BRZ

Make
Subaru
Segment
Coupe

Just this week, a report emerged speculating on the cancellation of the BRZ and the 86, both of which are built in a partnership between Subaru and Toyota. Japanese Nostalgic Car claimed that an upcoming issue of Best Car would include a story detailing how both cars would meet the chopping block as the two companies ended their partnership.

Seeing as the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 are extremely important cars to the enthusiast community, we wanted to get to the bottom of this story to see if these rumors were true. As it turns out, the death of these two sports cars appears to have been greatly exaggerated.

When we spoke to Subaru's head of North American communications, Ron Kiino, at the Detroit Auto Show, he told us how successful the BRZ has been for the Subaru brand and how it would receive a second generation even if the partnership with Toyota ended. Kiino continues to be committed to the BRZ's future saying, "we are moving ahead with a second-gen BRZ, but have no further details at this time."

This is great news for Subaru but what about Toyota? A spokesperson sent us a statement which read, "As President Akio Toyoda said at the reveal of the 2020 Supra, Toyota is committed to building exciting vehicles, including sports cars. The 86 has been in the Toyota family since 2013 and the plan is that it will continue to be a part of Toyota's sports car lineup."

There you have it. According to both companies, the BRZ and 86 will continue to be offered in the future. Neither company commented on a potential partnership for the next-generation models, so it is anyone's guess what each one will be like. We expect Subaru and Toyota to go their separate ways to craft mechanically unique cars this time around. Hopefully, this will lead to even more diversity in the sports car market.