In addition to a new (yet old) name, the lightweight sport coupe formerly known as the Scion FR-S will get a facelift when it transitions to the Toyota marque this fall. Meet the 2017 Toyota 86.
The nose now has a wider front intake, some straked side vents, and updated headlights, as well as what appears to be an actual nose.
The rear, too, employs a revised bumper design and new LED taillights. For those yearning for more power, Toyota has bumped power and torque by five units each, to 205 hp and 156 lb-ft. It’s not much, but the 2.0-liter Subaru boxer is still naturally aspirated. Toyota hasn’t detailed what suspension upgrades they made yet, but promises there are some. We’ll know more at the NY Auto Show next week.
The most derided part of the FR-S — its ugly alloy wheels — is also gone, replaced by tasteful split 5-spokes that, thankfully, appear to be all one color.
The interior is largely unchanged, but Toyota says there will be more soft materials used on the door trim and stitched 86 logos throughout.
Speaking of which, now that the car is actually called the 86, the fender-mounted 86 logos are gone, replaced with a nondescript faux vent.
As for why the name was changed, Toyota Division Group VP Bill Fay explained thusly. “When we announced the transition of the Scion models to Toyota we hadn’t planned on changing the names of our cars, but by popular demand, for our sports car, we decided to adopt the global name of 86.”
Fay continued, “Enthusiasts have a strong association with the front-engine, rear-drive heritage of the ‘hachi-roku.'” Regardless, Toyota has just given us an obvious way to visually distinguish Scion FR-Ses and Toyota 86es.
In addition, the Scion iM will now be called the Toyota Corolla iM, while the Mazda-based Scion iA will now be called the Toyota Yaris iA.
Images courtesy of Toyota.
I feel like people are gonna confuse the new and the old in simple conversations for example , hey Mike I’m going to bring my 86 tomarow , Mike: damn bro you got an eight six?! alright bro bring it tomorrow can’t wait to see it, (guy shows up the next day to Mike’s house) Mike: (disappointed) bro?! I thought you said you bought an 86 , guy: yea bro like at the badging its a Toyota 86
I dunno, I feel like the people who care about old Hachis always add the AE because 86 by itself can be ambiguous.
Bringin’ the ’86 tomorrow!
Damn bro you got an 86?
*Rolls up in a 1986 Cutlass Supreme in brown on brown*
Agreed.
The styling is a step backwards. It looks even more anthropomorphic than it did before with the new nose and bottom-fangs.
The proportions are fine, but they took the worst parts of the existing design and exaggerated them:
– the addition of the plastic bar at the top of the radiator inlet on the front bumper is sort of an implied toothless grin. “Hey kid, you want a gummer?”
– Toyota seems to have taken a cue from the aftermarket offerings for the pre-facelift model for these new taillights, but i’m almost certain that they’ll still be the least attractive option.
– the protruding schnoz breaks up what would otherwise be a clean line that would lend the car more of a shark nose profile.
– the relocation of the signal lights and their replacement with straked plastic blank panels is a cheap move, although clearly intended to evoke the shared lexus design language.
– the bulging, curving lines in the hood and fenders are back, and they somehow seem even more overstated than before. this calls more attention to the incongruous bluff cutoff in the wheel arches.
– as always, the totally superfluous wing window would be the ideal place to locate the side mirrors as opposed to the door panel. the scalloped section formed by the fender vent that follows the doorline and joins the c-pillar curve is unnecessarily interrupted.
It’s cool that they killed of Scion (finally), nice that they adopted the global market name for the car (despite the fact that it fills more of a Celica slot in the product line and hearing Hachi Roku got old wayyyy before the ink and paper concepts for this car), and fantastic that Toyota has managed to keep driving enthusiasts in mind (unlike Nissan).
That being said, I’m more excited about the possibility of the S-FR concept coming stateside. That’s what I’ll be spending my money on at the Toyota dealer.
I agree with you completely. The facelifted 86 lacks the clean lines of the current design. The wheels are step in the right direction, at least.
I’ve thought Toyota doesn’t pay its designers well these days (for a couple of decades actually) and they are on sort of a partial strike…
As for the others, Corolla iM makes sense since it’s a Corolla hatchback and nothing more but “Yaris iA” makes no sense at all since it’s on a completely different platform from the Yaris hatch, unless it’s getting a Mazda 2-based replacement.
On the Toyota internal press release they also stated and you can just make out the circular “86” emblem is etched on the inside of the headlamps as well…. someone must have taken a question from nissan!
Not a bad facelift but I was hoping to see something g a bit more different than just bumper changes. I’m still in denial about the name change as I will always consider this a Celica… meh, badges are cheap, hahaa!
I always believed the frs was a celica. Think about it the celica came in several diffrent models sra and irs the frs has irs a 4 cylinder. 1rst to 3rd gen celicas where all rear wheel drive like the frs and the celica was more powerful than any ae86 hands down even in the us market 22re had more pwer than a stock 4age dont even mention the jdm conterparts with 1gtte turbo engines 4ages 18rgs and in japan came with lsd sadly none in the us bt as u can see i believe the frs should have been called a celica it has nothing to do with the ae86 just so much fanboys of initial d kept in secrecy what a beast the early celicas were.