Toyota GT 86 Convertible Confirmed

Toyota GT 86 Convertible Confirmed; Is Scion FR-S Drop Top Far Behind?

The Toyota GT 86 sports car is the first new Toyota vehicle in more than a decade that, at least here in the states, has car enthusiasts excited. To be sold in the U.S. as the 2013 Scion FR-S and the Subaru BRZ, the parent GT 86 has all the characteristics craved by enthusiasts: small; lightweight; a coupe body style; peppy engine; rear-wheel drive; and a price around the mid-twenties. The only thing you can’t do is drop the top.

But not for much longer. The 2013 Toyota GT 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ coupe may soon be welcoming a new member in the family. No, not another GT 86 variant under yet another brand. Toyota GT 86 chief engineer Tetsuya Tada, during an interview with German auto mag Autobild, recently confirmed that a convertible version of the GT 86 “is coming,” and that Toyota had intended a drop-top version all along.

Tada didn’t provide any additional details of the GT 86 roadster. Autobild included an image of this GT 86 roadster, which is either the genuine article or a cleverly done illustration. The article also didn’t elaborate if the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ would be receiving such versions as well. Personally, we’d be surprised if they didn’t.

Source: Autobild

Toyota Prius Enters Realm of Top Three Worldwide

We see a lot of Toyota Prius hybrids around town, but we thought it was just a Southern California thing—apparently, it’s not. In what’s sure to surprise many in the industry, the Toyota Prius was the third bestselling car in the world year over year.

Propelled by strong U.S. sales, the Prius was outsold only by the Toyota Corolla with just over 300,000 models sold, and the Ford Focus with 277,000 sold. Moving nearly a quarter-million units, the Toyota Prius is easily beating all expectations, and if nothing else, signals success for Toyota’s hybrid experiment. When the Prius first debuted, the car was a relatively unattractive sedan with a stripped-down interior, and was almost singularly focused on fuel economy; while today’s models are better, much of that still holds true. But so too does the promise of efficiency, one which the Prius has consistently delivered. A 2012 Toyota Prius C gets an EPA estimated 53 mpg highway and 46 mpg in town.

Currently the Toyota Prius family includes the Prius C, Prius V wagon, and Prius plug-in hybrid. The Prius has helped propel Toyota back to the top spot among automakers globally, and has outsold popular models such as the Hyundai Elantra; Volkswagen Golf; Ford Fiesta; Chevy Cruze; and Honda Civic; among others.

Source: Bloomberg