As unlikely as it seemed at first, Toyota and Subaru really did come together to create what is proving to be quite a popular affordable sports car.
Toyota’s side of the deal meant it could sell considerably more cars than Subaru, so the latter could have felt wronged; it didn’t and according to a report, the two manufacturers will stay together for the creation of the next-gen interpretation.
That’s the plan for now, at least, says Australia’s Motoring which obtained a statement from Toyota’s Euro VP, Karl Schlicht, on the sidelines of the Paris motor show.
“We are pretty serious about keeping the GT86 pure and keeping a car like that in our line-up. Because in the past we dropped cars like the Celicas and fun cars, and we don’t want to lose that again,” he said, adding that “the GT86 as you know has been enthusiastically received by the motoring press, but the market’s not huge around the world for those kind of cars and they also have a bit of a lifecycle.”
Revealed in 2011, though, the GT86 and its siblings still have life left in them in their current form, and since the fact that Toyota wants to treat it as a regular car (give it a standard lifecycle), we assume it will be restyled and improved once before it’s replaced.
When asked for a time frame for the new model, Schlicht said “it’s down the road.”
Photo Gallery
