Photo: Toyota
Ah, outsourcing! If you were wondering, even Toyota is doing it because of the cost. After all, it’s cheaper to use the tooling and workforce of another company. And thus, the GR Supra is now manufactured in Graz, Austria instead of Motomachi, Japan.
This turn of events shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the Supra is related to the Z4, and BMW has a long-running production partnership with Magna Steyr. On the other hand, we can’t imagine that the Austrians have the same quality assurance as Toyota in Japan. Adding insult to injury, the BMW parts utilized by the Supra aren’t the latest word in terms of reliability.
The question is, does reliability matter that much in a sports car? To each his own, but Mazda is a positive example in this regard with the MX-5 Miata. Even though the Supra is available with a 2.0-liter turbo in Europe, the German configurator takes reservations for configurations that start at €62,900.
Over in the United States, the Launch Edition retails at $55,250 and the Supra comes exclusively with the BMW-sourced turbo inline-six engine. Lower down the range, the 3.0 Premium is $53,990 while the 3.0 without Premium starts at $49,990 before destination charge.
Taking the Z4 sDrive30i for reference, the BMW starts at $49,700 with the 2.0-liter TwinPower Turbo inline-four engine. Looking at the bigger picture, both models are expensive from the get-go and both will be produced in limited numbers as a consequence.
Then again, sports cars aren’t selling too well these days. Crossovers and SUVs are at the forefront of demand, and every automaker in the industry is pouring resources into developing crossovers and SUVs as quickly as possible. It’s a matter of supply and demand, and there’s no reason to point the fingers at automakers for these circumstances.
As for the first-ever Supra to roll off the assembly line in Graz, Magna Steyr finished the car in phantom matte grey. The VIN is also special, including 20201 where 2020 marks the model year and 1 indicates the first example of the breed. If you were wondering , VIN 001 has been auctioned by Barrett-Jackson for $2.1 million, and all of the proceeds are going to the Bob Woodruff Foundation and American Heart Association.
The question is, does reliability matter that much in a sports car? To each his own, but Mazda is a positive example in this regard with the MX-5 Miata. Even though the Supra is available with a 2.0-liter turbo in Europe, the German configurator takes reservations for configurations that start at €62,900.
Over in the United States, the Launch Edition retails at $55,250 and the Supra comes exclusively with the BMW-sourced turbo inline-six engine. Lower down the range, the 3.0 Premium is $53,990 while the 3.0 without Premium starts at $49,990 before destination charge.
Taking the Z4 sDrive30i for reference, the BMW starts at $49,700 with the 2.0-liter TwinPower Turbo inline-four engine. Looking at the bigger picture, both models are expensive from the get-go and both will be produced in limited numbers as a consequence.
Then again, sports cars aren’t selling too well these days. Crossovers and SUVs are at the forefront of demand, and every automaker in the industry is pouring resources into developing crossovers and SUVs as quickly as possible. It’s a matter of supply and demand, and there’s no reason to point the fingers at automakers for these circumstances.
As for the first-ever Supra to roll off the assembly line in Graz, Magna Steyr finished the car in phantom matte grey. The VIN is also special, including 20201 where 2020 marks the model year and 1 indicates the first example of the breed. If you were wondering , VIN 001 has been auctioned by Barrett-Jackson for $2.1 million, and all of the proceeds are going to the Bob Woodruff Foundation and American Heart Association.
Google News