2024 Toyota GR86 Review: Skip Trueno And Stick With Simple

A recent spate of hot hatches might have you thinking cars like the newest Civic Type R and GR Corolla rebooted the affordable fun segment, but let's not forget options like the 2024 Toyota GR86. Ushered into its second-generation in 2021, with a sightly bigger engine but a still-small price tag, the $30k coupe remains an outlier in a car market that has tilted sharply to crossovers and SUVs, and which equates entertainment with ridiculously high levels of horsepower.

From the outside, the GR86 is handsome, if a little generic. Not for nothing, after all, has it become popular as a starting point for mods and customizations. Fresh from the factory, though, its proportions are solid and there's nothing ostensibly wrong, here. Toyota wisely resisted the urge to mess with the fascia — yes, 2021 F-TYPE, we're looking at you — while the kicked-up rear is emphasized by a color-matched duckbill spoiler on the Premium trim.

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17-inch machined-finish alloy wheels are standard on the base trim, which starts from $29,300 (plus $1,095 destination). The GR86 Premium steps that up to 18-inch versions with a painted matte black finish, with the price tag kicking off at $31,900 (plus destination).

As standard, the GR86 comes with a 2.4-liter naturally-aspirated boxer-four gas engine, paired with a six-speed manual transmission, and pushing its power to the rear wheels. As an option, for $675, Toyota will swap the stick for a six-speed electronically-controlled automatic gearbox, with paddle shifters on the steering wheel.

Either way, you get 228 horsepower — landing at a sky-high 7,000 rpm — and 184 lb-ft of torque. Unlike with most manual/automatic decisions in modern performance cars, the convenience of leaving the GR86 to shift gears itself actually comes with a performance penalty. The stick-shift coupe can do 0-60 mph in 6.1 seconds and keep going to 140 mph, Toyota says, while the automatic lags at 6.6 seconds and "only" hits 134 mph.

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Much like with the MX-5 Miata, it's hard not to be definitive and say the manual GR86 is the only way to go, really. Doubly so, when there's a half-second penalty in the automatic. Having driven both versions on the track, getting as involved as possible remains the route to maximum pace, regardless of transmission. The automatic was a little laggardly to downshift on its own, something taking charge with the paddles could overcome.

Unlike Mazda's approach, Toyota makes its limited-slip differential standard on all GR86 trims. On the GR86 TRUENO Edition (from $34,720 plus destination), the standard MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension gets SACHS dampers, while the limited edition car also upgrades to Brembo front and rear brakes rather than the unbranded steel versions on the base and Premium trims.

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No slight against Brembo, but the regular Toyota brakes are perfectly up to the task of slowing the sub-2,900 pound GR86. Spritely and firm, the little coupe whips and sashays through corners, a reminder of the perhaps counter-intuitive truth that less power often means more fun. Unlike performance cars with two or three times the grunt, there's no relying on a surfeit of horsepower and torque to drag you out of turns or nail an impromptu overtake maneuver.

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Instead, there's an involvement here which reminds you why cheap, small sports cars like the GR86 are so special. I still prefer the Miata's stick for overall feel (and, for that matter, the throw of Toyota's giddying GR Corolla), but that's no real critique of the GR86 shifter. It just requires a little more muscle, while the clutch is easily modulated and the electrically-assisted steering nicely weighted. If you want to keep the Toyota on the boil, you'll need to work the gears and keep the power band front of mind.

Inside, Toyota laughably describes the GR86 as a four-seater, but the rear bench is more like a heavily-sculpted parcel shelf than a place you'd want to put people. Headroom back there isn't entirely dire, given the sharp angle of the lower cushions, but legroom behind Toyota's well-padded front seats is going to be a pinch for anybody but kids.

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Those bolstered front sports seats do, though, mean that it's a comfortable place for the driver. The GR86's dashboard is relatively bare bones, though Toyota does at least slap some soft-touch plastic on there, even if it doesn't do much to brighten the interior. When you're scampering around country roads, the easily-twiddled HVAC knobs and chunky toggle switches are welcome in their simplicity.

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The digital driver's display is similarly straightforward, monochrome, and easy to read. Toyota's 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system also feels bare bones, even if the Premium trim gets eight speakers, rather than the usual six. 

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There's wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, plus SiriusXM, but the audio quality is unlikely to wow.

Far better, then, to treat the GR86 as the car it so obviously is: not a polished all-rounder, no, but an attainable gadabout in its affordable base spec. You could certainly use Toyota's little coupe as a daily driver — more so in this second-gen version, in fact, which gained in compliance versus the original — but its 6.26 cu-ft trunk and surprisingly low 22 mpg combined fuel economy (an MX-5 Miata RF managed 31 mpg with similar driving) sap some practicality.

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Criticizing it for that feels myopic, though. There's a sense of relief, whenever I drive a car like the GR86, that automakers like Toyota haven't given up on a fun but small segment. Didn't decide that, after selling twenty-one-times the number of Corollas as it did GR86 in the U.S. last year, it could no longer justify this treat for enthusiasts.

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As with the Miata, I'm curious — and a little concerned — as to how the inevitable shift to electrification will impact the GR86. EVs can be fast, certainly, but they also tend to be heavy and expensive: two things entirely anathema to Toyota's dinky sports car. For now, then, best to enjoy this unexpectedly golden age of four-wheeled silliness within relatively easy reach. Who knows, after all, how long it'll last.