Here's Why the 2020 Toyota Supra Could Be Better

this is the 2020 Toyota Supra and it's one of the most controversial new cars on the market the last Supra offered in North America went out of production after the 1998 model year and since then it's legend has grown and so has the desire for a new one well the new one is finally here and today I'm going to review it first a little overview now the Supra first came out in the 1970s and the early models were based on the Toyota Celica in the 1980s the Supra became its own model and then in 1993 Toyota rolled out the mark for Supra which would later go on to become famous for its role in The Fast and the Furious and is now generally recognized as one of the most desirable sports cars from the 1990s but after 1998 the Supra went out of production and in the years since its legend has only grown enthusiasts have become obsessed with the supras robust 2jz engine and its immense tuning potential and as the supras legend has grown so has the pressure on Toyota to bring it back to revive the Supra to bring back the sports car icon as the pressure grew so did the hype everyone was excited for the new Supra and this is it this is the new Supra although there are a few major points of controversy for one the Supra is one of the most famous Japanese sports cars ever but the new one isn't built in Japan they built it in Austria and that's because it's based on the BMW z4 which is another point of controversy you see the outgoing Supra used Toyotas most famous engine ever the 2jz six-cylinder but this one uses a BMW engine and a lot of other BMW bits which I'll show you in a minute and there's other stuff too the Supra is only offered with an automatic transmission and while the BMW z4 offers up to 380 horsepower the Supra only has 335 horsepower from this same engine the Supra is less powerful than the car it's based on this hardly seems like the legendary status of the Supra and that we're all accustomed to but is it any good well today we're gonna find out first I'm going to take you on a tour of the new Supra and I'm going to show you all of its interesting quirks and features then I'm gonna get it out on the road and drive it and then I'm going to give it a dug score and for more of my thoughts on the new Supra click the link below to visit autotrader.com slash oversteer where I've also rounded up a list of the highest mileage used toyota models currently listed for sale on auto trader all right I'm going to start the quicksand features of the Toyota Supra by discussing its deficiencies all of which were told to me by Toyota in this single most bizarre press briefing I have ever been a part of I go to a lot of these automaker press launches where they find journalists in I pay for my own flights to keep my objectivity but they find journalists in and they show them a new car but I've never had one where they went around showing the deficiencies like they did in this car basically they showed us all the areas where they could have improved it but instead they held back so that tuning companies could later improve it if they wanted to because they know there's a big tuner market for this car so I'm gonna start upfront this front air Dan here provides cooling to the engine obviously and apparently when Toyota first started testing this car they realized it provided too much cooling and so they blocked off the bottom part so it didn't cool the engine too much and they're thinking is that tuning companies can go in and open it up more for better cooling if they get more power out of it it's the same story right here a lot has been made about the fact that the new super has a lot of fake vents on the outside well Toyota told me these aren't fake but they're dumb events for tuning companies when they start to get more power they can pull the vent out of here and use this for better downforce or for brake cooling and it's the same story with the vent on the hood right now it's a dummy vent fake but tuning companies can pull it out and use this to create a channel from the front vent to the hood vent for better downforce and this continues under the hood you open up the hood and once again Toyota showed us an area where they intentionally dumbed down the Supra so that tuning companies have an opportunity in the aftermarket you can see there's a space here where you could mount an extra brace for better chassis stiffness but Toyota didn't do it there's even holes where you couldn't screw one in but Toyota decided to skip it and not add that chassis stiffness and leave that for the aftermarket and it gets even more unusual than that in this presentation Toyota also told the journalists that the Tyrael the rear hatch is made out of wasn't strong enough to support a rear weight but they know that the tuning companies will be adding a rear wing so Toyota added stronger material to this section of the rear hatch so that a wing could be added and it wouldn't just fly off in other words Toyota added more complexity and more weight and probably more expense so that tuning companies could mount a wing same deal with the differential there's no factory differential cooler in this car but Toyota says they left a space for one so that tuning companies can go in and put a differential cooler on when they get more power and people start to use it on the racetrack now the reason I find this to be so unusual is I have heard explanations of automakers leaving holes for tuning companies to be able to do things jeeps do this frequently for example but there are so many obvious places where Toyota could have improved this car why didn't they just do it themselves could it be that maybe Toyota left all of these holes all of these fake vents that could become real vents this ability to mount a spoiler to the back could it be that Toyota left this stuff so that Toyota not the tuning companies can make a better version of the Supra in the future I actually asked this question to the Japanese project manager responsible for the entire super I said could Toyota just fill this stuff and make a faster Supra I asked it to his translator his translator translated to get the response translate it back to me and simply it was yes we can't now we will mind you but we can he seemed to be very aware of the implications of what I was asking so maybe this is just the beginning of the Supra and maybe there's even more to come but anyway on to more crooks and features and I want to get back under the hood now Toyota seems to be very proud of the fact that they have two hood latches on this car they said the project manager his mentor told them that sports cars should have two hood latches for high speed stability but of course I think the real reason is because BMW has two hood latches on the z4 and so this car does too I'm not sure there's really much more to it than that now under here you can see the engine and it is pretty healthy 335 horsepower 365 pound-feet of torque both very good numbers now I was curious how much I would have to poke around in the engine bay to find BMW and the truth is it's the first thing you see mounted the very furthest forward next to the latch it says BMW and it also says BMW on this wire and it also says BMW right here and so there are quite a few different spots under the hood where it says BMW but I want to get one thing out of the way real quick I'm not entirely sure why that's a bad thing there's been a lot of negativity about the fact that Toyota would seek out BMW to build a sports car I can't believe the new Supra is just a BMW underneath but since when is that a problem this is the company that gave us the m1 the e30 m3 the 1 Series M the m2 competition the m3 m4 the m5 BMW has a great history of building some great sports cars and frankly I don't see it as a huge issue that the Supra has a BMW powerplant I just wish it had more power to match the BMW and obviously you worry a little bit about reliability one of the reasons people buy Toyota's is reliability and dependability it's pick a German engine in one and it starts to get a little nerve-racking but in today's world you basically need a partner to build a sports car the BRZ and the FRS the Miata and the Fiat 124 and now this so I guess it was BMW or no Supra at all by the way it's also worth noting that the new super does 0-60 in 4.1 seconds Toyota told me that is the quickest Toyota ever made so that's a pretty good thing and next up I want to talk about a few style details of this super I want to start with the front turn signals which look very interesting instead of a little small piece it takes up basically the entire side and bottom of this whole front headlight assembly it looks really really cool very distinctive and I think that is a good little turn signal look and in back it's the same story I really love the look of the brake lights in this car they are tremendously distinctive and the turn signals are just part of the brake lights one of the brake lights turns off and becomes the turn signal when you put it on and I think that looks really really cool I can't think of any other car in the industry that has a similar looking brake light design very unique to the Supra now another cool thing I love in the back of the new Supra this Supra bag they are still using the same a supra font from the mark force intro which I just think is a fantastic little touch that ties this car into the old one I've always loved that very 90s font and I'm so glad they had enough of a sense of humor and of history to keep the super font going in the new one and next up since we're back here I want to talk about a few other important super details one is the fact that integrated into the rear diffuser you have this little light that looks like the rain light in Formula one cars which i think is fantastic now some other exotic cars also do this they do it for the rear fog light but in this car it's the reverse light which just looks so cool every time you put it in reverse this weird little light comes on again a very distinctive design touch in back now one other distinctive thing in back is the sound of this car I have to say it sounds pretty good take a listen [Music] now one of the thing I want to discuss before I move on to the supras interior quirks and features is the styling and I want to start with this fender now Toyota was very proud of this fender they said a special machine had to be created to make it and blah blah blah don't care about any of that stuff but I do like how it looks in fact it gives this car kind of a Ferrari f12 f12 TDF look from the right angles and I don't say that negatively I think this is a really really nice looking angle and generally I think the car looks good there has been some criticism of the super styling on line ever since it came out but truthfully most people hate all new cars they see until they get a little familiar with them and sitting here and looking at a bunch of new supers frankly I think it actually looks pretty good any complaints I have about the new Supra are not directed at how it looks I think it's a nice looking car and I think they did a good job modernizing a legend now next moving on to the super has interior crooks and features I want to talk about the cargo area and I want to start with simply accessing the cargo area which is a little bit annoying because there's no little button down here to pop it open when the Supra is unlocked instead your only access is through a button on the driver's door panel or a button on the key fob you push it and pops open and then you can open it from here and when you do open it you'll discover that the opening is actually surprisingly narrow this car has a fairly decent amount of cargo space but the opening is narrower than the actual cargo area and so there's some stuff you might not even be able to get in even though it fits which is maybe a little bit of a disappointment although I'm not really sure how many people are going to try to use this as a practical car now one very interesting thing in the cargo area is the fact that it has an emergency inside release for the passenger to climb out in case you try to kidnap someone in your Supra I say this is interesting because the cargo area is open to the passenger area so if someone kidnaps you in a Supra you couldn't pull that thing and fly out on the highway or you know you could just crawl into the front compartment and punch them in the face while they're driving or something and next we move on to the passenger compartment of the new super o there are quite a few interesting quirks and features the first one you notice the moment you go to get inside the door sill is very wide in fact toyota says the dorsal is twice as wide as it is in normal Toyota models and that's for added stiffness now usually there's a lot of manufacturer to talk about stiffness and I don't believe much of it but in this case I do because Toyota says this is the stiffest Toyota ever even stiffer than the LFA so obviously adding more support there probably helps and the other interesting kind of cool thing in that door cell down there is you have the Supra logo that old school 90s supra thought is repeated down there and I just love it it's a wonderful touch and it is a welcome reminder of what this car is because after you see that super logo the next thing you see is the rest of this interior which is all BMW I knew this car and have a BMW powertrain but I didn't know just how BMW it would be the window switches are from BMW the mirror control is from BMW the turn signal stock BMW the wiper stock BMW the headlight control the steering wheel is straight out of BMW except it has a Toyota badge on it the climate controls directly from BMW all of the center console controls right out of BMW the climate vents are BMW even that little thing I like where you slide your finger over the radio presets and the screen tells you what is involved with each one that is from BMW and that's because the entire infotainment system in this car is also from BMW basically everything you see is BMW stuff now I will say with the infotainment system I have to give them credit because on the flight out here I was thinking I'm gonna go through every screen on that infotainment system and see if I can find where it says BMW I did that and it doesn't they've changed it all for example if you go into the BMW ConnectedDrive system in this car it says Toyota Supra Connect if you go into the safety systems menu it doesn't say like BMW active safety it says Toyota Supra safety they did a very thorough like control F and replace everything said BMW or BMW z4 whatever and everything in here says Torre odd-even the pictures when you're talking about the tailgate for instance it shows a picture of a Supra with the tailgate up and not a z4 they make any of those mistakes which of course is nice and very welcome but with that said this infotainment system really is exactly the same one in an enormous amount of modern BMW models and I've reviewed this infotainment system in several other new BMWs the new 3-series the new z4 and so I won't be going through it in detail I will link those reviews in the description if you want to check it out now other interesting quirks and features in this interior beyond all of the BMW stuff one interesting quirk is the giant sport button in the center console you can see it's mounted above another button that is actually three buttons and in that space you have just one giant sport button above it I guess they really want you to press that sport button and go into sport mode and speaking of interesting buttons in this interior I mentioned that there was a button over on the driver's door panel you could press to release the tailgate you push in and it kind of pops open and all over on the passenger side where that button would be in a right hand drive car there's a plug they actually just cover it instead of creating a new door panel to hide it you can see that it should have been there but it isn't and speaking of the door panels take a look at the driver's door panel you see it's a nice red to match the seats now we're over to the passenger door panel yet you see anything different over there it's black now I assume this is because this is a pre-production very early car and I am at the launch here this is not a car that will eventually be sold to the public so you have to give Toyota a pass on that Magna Steyr in Austria who builds this car will never screw that up they are too good but it's kind of funny to see that in a car nonetheless even though we know that mismatched door panels will not make production now next up I want to move on to one piece of technology which is very different from the z4 and that would be the gauge cluster which actually is completely different doesn't really share anything and I really like the gauge cluster in the Supra I love this giant centre tachometer that's fixed in place it looks really cool and if you put the car in sport mode you can see it gets just a little bit more aggressive and red and angry letting you know things are about to get sporty-er I also really like over on the sides you have the fuel gauge and the temperature gauge and they have these little white bars across and that tells where you are I think all that stuff looks really good and I think this is a fantastic gauge cluster and finally one other new were the item in this car one difference from this car to the z4 and the z4 you have a center console for storage that also has cup holders in it you can kind of fold the lid back and use the cup holders or use it for storage this car they just ditched the storage aspect of it so the center console in this car is only for cupholders although they aren't nice and large and cup holders and so those are the quirks and features of the new Toyota Supra now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the 2020 Toyota Supra which is obviously a really big deal but 20 years you know this car is kind of a lot of hype around it so what is it like to drive now I want to start off by talking about the transmission situation with this car there is only an automatic available which sort of seems like sacrilege for a vehicle like the Supra and a lot of people complained about that then there was backlash about the complaints well you're not buying a new one you only want used cars so you that's what you do now you make an automatic I actually deeply disagree I think this car needs to have a manual transmission and I don't generally say that about cars I don't feel the Ferrari should bring back the manual I get why Porsches don't have them as much as they used to I get all that I generally don't complain but I was told many times at this press launch that the target vehicle for the Supra was the Porsche Boxster and Cayman if you want to be serious about competing with two of the best smaller sports cars on the market you need a manual and if you're gonna make a car like the Nissan GTR with 600 horsepower and it's trying to be as fast as possible in a straight line fine but that's not what they're doing here clearly because they've detuned in compared to see four and this car should have three pedals that is a mistake and I think that's that's in my mind honestly the biggest flaw of the entire car as for the driving experience I have driven the car pretty extensively today and I like it I think this car drives really well I knew I would because I drove the Z for about a month ago and it drove great and I kind of figured this actually may not be so bad you know the prior body is z4 wasn't the world's greatest sports car it just wasn't but the new one is better and I kind of figure out that in the Supra will be - and it is and I only drove the 4-cylinder z4 this is basically a better roof of that and it has more power it's great I drove it on the racetrack dynamically it is wonderful it's a nice car to drive it's well balanced it feels good it is a little bit let down by this transmission Toyota in a presentation this morning said well it's almost as good as a dual clutch well how about just use it dual clutch then I think this automatic is kind of the weak point of the car in a couple of ways but truthfully I'm driving it around driving it on back roads kind of having fun you don't want for power you really really do not want for power it feels fun it feels exciting and it's nice which leads me to my next point which is I hope this is the base car like I mentioned I really wonder if Toyota is going to make a more powerful super as I told you they made that project manager was kind of coy about it they could make a better one well I wonder if they will and if they do and this is just the base part of the starting point then it's a great one because dynamically it's good it dries well it feels good I think there's more that can come from this chassis by the way one other interesting item worth mentioning with this car there's an odd wind thing that goes on if you have the windows down and you're going over about 50 miles an hour the link buffeting so driving this car the acceleration is good the sound is surprisingly good I think there's a ton of great great great stuff about this car I just think it doesn't quite live up to the legend and and by the way I like the new Acura NSX I think that car is great and I stand by that four or five years after it has come out but I think this car Falls a little bit short the NSX at least had big power and it basically does 0-60 like MacLaren's and Ferraris this in a world where looked a halo car from back then the Supra was the 340 horsepower king of the road super turbo and the Skyline GTR was about 3 and 20 horsepower Skyline GTR they were neck-and-neck now the GTR has whatever it is by the 85 some insane horsepower dezerter's between two and a half seconds and this is all this to pray is really I almost feel like Toyota didn't quite understand how much the legend of the Supra had grown and they released this car they were like oh we can make a good sports car and it'll be the Supra and they couldn't maybe 20 years ago but now it needs to sufficiently follow up on a really impressive car car that has become more impressive since it was canceled I'm not sure they've done them however it is really important to know the good stuff is all here BMW has great tech and so this car has a lot of great tech great safety features good stuff visibility is great drivability is great steering and handling as good does it feel to numb power you know it's fine it's good enough and I think generally speaking this is a great sports car I really do I just don't know that it's quite a Supra I think a little bit more could come out of that and so that's the 2020 Toyota Supra this car is fine just fine it's not that amazing legend revival like many of us were hoping for and dreaming about truthfully this is a fun car it's fun to drive it's fantastic I think it looks good and it's a great sports car but that's all it is this isn't going to be selling for $100,000 at collector car auctions in 20 years like the old Supra what this car is though is a good starting point a good building block on which more supra versions can come and I seriously hope that this is just the beginning of the Supra revival with more powerful more exciting versions on the horizon but given that we all demanded that from Toyota with the FRS BRZ 86 and it never came I feared that this is all the Supra we may ever get which again is fine just fine and with that it's time to give the new Supra a dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the new super has been a bit controversial but people always hate new car designs when they first see them it's one of my great frustrations with car commenters I like it it gets a 7 out of 10 acceleration does 0-60 in 4.1 seconds and it gets a 7 out of 10 handling a sharp feedback is good steering as nice and it gets a 7 out of 10 fun factor is strong this is an enjoyable cart toss around but it's lacking the transmission that would truly make it excellent and it gets a six out of ten finally cool factor this is one of the most hotly anticipated new cars and it easily gets a seven out of ten for a total weekend score of 34 out of 50 next up are the daily categories and features the Supra is loaded with a lot of excellent tech and it gets a 7 out of 10 Comfort is fine normal for the class and it gets a 5 out of 10 quality is high the interior is excellent all the materials are great it doesn't get the usual Toyota scores because of the BMW drivetrain reliability could be a question but it does well enough with a 7 out of 10 practicality is OK it has a decent sized cargo area but only two seats and it gets a 3 out of 10 finally value and it's a good one the super starts at like 50 grand which is a huge discount compared to the z4 with the same engine which starts at 65 grand yes the z4 has more power but 15 grand is 15 grand the super gets a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 29 out of 50 add it up and the Doug score is 63 out of 100 and here's how the super stacks up against the competition it beats out the Lexus RCF which was sort of a must in my mind for the Supra to be taken seriously the supers only one point short of the BMW m2 which is pretty good I'd like the m2 I think that's high praise for the Toyota the super also beats the Mustang GT the Mustang is faster but the super looks a little better and the Supra has the wow factor right now is it so hotly anticipated in the car world truthfully the super places right where you'd probably expect it - it's a good car and it's seriously worth a look if you're interested in a good sports car as long as you don't mind a sports car with a mandatory torque converter automatic transmission all right I'm gonna start the quirks and features of the super off and by the way for your gunfire behind me because I am filming this video in West Virginia and well take that how you want it but anyway on to more crooks and features and I want to come back under the hood now the MWC oho but anyway on to more crooks and features and I want to get back under the hood now Toyota seem to be very proud of the fact that they have two

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 4,615,019

Rating: 4.6970096 out of 5

Keywords: 2020 supra review, new supra review, toyota supra, toyota supra review, supra review, gr supra, gr supra review, 2020 supra, 2020 toyota supra, new supra, supra, 2020 toyota supra review, toyota gr supra, toyota supra gr, supra gr, doug demuro, doug de muro

Id: 4oC8cvUb0kI

Length: 27min 7sec (1627 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/megatronus8010]

Supra bad! Fake vents bad! Good for tuning only! Tuning voids warranty bad!

[u/Trololman72]

Wait wtf Doug is a fake car guy now

[u/headcoat2013]

so now fake vents good because they're made for tuning companies to exploit? This is what Honda should have said about the Type R.

[u/ForcedSilver]

I was surprised he was displeased with Toyota leaving room for modification from the factory. Toyota saw that people loved to modify the MKIV Supra and wanted to make the process easier for tuners. It's the equivalent to giving a graffiti artist a blank wall and telling him to go nuts but the artists wants to go mess with something already better.

[u/tacomafrs]

nice car, but missing one feature

Jinba ittai

[u/lasaneyvevo]

“et eEt nOt sOOopRA itE bEmDyuHbeW”

[u/tommyylee5]

All jokes aside it's a stunning car, can't wait to see it in person

[u/FatBoy613]

/uj All jokes aside, I agree with what he said and you have to give him props for not whoring out to Toyota and praising this thing. Left blanks for tuning companies, yet the moment you get it tuned you void your warranty.

[u/MaEaLi]

I hated it until another reviewer said it drove like a Miata. Toyota (BMW) Miata is garbage compared to Mazda Miata, but more Miata is always good.

Miata