Toyota’s 2.0-litre Supra not coming to Australia

Toyota’s 2.0-litre Supra has been confirmed for Europe, but Toyota Australia says it’s still; not bound for local shores.

The 190kW/400Nm rear-driver is, according to Toyota’s engineering boss Tetsuya Tada, lighter and more agile, with Toyota having achieved a 50:50 weight distribution.

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With the turbo 2.0-litre, which Toyota borrowed from BMW (the same spec is found in the Z4 30i), the Supra is 100kg lighter.

“To achieve agile steering and stable cornering, we worked very hard to reduce the new car’s weight,” says Tada.

“This presented us with huge challenges, but we did not want to compromise on our targets.”

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Despite promising specs and performance claims – 0-100km/h is said to be a 5.2 second affair – Toyota reckons it’s not going to take off in Australia.

“There are currently no plans to introduce the 4-cylinder version of the Supra to the Australian market,” a Toyota Australia spokesperson told MOTOR.

“Our research has shown that the overwhelming preference for the Supra is for a six cylinder version, especially as the inline six has been present in all previous versions of Supra.”

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While Toyota is keeping the specifics of the research it conducted confidential, the basic nature of the investigation was asking members of the public Toyota believed would be interested in the GR Supra what they’d like to see in the car.

Clearly, the results came back with a strong interest in the six-pot.

“As a result we decided that, with the limited supply available, to only offer the six cylinder version in Australia.

“We are however, always evaluating our model line-up and this might change in the future, but it is currently not on our radar for introduction at this time.”

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While the four-pot Supra would certainly land south of the $85K outlay to buy a six-powered Supra GT here in Australia, Toyota Australia doesn’t think there’s enough interest in the smaller engine for people to be tempted by the cheaper option.

If you’re waiting for the 2.0-litre, a BMW Z4 30i is the closest you can buy… for $104,900.