CARLOS LAGO: Hey, Carlos Lago, with Edmunds here.
And Toyota has brought us out to Monticello--
or "Mon-tih-chell-oh"-- hey, "to-may-to," "to-mah-to,"
right--
Raceway Park to experience the 2022 Toyota GR 86.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This car used to be called the Toyota 86.
Before that, it was the Scion FR-S.
It also shares most of its parts with the Subaru BRZ.
But we'll get into that later.
What is this thing?
Well, it's a lightweight, fun-to-drive, inexpensive
sports car, in the traditional sense
of the word, or the definition, or the phrase, let's say.
In this video, we're going to explore
what's new about this new generation of the 86
and what it's changed to keep that sports car driving
experience alive.
If you like this video and others like it,
tell us in the comments below.
Also, tell me the right pronunciation of Monticello,
or "Mon-tih-chell-oh."
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Check the links in the description
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on the car you want to sell.
Let's get to it.
Let's first talk about the engine in the Toyota GR 86.
If you look hard, you'll find no turbocharger.
Yes, unlike every other similarly
priced sporty compact car in this segment,
they're all turbocharged.
And this one isn't.
Actually, correction-- the Miata isn't turbocharged,
and neither is the 86 and the BRZ.
I say that because the Civic Si is turbocharged.
Civic Type R is turbocharged.
The Subaru WRX is turbocharged.
Hyundai Veloster N is turbocharged.
Volkswagen GTI is turbocharged.
And even the Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro
have turbocharged four-cylinder engines.
You don't get one in the 86 or the Subaru BRZ.
What you do get, though, is a bigger engine
in terms of displacement, versus last year.
This is a 2.4 liter flat-four, and that means more power.
Quick nerdy thing about engines--
so one of the reasons why this car is called the 86
is because the boron stroke of the last generation engine
was 86 millimeters.
Bore is the diameter of the piston, or cylinder,
and stroke is how much that piston
moves within the cylinder.
That's how you get displacement.
In this, though, they've enlarged the bore
to 94 millimeters, so it's now 86 and 94 stroke vs. bore.
So you can't really use that as a reason to call it the 86.
But hey, that's been your nerdy tech minute with Edmunds.
This GR 86 is rated at around 230 horsepower.
More importantly, torque is increased a lot, too.
The increase is important, because it happens
all over the power band.
So this should be more fun to drive at lower engine speeds.
Speaking of, 0 to 60 acceleration
is claimed in the low six-second range for the manual
and then the mid-six-second range for the automatic.
Yes, you can still get an automatic with this.
Fuel economy, though, is a little worse--
20 MPG to 24 MPG combined, depending
on if you get the manual or the automatic-- so a power
increase, which is good, and a speed increase, which
is even better.
The 2022 GR 86 is roughly the same size
as the previous generation.
What's nice about that is Toyota has actually
been able to keep the weight similar as well.
You've got an aluminum roof.
You've got aluminum fenders.
And some other tricks like that keep the weight
to 2,800 pounds.
Or at least that's what Toyota is claiming.
Inside, the interior is very similar, as well,
with layout and whatnot.
You still have two real back seats.
You can still flip those seat backs down.
And Toyota has made sure that you can fit four mounted wheels
and tires in this car, which is a really helpful thing that you
can't do with some sports cars.
As far as the rest of the interior goes,
it's all fairly straightforward.
This screen has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto--
massive help there.
But I really want to call out this digital gauge
cluster, which I really like.
It looks cool.
For one, it's shaped like a horizontally opposed engine,
if you were looking at it from the side.
A four-cylinder traditionally has its four cylinders vertical
like that.
And in a horizontally opposed engine,
the cylinders are split, and the two face each other,
laying sideways.
And if you were to look at it sideways,
it would actually look like that.
And when we start this car up, the little start-up
graphic it does mimics the cylinder
movement within an engine.
That's just a neat little touch.
More functionally, though, it's an easy screen to read.
And in fact, if I put it in track mode, which automatically
happens when you turn off stability control,
you get this nice bar style tachometer
that prioritizes the higher parts of the tachometer.
So who cares on track what's happening beneath 4,000 RPM?
You have this big window to see what the engine speed is at.
I really like that, and the shift light is easy to see,
too--
overall very functional, pretty comfortable,
and a nice package for the money.
We're going to hop in this car and see how things go.
I'm looking forward to it.
There will be no power sliding or drifting in this video.
While I was learning the car, before we started filming,
I was told a number of times to stop drifting.
[ENGINE REVVING]
[LAUGHTER]
So now I must do that.
We have stability control on instead.
And I'm going to talk about what it's
like to drive when I'm not drifting.
Never mind what the press materials say.
Never mind what the market materials say.
I will not be drifting this car.
I can tell you, though, it's a lot of fun to drift.
And I bring that up, because I've never driven
on this racetrack before.
I've never driven this car before.
And often, the thing that we run into, criticizing cars the way
we do, is we drive them frequently on unfamiliar roads.
So we always have to leave a little bit in reserve.
You can tell, though, when a sports
car is going to be nice to drive,
when you feel like you can immediately
get to pace with it.
Immediately, you start driving it the way that you would most
enjoy driving it.
And that's what happened with this GR 86.
The Scion FR-S, the Toyota 86, that's
now Toyota GR 86, the Subaru BRZ,
they are cars that have historically
been very easy to drive.
They're great teachers about how to drive rear-wheel drive
sports cars.
They clearly communicate what the car
wants to do after you've given it inputs to do things.
And that's the case with this 2022 model as well.
They also have the first gen 86 is here
for us to drive back-to-back.
And by and large, the experience is consistent between the two.
But there are dramatic improvements
with this 2022 version.
The biggest difference-- or there's
actually two big differences.
The one that will jump out to you first is the steering.
This steering feels very immediate on the initial turn,
and there isn't a big dead spot, like there
is comparatively with the 86.
This feels really quick and really nicely balanced.
The second is the power.
Having that increase in torque makes
for an engine that pulls more cleanly and more aggressively
at low engine speeds.
With the last gen 86 and the BRZ,
when you were off the power band in low RPMs,
it was pretty frustrating waiting
for the engine to come back on.
You would just sit and wait for the tach to climb.
And the dead spot in the lower part
of the acceleration, the low part of the power band
was frustrating.
This doesn't have that at all.
This feels pretty strong throughout its entire power
band.
It actually sounds pretty decent, too,
for a horizontally-opposed four-cylinder.
The real sweet spot, though, or what that allows you to do,
is take advantage of the chassis, which is just sweet.
You get two tire size and tire options on the 2022 86.
The base car comes with a 17-inch wheel.
And a Michelin Primacy tire was the same time
you had on the last generation 86.
And the tire doesn't have a lot of traction.
It's the one I got trouble with drifting too much with.
And that lack of traction is really fun,
because at speed, when you're driving hard,
it's kind of like driving in the rain.
And you get to see how your inputs, how
the car reacts to your inputs.
And by doing that, you can have a lot
of fun by pushing the front end into a corner
to be more stable, lifting off the throttle
to induce oversteer.
It's like a car control clinic.
If I ran a driving school, it would be a fleet of those cars.
The 86 were driving right now is the Premium.
And this comes with an 18-inch wheel--
[BELL RING]---- and a Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tire,
which has a lot more traction in it.
And that traction enables way higher speeds,
compared to the 17-inch tire, and a lot of fun because of it.
Because in places where you get oversteer
or a little bit of understeer with that smaller tire,
you can stay pinned in this one.
And that's a lot of fun.
I really admire what Toyota and Subaru have done here
with the 86 and the BRZ, because you
have supremely fun-to-drive cars, supremely fun-to-drive
rear-wheel drive cars at a relatively affordable price
and a car that encourages you to use it the way you would want
to use a rear-drive sports car.
Yeah, it's probably not going to be
the quickest car on the street.
That was true for the last gen one,
and it's still probably going to be true for this one.
I'm OK with that, though, because of the newfound power
the car has.
That's going to make it a little bit more livable.
That just feels good.
This manual is a lot of fun to shift.
You don't have to be aggressive.
You can be quick.
You don't have to manhandle it.
I really like how this throws.
Just that feels good.
The automatic is pleasant, too.
It would not be my transmission of choice.
It shouldn't be your transmission of choice,
not because it's bad, but because you really want
a manual, to experience what the best of a sports car
can deliver.
That transmission, though, is going to be easier, of course,
in stop-and-go traffic, not that these clutches were ever
particularly annoying.
And on track, it works just fine.
You have paddle shifters.
And yeah, I have no complaints about it.
But still get the manual.
I started out by talking about getting criticized by the team
here for drifting too much.
Yeah, that was frustrating at first.
But I actually appreciate what happened.
Well, one, it's raining now.
Two, I started driving with the traction control
on in its track-oriented mode.
And I've got to say, I'm pleasantly surprised by it.
Because yeah, it wouldn't allow me
to get the lurid oversteer that got me in trouble.
But it allowed me to maintain that subtle oversteer, that
lets you explore the balance of the car,
and only came in, once you started slowing down,
because you transitioned into a slide.
That's a really nice feature, because this car,
I would categorize this as an excellent learner's car
for an on-track rear-wheel drive handling basics.
And to have a stability control system that
allows you to experience that, but still have a safety net,
is really valuable.
Overall, I really like the Toyota GR 86.
This 2022 version increases the strengths of the 86
and keeps it true to its mission, which
is to be an inexpensive, lightweight, fun-to-drive
sports car.
And I really like the fact that Toyota has done things
like give you a year-long membership
to the NASA, National American Sports Car Association.
I think that's the acronym.
But Toyota has encouraged you, in doing so,
to experience track days, to drive your car the way
it's intended to be driven.
I really appreciate that mindset.
So bravo, Toyota.
I'm really enjoying myself in this car.
And I think anybody who picks this up
will feel the same way, when they get theirs.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
If you like this video and others like it,
tell us in the Comments below.
Also, click Like and Subscribe.
Check the links in the description
and edmunds.com/sellmycar to get an instant cash offer
on the car you want to sell.
[MUSIC PLAYING]