Toyota sells out of initial Supra allocation

TOYOTA Australia says demand is outstripping supply for its reborn Supra, with the waiting list for the sportscar due in showrooms in the third quarter this year already blown out beyond 12 months.

Speaking to GoAuto last week at the RAV4 national media launch in Adelaide, Toyota Australia vice-president of sales and marketing Sean Hanley said the company’s initial Supra allocation was “gone, well and truly, plus some”, but he could not commit to an official waiting time.

“We don’t know yet, because we haven’t actually firmed up the pre-orders, we got interest,” he said.

“I’m not sure there’s no deposits, but nothing we’re accounting anyhow. There’s no requirement for deposits – I’ll put it to you that way – from our side, just interest only.”

As reported, Toyota Australia is working on new sales procedures to manage the ordering process, which is likely to result in its longest waiting list since the 86 sportscar topped out at 18 months when it launched in 2012.

Mr Hanley added that “we’re only going to get 280 of these (in) year one”, and he stressed that Supra was not intended to bring incremental volume for Toyota Australia. About 300 units were originally expected to be available in the first 12 months.

“I can tell you the pricing is keen, the car’s great, we’re going to sell out of them overnight – there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

“But again, we need to emphasis Supra is not about sales volumes, it’s actually about brand. Of course, we’ll continue to manage our customer expectations in relation to Supra. We’ll stay close to them.”

While Toyota Australia continues to keep its Supra coupe’s pricing under wraps, it is expected to significantly undercut that of the mechanically related BMW Z4 convertible, which starts at $124,900 plus on-road costs in equivalent M40i form.

Mr Hanley added that Supra is just the first in a line of performance models that will fall under the same banner and join Toyota Australia’s line-up in the coming years.

“We just see it as an incredible opportunity to showcase Toyota’s return to performance cars and, particularly, to launch Gazoo Racing (GR) brand as a starting point for Australia,” he said.

“Now, Gazoo Racing is not overly new for Toyota in Europe or other markets, but in this country, it’s the start of our Gazoo Racing launch.”

Overseas, GR models already include 86, the Yaris light hatch and the Prius small hatch, while GoAuto has previously reported that a Corolla small car is under study to join the range.

Meanwhile, BMW M GmbH chairman of the board of management Markus Flasch told Australian journalists last week that the German skunkworks is not pursuing a higher-performing Z4 M flagship as it would require significant re-engineering to fit the X3 M and X4 M’s larger S58 twin-turbo engine that produces up to 375kW/600Nm.

The Australia-bound Supra shares its 250kW/500Nm B58 single-turbo unit and ZF-sourced eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission with Z4 M40i. The former can sprint from standstill to 100km/h in 4.3 seconds – 0.3s quicker than the latter.

As such, if Brand T wants to increase Supra’s performance in future, it will have to go it alone. Either way, Mr Flasch described Z4 M40i as “a true M car”, suggesting the former’s foundations are already strong.