2021 Toyota Supra Review | Price, Features, Specs And Photos

June 4, 2020

Ignore the noise about where the engine and most of the parts come from — BMW. Never mind the comparisons to the last Supra, which was born in a different era and carried a much higher relative price. The 2021 Toyota GR Supra is a phenomenal sports car. Powerful, agile and communicative, it's a genuine performance machine capable of keeping up with more expensive cars on a track or your favorite winding road. Yet, it's also playful and full of character, eagerly wagging its tail around corners and sounding sensational in the process. And although its looks aren't universally adored, our time spent in various Supras would indicate the general public likes it enough to draw impressed stares and thumbs up.

And as we go into below, the Supra lineup expands for 2021. The new four-cylinder model lowers the price of entry, and although it certainly doesn't provide the thrills or speed of the six-cylinder (which was given a significant bump in power this year), it should nevertheless be priced well below similarly powerful luxury-branded sports cars, including its BMW Z4 platform-mate and the Porsche 718 Cayman. Of course, the six-cylinder Supra makes its own compelling value proposition, but it also drives so well that it doesn't have to lean on its price tag to get noticed.

In some ways, the Supra sold last year has been discontinued. It's effectively been replaced by one with a more powerful turbo inline-six (47 more horsepower) and modifications made to accommodate the extra grunt, while a new four-cylinder base model debuts below it. Both of these engines are shared with the Supra's convertible platform-mate, the BMW Z4. We go into greater detail about both versions in our 2021 Supra first drive review.

Other updates include the formerly optional 8.8-inch infotainment display being made standard. It still runs BMW's last-generation iDrive technology. There's also a new A91 Edition limited to 1,000 units and painted in exclusive Refraction Blue.

Toyota was basically handed a box of BMW buttons, knobs and screens, and then used it all to create a cabin that's indeed stylistically different from its BMW Z4 platform-mate. The materials quality is not quite up to a BMW standard, but the Supra also costs considerably less and is still to an acceptable standard for its price point.

Although the instrument panel screen features Supra-specific graphics and is surrounded by a unique frame integrated with fuel and temperature gauges, what you see on the standard 8.8-inch infotainment display is pure BMW. The center console knob controller and surrounding menu buttons are identical to the last-generation iDrive units you'd find in cheaper BMW models or pricier ones from a few years ago. It generally works OK, but we had the same sort of Bluetooth and Apple CarPlay connectivity issues as we've previously had with BMWs, and it's not the easiest system to use. Some would argue a Toyota system would be better.

The Supra is quite small. Its wheelbase (97.2 inches) and length (172.5) are virtually identical to a Porsche 718 Cayman's — but its width and track are more than 2 inches wider. Like that car and unlike past Supras, it seats only two, albeit with sufficient space for someone taller than 6 feet. Its narrow cargo area can handle weekend getaway luggage (we somehow managed to stuff four bags inside), but also isn't nearly as capacious as the dual trunks of a Corvette.

One space-related element to consider are the seats. They're the same in the 2.0 and 3.0, but only the latter has eight-way power seats, which means you may only be comfortable in the pricier model. The seats also can't be heated in the base model.