It’s nice to drive the Toyota Supra. In 2023, a six-speed manual gearbox will be added to an already great car, making it even better. Even though most reviews agreed with this, more was needed to get a lot of sales. In its year-end US sales report released Wednesday morning, Toyota said that people bought only 2,652 Supras last year, which is a shocking 46% drop from 2022. The row-your-own engine didn’t cause a sales boom by itself. Toyota thought that only about 25% of people would choose a manual gear. But this was the first time anyone could have seen such a big drop from one year to the next. Funny as it may be, the Supra is basically just a BMW with a different name. But I’m sure serious buyers will give it some thought. We could make guesses all day about why Supra sales are going down, but something else would be needed. Instead, we can use the rest of Toyota’s sales chart for 2023 as a guide. Other than the brand-new GR Corolla for ’23, those are pretty much the only enthusiast-friendly Toyotas that aren’t pickup trucks or SUVs. A 7.7% drop to 11,078 units sold was also seen for the GR86, but it was only a small drop. But sales of some models stayed the same in 2023. For example, sales of the 4Runner brand fell 1.5% from 2022 to 119,238 in 2023. If we look at how Americans buy cars, this shows that fewer people want two-door sports cars, or at least fewer are able to buy a new one. Automakers just started giving out year-end sales numbers for 2023, so it’s hard to compare the Supra’s success to that of its rivals at the moment. Nissan did sell 1,309 new Z sports cars in the third quarter, but it still needs to be on track to be a big hit. 1,453 BMW Z4s had been bought by the end of the third quarter. The Z4 may have its manual since it’s based on the Supra. No matter how you feel about the A90 Supra, it at least keeps the two-door sports car market alive, even though it’s shrinking. If we want to have more than one or two choices in the future, it’s best for everyone if the Supra does well because it gives European and Japanese makers a chance to compete. Engines with better efficiency might not be available in 2024, but we should use the ones we have now.
