Why we ran it: To find out how much a good three-pedal gearbox can improve a modern sports car with a classic flavour
Month 3 - Month 2 - Month 1 - Specs
Life with a GR Supra: Month 3
Straight six, stick shift, tidy dynamics – what’s not to like? We found out over three months - 18 October
Sometimes, just occasionally, you can see why manual gearboxes are an endangered species. Take my first few miles in the Toyota GR Supra, along traffic-snarled 20mph roads near Autocar's Twickenham HQ.
Having previously gone several months driving cars that only featured two pedals, my initial running was a little on the jerky side. Having to constantly shuffle the gears was, quite honestly, a bit of a faff, and the somewhat firm mechanism made for some juddery moments before my muscle memory kicked in. Frankly, in the sort of driving most of us do every day, you can see why people increasingly pick automatics.
Don't worry: such thoughts didn't last long. Because once I'd readjusted to the art of the manual, and escaped London's urban sprawl, it took just a few hundred metres of B-road driving to remind me why such gearboxes are so beloved - and to be particularly grateful that they're clearly so beloved within the highest reaches of Toyota.
This is a manufacturer, after all, that could happily focus on its CVT-driven hybrids and single-gear EVs, yet persists in developing performance cars with gloriously charismatic stick shifts. Heck, it's currently developing a manual 'box for future performance EVs, despite almost gleefully acknowledging that it's essentially pointless.
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"But really, who needs a premium stereo when you have a straight six that you can happily rev without an automatic gearbox getting in the way? It's a trade-off we happily made."
Ummm, pretty much anyone buying this car. It's not a Caterham. It is, as the article itself states, a GT. A good sound system is absolutely of benefit in a 1,500kg GT car.
Just checked the Toyota UK website...and the manual Supra's no longer available.
...and now only the manual version is available online, in black (although the page shows yellow). Are they running stock down they can find in the UK?
It looks good, it goes well, and its a manual. But the negative is the BMW bits. Not how they work on day 1, but later in life. Is this the only Toyota that actually needs the 10 year warranty they come with?
A fake Toyota Supra with none of the famed Toyota reliability.
Absolute rubbish, see below.
what naive nonsense, just more of the uneducated "but BMW's are unreliable are'nt they". No they're not .
Do you really think One of the largest, most successful and smartest auto companies in the World Toyota , would put an unreliable drivetrain in a Halo Car like the New Supra ??
Or even chose to work with a Car company whose products are unreliable
My 2007 335i , you know the one with the problem twin turbo's, faulty High pressure fuel pump, injectors and bad electric water pumps . Well Guess what, its 16 years old now and I have'nt had to replace any of those so called faulty unreliable bits.
Ever owned a BMW ?? if you look after them theyre as reliable as anything on four wheels.
Stop spurting out a load of BS regarding BMW reliability. You're the one who's the naive minority in here. EVERYONE IN THIS WORLD KNOWS how UNRELIABLE BMWs are. Those who don't are either:- BMW fanatics who are too blind to realise- Have too much money in their bank vaults to spend- BMW advocates/influencers like yourself being paid by BMW to defend the narrative on reliability.Give us a BREAK. I have owned MULTIPLE BMWs & MINIs across YEARS of EXPERIENCE. They constantly breakdown here and there, malfunctioned here and there TOO FREQUENTLY compared to other brands. They are mostly built to give best 1st impressions, NOT TO LAST. No matter how CAREFUL/ON-TIME SCHEDULED SERVICE you performed, they still SUCK.So, WAKE UP and ACCEPT the FACT that BMWs suck BIG TIME.