Review: 2020 Toyota GR Supra

Back in 2001 when I moved back to Kuwait from university, I started looking for a clean second-hand 4th generation Toyota Supra. It was one of those dream cars to own back then and I really wanted the twin-turbo version with an automatic gearbox. In hindsight, I wish I wasn’t so picky. I only ended up coming across manual cars and so never ended up buying one, but if I had and kept it, today it would be worth more than what I would have paid for it. The 4th generation Supra ended production in 2002 and since then prices of the old cars have kept rising as they became harder to find in good condition and just a few months ago an excellent condition one sold for a staggering $176,000.

Finally, earlier this year the new 2020 Supra was unveiled and it launched in Kuwait a couple of weeks back. I was lucky enough to borrow one off the dealer this past weekend and if I was looking for a new sports car to buy, this would be an option I’d seriously consider.

The new Toyota Supra and the new BMW Z4 share a lot of the same parts including the engine and interior. That’s because Toyota and BMW collaborated on the project which caused a lot of controversy with Supra diehards for obvious reasons. I’m not that big of a diehard and even I cringed when I heard that the new Supra would be built with a BMW engine. But, after spending a weekend with the car I’ve realized this collab might actually be a benefit for us. BMW is a more premium brand than Toyota so things like the interior end up looking better and feeling a lot more expensive than what a Toyota would usually look or feel like while still paying Toyota prices.

But, before getting inside the car, the first thing you’ll notice about the Supra is how cool the outside looks. When I first saw pictures of the car online I fell in love with the rear end and it looks even better in real life. The car is super hot looking and an eye-catcher on the road, especially right now because there aren’t that many on the streets. One thing I was surprised with was the size of the car, it’s not big at all and so not intimidating which I really like. And even though the car is small, the interior didn’t feel cramped and was actually a really nice space to be in.

At 335HP the Supra doesn’t have an absurd amount of power but it does have more than enough to make it feel pretty fast on the streets. I’ve also already seen videos on YouTube of Supra’s being modified to produce 1000HP so if you want more power that’s going to be an easy fix. The performance parts market for the Supra is going to be HUGE that’s for sure.

Every one of my friends whom I let test drive the car (both guys and girls) loved it. There is very little not to like about the Supra but there were some things I had issues with. The steering wheel makes the car feel cheap, it’s fairly hard and just felt plasticky even though it was leather-wrapped. I also didn’t find the exhaust loud but I think that has to do with the new European regulations since a lot of cars don’t sound loud anymore either. On downshifts, you get some amazing crackles and pops but while driving (even aggressively) I kept wishing the exhaust was slightly louder. If I want to be really picky I also had issues with the suspension which felt soft when I wanted it to be hard, and felt hard when I wanted it to be soft. But one of the best things about the Supra is that you’ll most likely want to customize all these things anyway yourself, the first thing I’d do if I bought the car would be to install a sportier aftermarket exhaust. Customization is part of the reason of getting a Supra to begin with. What isn’t a minor thing though is the lack of Apple CarPlay. I guess I should be incredibly grateful the infotainment system comes from BMW and not Lexus (who have the worst infotainment system in the world), but I still wish it had CarPlay.

At KD16,500 the new Supra is priced extremely competitively and it going to sell like hotcakes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the dealer hasn’t sold out already. In Kuwait, the local dealer only have one model available which is basically the fully loaded version with the only options being the exterior and interior colors. They have a test drive vehicle available so if you’re interested in trying out the car as I did then visit the dealer @toyotakw.