Toyota's FT-86. The Car Worth Waiting For - A Few Years Longer

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Car & Driver voted Toyota’s FT-86 as one of the 25 cars worth waiting for. It seems like the wait will be a little longer than anticipated. Toyota had shown their sports car concept at many motor shows, from Tokyo to Beijing (but not in New York.) Of course, this was read as an imminent launch of the little brute. 2011 model year, hopefully. Mid 2011, maybe. Wrong. Not even close.

And there, C&D had already floated that the FT86 would revive the Celica nameplate, that the initial version would come with a puny 170hp engine (with a 230hp blown version to follow) and that the price would be a tad over $20,000 in Japan. Later, Autocar was sure that the price would be a bit higher, say $23,000. A FT86Club appeared on the net that said that “in terms of target demographic, Toyota has now upped the increased target buyer age from 30’s to the 40’s.” They all sounded as if they already had the dealer kit.

According to a report from Japan’s Best Car Magazine ( via 7Tune), the release date of the FT-86 has been shifted back two years, which could mean 2013. Maybe. According to Best Car, the reasons are that the design is being revised, and that Toyota thinks there may be a better time than now to release a sports car.

A call to Toyota HQ elicited a not too surprising “as a policy, we do not comment on future cars.” The way it was said makes me think that Best Cars has it right this time. From what I’m hearing, the second reason (not the right time) is the real one. In any case, a Toyota insider had warned me not to expect too many product launches in Japan in the near future. Domo. I won’t.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Buddhabman Buddhabman on Jun 07, 2010

    Toyota was obsessed with being No1, and look where it got them. They are not even close to the doom and peril Audi was in a few years back, but their rep is beat down. The problem facing Toyota is that the immigrant buyers that flocked to Toyota during the 80's-90's-00's and then moved up to Lexus are now going to start considering other cars. Once Toyota's gets cross shopped more seriously they might start to drop more sales. Toyota can block that buy dropping prices, but now their rep for safety and reliability is pretty much toast, so now they are going to have to produce cars with a little more substance.

  • Chris Ungaro Chris Ungaro on Jun 08, 2010

    The LFA took ten years to get to market,and as impressive as it is, it is still outclassed by the 458 and upcoming McClaren. so why not postpone this untill the drift car craze has died, i.e. that was it's purpose wasn't it? To capitalize on the small rear drive concept. By the time they get this out it will be pointless. Toyoata just doesn't do sporty well at all. My guess its just not in their corporate culture

  • Probert Probert on Jun 08, 2010

    I don't know about drifting - it's simple - a sports car. Toyota has done very well with sports cars - the mr2 was a small miracle - and lotus uses its engines. No problems.

  • Snafu Snafu on Jul 31, 2010

    as soon as you start to rotate it around from that front view, it becomes disproportionate.

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