s under 400hp it must not cost over 50kUSD, and “everybody” is disappointed because of platform engineering?
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It’s really just a crappy British car…it’ll never amount to much… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccf370cc4bfe2cac6543034e3a8cd342a1dd35ed7a30ca83b565838b09478221.jpg
You have here a case for what the modern auto industry can and will do as it relates to interesting cars. I was nonplussed through the whole thing, most especially by the incongruity of having BMW level reliability on a Toyota, but I could be convinced with enough warranty. The more i think about it though, the more I like it.
Since OBDII regs killed the Supra in the 90’s and the diversifying automotive aftermarket realized how stout their engines were, the name took on way more importance in the enthusiast consciousness than it ever did when they were in actual production. Seems to me the opinion at the time was “overpriced, fast, heavy, maybe a little better than the 300ZX turbo, but that’s more of a preference thing” whereas now they get posted to car spotting facebook groups every time they are out of the garage.
So Toyorische Motoren Werke comes up with an almost halo sporting idea that works enough to actually make production and we all compare it to what an optimized version of the last Supra could have been if only we had the possibilities of today’s tech. To think that we’re scoffing at less than 400-hp in a production car. Go read what everyone wrote about the power output of the original Vipers. You can get a new car with 15% more power than a 1991 Viper for $30k. As far as crazy performance cars go, we’re in the golden age and we’re spoiled.
I think too much of the internet doesn’t get that the entire nation of Japan isn’t going to start after another perilous financial bubble just to have absurd amounts of money to overengineer cars they won’t be buying until they’re 15 years old anyhow.
Also, I get the joke, and maybe it’s just a cultural familiarity/preference/bias, but I’d be confused with the upper option and really excited for the lower.
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You prefer large quantities of beer over a parasol?Who ARE you? 😉
I don’t see what’s wrong with it