Halo cars

MANILA, Philippines - From a strictly business standpoint, an “affordable” sports car doesn’t make sense. It costs millions to develop one, invest in the tooling, get the factories started, and then add to those marketing costs while hoping for margins on a few thousand units similar to bread-and-butter models sold by the hundreds of thousands. Yet seen as a marketing tool in itself, a sports car is a wonderful thing. It is seen as the embodiment of a car company: youthful, exuberant, dynamic, and exciting!

Ford and Chevrolet have known this for years with their Mustang, Corvette, and Camaro, respectively. Chrysler made waves in the 90’s when it first unveiled the Viper. Nissan kept the fire burning with its “Z” cars, Mazda had the RX-7/8, while Toyota had a good one in the Celica and Supra, only to kill the cars when sales went down.

But now Toyota has a new toy for enthusiasts to play with, and it’s priced such that it’s only a little more expensive than your average midsize sedan. By its looks alone, the “86” is a winner; a small 2+2 body with taut bodywork evocative of the Lexus LFA and a little bit of Ferrari 599GT. Developed in partnership with Subaru (particularly its horizontally opposed 4-cylinder engine), and bestowed with “serious” hardware like a limited slip differential and—God bless them—a proper 6-speed manual transmission, the car is a lot of fun to play with. 

It is the right car and at the right time for Toyota. It will never be as profitable as an Altis or Camry, yet Toyota’s new halo car is precisely what’s needed to bring new life to an increasingly boring product line. The Vios, Altis, Camry, Hilux, Fortuner, Avanza and Innova are all good products with a solid reputation for reliability, but they lack that “X” factor. The 86, on the other hand, is all emotion and quite impractical. Rear seat passenger space is a joke, there’s barely enough room in the back for luggage, and it only makes sense when you start driving it fast.

In other words, it is a toy, a magnet, a lure, and one that will lure buyers into showrooms. It will get the unconvinced to start thinking of Toyota as an exciting brand once again, while those who do line up for the year-long waiting list may be convinced to settle for another model in the meantime. I can almost imagine the conversation in the showroom.

Customer: “How much is this 86?”

Sales Executive: “It starts at P1.5 million, sir.”

Customer: “Really? Here’s my checkbook. I want one now!”

Sales Executive: “I’m sorry, sir, there isn’t a unit available yet. It may take a while.”

Customer: “Drat! Can I reserve one, though?”

Sales Executive: “Yes, sir, although we can’t say when the unit will arrive. We DO have the Camry in stock, of course. ”

Customer: “Is that so? Let me see… wow.. this backseat is niiicee..”

With the rising popularity of Hyundai and Kia among mainstream buyers, the 86 should help Toyota’s image until all-new (and I don’t mean face lifted) models come in over the next few years. As a matter of fact, the car reminds me of what the Civic SiR did for Honda many years ago. It was the most expensive Civic at the time with an engine that was more attuned to teenage racers than regular family guys, yet that didn’t stop it from becoming a cult classic and boosting overall Honda sales.

Ah, Honda… that is another topic for another day.