The Toyota GR86 Is Outselling the Subaru BRZ by a Lot. But There's a Reason

The GR86 is selling better than the BRZ at a rate of five-to-one.

2022 Toyota GR86 Front View

Adrian Padeanu

By: Adrian Padeanu

Updated: Jul 3, 2024 at 3:16am ET

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The Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ might be cut from the same cloth, but their sales don't reflect that. With the second quarter of the year over, we can have a closer look at how the attainable sports cars fared in the first half of 2024. Through June, 7,467 people bought a GR86 in the United States where its platform-sharing sibling only mustered 1,414 sales.

The GR86 is outselling the nearly identical BRZ by a ratio of five to one. A Subaru spokesperson told us: "The sales are directly linked to production. We are allotted a certain amount of production units for the US market and we are prioritizing Forester production." It should be noted that Toyota also has a much stronger retail network than Subaru in the US, which would further explain the gap in sales.

Subaru BRZ

Toyota is happy to report that GR86 demand is up 41.9 percent this year whereas Subaru says its sister car is down by 43.7 percent from January to June. Last month, 1,500 people bought a GR86 and only 243 purchased a BRZ. As you can imagine, the BRZ is the slowest-selling product in Subie's portfolio through June. We can't say the same for the GR86 since it outsold the Crown, Supra, and other products.

Speaking of Toyota's more expensive sports car, which just lost its four-cylinder engine for the 2025MY, demand dropped 7.8 percent in the first six months of the year. Deliveries declined to 1,495 units, and with the cheaper base model going away, the future isn't looking too bright. There's a hotter Supra GRMN on the way but that's unlikely to move the needle since it's expected to be a limited-run special edition.

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On a related note, Toyota only moved 13 units of the Prius in June compared to the same month of last year when it sold 2,466 units. We learned that Toyota recalled the Prius for rear doors that could open while driving in April and issued a stop-sale on the hybrid.

Update: This story has been updated with a statement from Subaru regarding BRZ sales and the headline has also been updated to reflect that.