About the Toyota Supra
Simon Stockton purchased this Toyota Supra new for $93,000 (including all on-road costs). Simon Stockton would buy this car again because: “Picture this: A young 19 year old, fresh into the world of motoring just as the first (and the best) Fast and the Furious movie is released, inspired and excited by the MkIV Supra driven by Brian. That was me 21 years ago.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that one day I would be in the position to buy such an iconic vehicle. Sure the fifth-generation Supra is not the one from the movie that brought the name to the forefront of almost every car guy’s ‘want’ list. But after owning over a dozen Supras from all generations… what else is there to do?
My Supra was one the first 300 cars in Australia and while the initial purchase experience in itself was ‘nerve wracking’ it was interesting. The initial adopters of this platform had to log into their MyToyota account, register interest, pick a trim level, two different colour options, input your Driving Licence number to verify identity and then pay $1000 all before each release of 100 was sold out. (The first lot of 100 sold out in less than five minutes)
So you can understand my nerves as I was doing this – trying to reset the password on my MyToyota account and pick everything with one hand as I had just had surgery on my left arm. A few days later I was phone by a lady called Bridgette who called herself “The Supra Concierge” she took another $4000 deposit over the phone and informed me my colour choices of yellow or blue would be around 12 months wait.
After a few months of waiting, my preferred dealer called me up and invited me down to test drive their demo, a black GTS. After the drive they offered me the black car in place of my original choice but I just felt like you lost the black accents on the bodywork with the black paint.
A salesman at the dealer had a white one that looked absolutely gorgeous. “If you have a white one I’ll take that,” I replied and one week later and another few phone calls, a White GT was on its way from Sydney for delivery November 2019.”
How reliable has your car been? Tell us about any issues.
Let’s not make the mistake here, this car is a BMW badged by Toyota and long-term reliability is still a question surrounding this platform. Will this fifth-generation Supra last the test of time that the infamous JZA80 with it’s near bullet proof 2JZ has?
That is something that can’t be answered for another 10 years, but immediate to mid-term reliability can be. Let’s discuss the issues I’ve had with mine, remembering mine is one of the first cars off the production line with a build date on April 2019 and the devil’s number ‘666’ as the last three on the VIN.
Paint and body: Modern BMW paint is notorious for being ‘soft’ and marking easily and my car is no exception. With 45,000km this Supra does has a couple of paint marks on the nose cone.
I would strongly recommend at a minimum a PPF front-end wrap to protect the front of your new Supra. The rest of the body seems well put together, panel gaps on my example are all even with a nice solid feel to things like doors and door handles, there is however one extremely annoying feature or lack there of… no boot opening from the outside and no ‘handle’ to grab onto to open it once it’s popped.
You have the button on the drivers door or the key fob, and then you need to finger tip lift the boot as there is literally no where to hold onto.
Electrics: This will be the downfall of this vehicle if there ever is one. Littered with technology from the BMW parts bin. Compare it to the fourth-generation Supra that had central locking, electric driver’s seat and power windows and mirrors.
The fifth-generation car comes with a full BMW iDrive system completed with tyre pressure monitoring systems and an electronic engine oil function to replace the manual dipstick. Electric and heated seats, adaptive cruise, blind-spot monitoring and many more features you’d expect from a new car built in 2019.
Will these last? I’ll tell you in 10 years, but so far the only issue i have had is the replace the battery in the key fob.
Engine and drivetrain: The 2JZ has cast a large shadow to fill for the B58 power plant that resides in the new Supra, but it’s not doing a bad job. Initial cars, mine included, came with a 250kW at 5000rpm and reaching 500Nm of torque before 2000rpm make it a blistering quick accelerating car to daily drive.
The early models were easily distinguished by their two-port exhaust manifold. In 2020 the Supra had a power bump to 380hp with more boost and a six-port exhaust manifold. My car is not 335hp, is it just shy of 600whp and 700Nm.
Fitted with a large Borg Warner EFR 8374 turbocharger on a custom top mount manifold running an ethanol mix of E30 at 23psi, the engine is showing no signs of damage with zero coolant and oil consumption, and fuel use of 10.5L/100km it isn’t doing too bad.
Oil changes at 5000km are also clean from any metal shavings and compression is still at a very health range.
The transmission on the other hand may need an upgrade soon. The stock transmission according to ZF is only rated at 500Nm and starts to slip at around 750Nm. Mine has had an oil leak that Toyota blamed on the power increase but after showing them the part numbers for the oil seals and gaskets on the ZF8 used in the Ram and Challenger rated at 750Nm being the same as the part numbers in the Supra box, then came to the party and gave me my warranty claim.
A common leak on the ZF8 box being the tail shaft oil seal at the rear of the transmission, there are also some metal shavings in my gear box fluid, presumably because I am now pushing the limits of the clutch packs and need an upgrade.
All in all considering the almost double horsepower increase and 45,000km on the car, I would say it’s holding its own and doing the Supra badge proud.
What do you think of the ownership experience with your car?
“Is that a Supra” is still a question I get yelled at me by 20 year olds driving a GU patrol with a five-inch lift kit and their mullet flapping in the wind even though it isn’t ‘the famous Supra’.
This car is in every way a Toyota Supra, from the lines of the car, the tunability, to the driving position and feel. Sure it wont kill you and make your wife a widow when you hit boost like the fourth-generation cars as it has a highly sophisticated BMW traction control system and electronic rear differential, but it still has that feel that can only be found in a Supra.
If you are looking for a car that can mix it on track with a 911 GT3 and still be a comfortably grocery getter, this should definitely at the top of your short list, just duck as you get in and out if you’re taller than six-foot.
How has the purchase and aftercare experience been with your car?
When you buy a Toyota, you don’t expect to be treated like royalty. You haven’t bought a Lamborghini or McLaren. But the customer service from Toyota has been second to none.
Main dealer services always come with a courtesy car and a capped price of less that $400 what could you possible need? There has been some speculation around parts and whether Toyota have them in stock, who will be cheaper, Toyota or BMW etc…
Well I can tell you that when I needed a new breather hose (after breaking the original hard plastic one fitting a cold air intake) I rung both BMW and Toyota, the BMW part was a three-month wait from Germany at over $100 (I can’t remember the exact price) and the Toyota part was a two-day wait from Sydney at $47.
So has this car been hit by the BMW tax? No, it’s BMW Technology with Toyota Pricing!
Are you happy with the price and features of your car?
Anyway, as I said. This car is a BMW badge by Toyota, but that does mean you get all the comforts and safety features of a BMW for the price of a Toyota – and not just any BMW the z4 M40i with a hardtop!
Perfect 50/50 with distribution with the rigidity of a hard top, a highly tunable bulletproof straight-six turbocharged 3.0 engine and all the technology to boot!
I do think the car is a little overpriced, and should be priced around $10,000 cheaper, but at the same time to get something else NEW that handles and performs as good as the fifth-generation Supra you are looking will into the $200,000 mark and more.
Even when the new 400Z arrives, it wasn’t designed as a track-eating street car. I firmly believe the Supra will still remain the top pick for some one looking for a sub-$100k rear-drive street racer
What do you think of the performance and economy of your car?
Should this car be compared to the GT-R? it would seem that every man and his dog hated on the new Supra because it didn’t match the power of the Nissan GT-R, but was the Supra ever built to match the GT-R? Or was it really a GT car that was built to compete with the GT-T and GTS-T of the same era?
Toyota never had a flagship car to match the Skyline GT-R with its drive train and it still doesn’t on paper. However, with the new Supra having perfect weight distribution it can still be seen lapping race tracks two seconds faster than the current Nissan GT-R and still get around 8.0L/100km in stock form.
What car can run 11-second quarters out of the box and still get that fuel consumption that isn’t made by an overzealous business man with aspirations to own the moon?
What do you think of the technology in your car?
Probably the worst bit about the car is the technology. Yes I have talked about the amazing BMW features in the car, but the iDrive system is still an outdated iDrive 6 unit that in Australia lacks Apple CarPlay, and lacks Android Auto worldwide.
Aside from this the rest of the technology in the car seems up to date with memory seats and mirrors that can the programmed to adjust depending on if its your key or your partner’s key that unlocks the car.
What do you think of the ride comfort and handling of your car?
Being that I am six-one and 95kg you’d think this would be a tight fit. So much so that I went and sat in a demo car before going through the tedious ordering process as I just don’t fit in the GT86/BRZ.
But there is surprisingly a lot of room once you actually get in the car, I say once you get in as it’s not the easier car to get in if you are tall but once you’re in, you’re in and it’s fine.
The new Supra handles like a true track car, nothing like the boat like handling of a fourth-generation car that can only be compared to an ox cart on a river, a small amount of uneven toe in the rear of the car does make it tail happy with traction control off but fix that and the fifth-generation car is perfectly balanced and will stick like glue.
Just don’t turn off the traction control if you are still running the factory Michelins or the new Supra will join the ranks of the new Mustang in being a lamp post finder.
The car really should have come with Michelin Cup tyres not the PS4s.
Keyword: 2019 Toyota Supra GT owner review