Which One of the “One of 860” Rare Limited Edition Cars Do You Want? We Got 11. The Toyota-Scion-Subaru Rabbit Hole.

It started with my pursuit of a fun car to replace my 2013 BMW M3 convertible (hint hint – up for sale soon with MaxCare!). I searched for a yellow manual-transmission car under $40,000 with 70,000 miles. Up popped this adorable 2026 Toyota GR86 “Yuzu” Edition. What on earth is a “Yuzu” edition, I wondered. And there the descent began. Took me down the trail of collaboration between Scion/Toyota and Subaru and a bunch of limited-run, special-edition cars that seemed like unicorns, but left me wondering. Here’s what I learned: some of it accurate, all of it new to me. Maybe you knew this? Holler if I got it wrong.

The 2026 GR86 Yuzu Edition is indeed one of 860 offered this year, all of them in “Yuzu Yellow”, with matte black 18-inch wheels, yellow interior stitching, a GR cat-back exhaust, and a year of NASA membership included. Turns out that’s the National Auto Sport Association, not the space folks. It starts at $37,560. Same 228-horsepower 2.4-liter boxer as other current GR86 special editions. It’s the newest, the most expensive GR86.

The Yuzu Edition gets Brembo brakes, SACHS dampers instead of shocks, 18″ wheels instead of 17’s, and the cool exhaust. And it’s yellow. But a Premium GR86 can be optioned with the same performance package for $1,500, and you can have it in any color you want. But who wouldn’t want their sports car yellow?

The motor is a 2.4-liter “Boxer” making 228 horsepower, and here’s where it starts to get interesting. A little research suggests the boxer is special because its pistons move horizontally left-and-right (like two boxers punching each other’s gloves) rather than up-and-down like a normal car engine. This flat design allows the entire engine to sit incredibly low in the car, lowering the vehicle’s center of gravity and improving handling. Only Porsche and Subaru make boxer engines anymore, and, surprise, this motor is a Subaru block. While all Subarus have a boxer engine, this boxer is not the same one – made especially for this line of cars.

The 2026 Toyota GR86 Yuzu Edition is here in Puyallup, Washington.

Stock No: 28816614 VIN: JF1ZNBM17T9076070

In fact, much of the car is a Subaru, a derivative of the BRZ. And the GR86 (and 86 before that) is a cousin of the defunct Scion FR-S, also a BRZ (mostly). All three are made in a Japanese Subaru plant, with all their VIN’s beginning with JF1 – the global code for Subaru. In short, Subaru makes the engine block and chassis, and Toyota makes the dual-fuel injection system, transmission, and design.

The Scion of the Family….Literally

The “Yuzu” part caught my attention, so I went to the web to learn what it was all about. And bingo! The “Yuzu” comes from the 2015 Scion FR-S “Release Series 1.0”. Scion, in its final year as a brand, built exactly 1,500 of these: bright yellow “Yuzu” paint, Toyota Racing Division (TRD) lowering springs, TRD exhaust tips, a TRD shift knob and steering wheel, red-stitched black seats, HID/LED headlights, and a numbered aluminum plate on the console. It started at $29,990; manual was standard, automatic a $1,100 option. The 2.0-liter boxer made 200 horsepower. When Scion folded in 2016 and the car became the Toyota 86 for 2017, this yellow send-off edition is the one Toyota would eventually return to, eleven years later, to pay tribute with the 2026 GR86 Yuzu Edition. And CarMax had this one for sale, #0874 of 1500, when I started this piece. But it just sold for $21,998 with only 21,000 miles. And it was an automatic.

The 2015 Scion FR-S has only 21,000 miles, was here in Tampa, and was just sold.

Stock No: 70171269 VIN: JF1ZNAA14F8706393

“Love. It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru.”

But there’s way more to the story! In 2015, Subaru matched the Toyota/Scion limited-edition action with the BRZ Series.Blue*** – 1,000 units total, half in WR Blue Pearl and half in Crystal White Pearl, with STI-branded 17-inch wheels, red brake calipers, STI aero underspoilers, blue Alcantara-and-leather seats, and revised dampers — Subaru’s version of TRD parts, just badged STI. Same 2.0-liter boxer engine, same 200 horsepower, but manual transmission only; Subaru never offered an automatic on this one. It started at $29,490 — a touch less than its Toyota-badged twin. If you want the manual-only, no-frills version of this story, this is it.

***I could not find why these are called “Series.Blue”, other than maybe the WRX STi rally cars were blue.

A bit rare at 1,000 total – 500 units in each color- and my lucky day, CarMax has one of each! The white one sells for $25k and the blue one for $24k – not much depreciation for these limited editions.

The white 2015 Subara BRZ Series.Blue is on hold here in Columbus, Georgia.

Stock No: 70141669 VIN: JF1ZCAC1XF9601290

The blue Series.Blue (duh) is here in Renton, Washington.

Stock No: 70048642 VIN: JF1ZCAC1XF9601239

And the Toyota family tree continues.….

The 2017 Toyota 86 860 Special Edition is where the number “860” actually comes from — and unlike everything that followed, it was a marketing flourish and a headcount. Toyota built 860 units in Supernova Orange and another 860 in Halo White, 1,720 total, each with orange-stitched black leather, heated seats, 17-inch wheels, LED fog lights, and a numbered console plaque.

I couldn’t find the numbered plaque in this one’s pics. It started at $29,155 with the manual, $29,875 with the automatic. The 2.0-liter boxer made 205 horsepower with the manual, 200 with the automatic. Every “860” special edition since has been chasing this car’s exact production number, whether or not it says so on the badge. CarMax has this one listed at $26k. Again, very little depreciation.

The 2017 Toyota 86 860 Special Edition is here in Murrieta, California.

Stock No: 28772078 VIN: JF1ZNAA13H9707189

Our journey goes on…..

The 2019 Toyota 86 TRD Special Edition is the one member of this family that isn’t actually about being rare — it’s also about being good to drive. Toyota built 1,418 of them, all in Raven Black, and instead of spending the budget on paint and interior trim, put it into Brembo brakes (12.8-inch front rotors, 12.4-inch rear, four-piston calipers), SACHS performance dampers, and a full TRD aero kit. It started at $32,420. Same 205-horsepower 2.0-liter boxer as other manual 86s. If everything else on this list is a special edition you’d want to keep low-mileage, this is the one you’re supposed to actually take to a track day. This one is also selling for $26k. I’m seeing a pattern.

The 2019 Toyota 86 TRD SE is here in Southlake, Georgia.

Stock No: 70164333 VIN: JF1ZNAE11K9702588

It’s a “hah-KOH-nay”…..

The 2020 Toyota 86 Hakone Edition is the first car to be named after a place instead of a person, a paint code, or a production run. Hakone is a mountain toll road outside Tokyo, near Mt. Fuji, well known in Japanese driving culture for its hairpins. Toyota built 860 for the US (plus 30 for Canada) in Hale Green Pearl, with bronze-finish 17-inch wheels and Ultrasuede seats. It started at $30,825. Same 205-horsepower 2.0-liter boxer. This is the quiet one on the list — no graphics package, no anime reference, just a genuinely nice color combo.

The 2020 Toyota 86 Hakone Edition is here in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Stock No: 29113873 VIN: JF1ZNAE15L8750411

Don’t forget your anniversary!

The 2023 GR86 10th Anniversary Special Edition marks ten years since the original 86/FR-S launched for the 2013 model year***, and it’s the first special edition built on the second-generation GR86, with the larger 2.4-liter boxer making 228 horsepower. Toyota built 860 of them in Solar Shift orange, with a Gazoo Racing-tuned cat-back exhaust, matte black 18-inch wheels, and a black duckbill spoiler. CarMax has one. Original pricing was maybe $33,175. If you want the newer engine and still want orange, this is the one — the Hakone and Yuzu editions both went in other directions with color.

***CarMax no longer sells 2013 models of anything, going back only 12 model years, so no original 86/FR-S cars for sale here – they do have some 2014’s though.

Gen 2 of this platform brought us a completely redesigned interior, with digital displays and modern technology. Credit to the CarMax photographer for this colorful shot! More importantly, the additional horsepower reduced 0-60 mph runs from the low sixes to 5.4 seconds, as tested by the Car and Driver folks.

The 2023 Toyota GR86 10th Anniversary Edition is coming soon here in Puyallup, Washington. Same place that has the 2026 Yuzu!

Stock No: 70136216 VIN: JF1ZNBH16P8754863

The truth about Trueno…..

TRUENO, like Hakone, flummoxed me. Maybe the 2024 GR86 TRUENO Edition is built for people who’ve never heard of a Trueno and don’t need to have. Some research noted this car recreates the black-and-white “panda” livery of the 1986 Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 — the car made famous by the manga-and-anime series Initial D — on just 860 US-market cars (plus 50 more for Canada), with black 18-inch wheels, red-stitched Ultrasuede seats, a red-badged shift knob, SACHS dampers, and standard Brembo brakes. It started at $34,720. Same 228-horsepower 2.4-liter boxer as other second-generation cars.

Whether or not the reference lands, the two-tone paint alone makes it the most visually distinct car on this list. I’ve never been a fan of black hoods. They remind me of cars from my childhood that had been wrecked and body panels replaced but not painted. But I don’t think the TRUENO Edition is for 66-year-old dudes.

The 2024 Toyota GR86 TRUENO Edition is coming soon here in Kansas City, Kansas.

Stock No: 29064344 VIN: JF1ZNBM13R9751065

Hakone Gen 2…..

The 2025 GR86 Hakone Edition is a direct sequel to the 2020 car: same name, same mountain-road reference, updated for the newer platform. Toyota built 860 of them in matte Ridge Green, with satin-bronze 18-inch wheels, heated Ultrasuede seats, and the larger 8-inch touchscreen that came with the GR86’s mid-cycle update. It started around $36,405. The engine is the same, so by now you probably don’t want pics, if you ever did. If the 2020 Hakone was the quiet one, this is its equally quiet successor — still no graphics, still no anime reference, still just a color other special editions weren’t using.

The 2025 Toyota GR86 Hakone Edition, Gen 2, is coming soon here in Norcross, Georgia.

Stock No: 70216279 VIN: JF1ZNBM10S9750400

Finally, The Color Purple……The Rarest Of The Bunch

The 2025 Subaru BRZ Series.Purple is the most limited in this entire family of limited editions — just 500 units, fewer than any Toyota, Scion, or Subaru special edition on this list, 860 club included. It debuted in Galaxy Purple Pearl, a color nothing else in the lineup has touched, with satin silver 18-inch wheels, black Ultrasuede seats with gray stitching and gray leather bolsters, an STI short-throw shifter, an STI Flexible V-Bar chassis brace, and an STI logo on the red engine start button and aluminum shift knob. Like the original 2015 Series.Blue, it’s manual-only — Subaru has never once offered an automatic on one of these. It started at $35,445. Yes, the same 228-horsepower 2.4-liter boxer as the current GR86. If you wanted the single hardest one of these ten cars to actually find, this is it.

STI Flexible V-Bar: The engine bay looks wildy different for the Purple. I exaggerate. As I understand it, this is a specialized, pivot-jointed strut tower brace installed directly under the hood. Unlike completely rigid bars, it flexes longitudinally to maintain ride comfort while remaining stiff sideways, which sharpens steering response and locks the front end tightly into corners. How special is that?!

Finally, the 2025 Subaru BRZ Series.Purple is coming soon here in Omaha, Nebraska.

Stock No: 70213592 VIN: JF1ZDBE15S9702389

None of these are must-own cars — underneath the paint, every one of them is still an economical rear-wheel-drive coupe that started around $30,000 new. But that’s sort of the point. The TRD Special Edition is the one to actually drive hard. The TRUENO is the one to park at cars-and-coffee and watch people who grew up on Initial D lose their minds. The Yuzu is the one that’s rare today and will be rarer in five years, once people can no longer find one with the yellow interior stitching still perfect. Toyota figured out that scarcity is a cheaper way to make a good car interesting than horsepower is. And 860 units a year, apparently, is the exact right amount of scarce.

I wondered how rare these are, or did Toyota and Subaru only ever sell a handful of these cars to begin with? Depends entirely on the year. Across its whole run, Toyota (and Scion, before the badge switch) sold about 68,250 FR-S/86 coupes in the US from 2013 through 2021, plus roughly 46,500 GR86s from 2022 through mid-2026 — call it 115,000 Toyota-badged cars, total, over thirteen years. Subaru sold another 58,300 or so BRZs across both generations in that same stretch. Add the three badges together and this entire family amounts to something like 173,000 cars sold in the US, ever — not a huge number, which is exactly why an 860-unit special edition can matter enormously some years and barely register in others.

In 2017, the 860 Special Edition’s 1,720 units were roughly a quarter of that entire year’s 86 sales. Remember, that was 860 in orange and 860 in white – cheating, sort of? In 2019, the TRD Special Edition’s 1,418 units were something like 42 percent of all Toyota 86 sales that year — 42 percent of the niche little sports car, not of Toyota the company, which sold well over two million vehicles total that same year. But within the 86’s own tiny world, “special edition” and “most of what was actually selling” were nearly the same thing by the end of the first generation. The GR86 sells better than the old 86 did, so its specials are more genuinely rare in context: 860 units usually works out to somewhere between 6 and 11 percent of a typical GR86 sales year, depending on how the year went. Numerically, 860 was never really the point — it’s a small slice of an already small pie, and how small a slice depends entirely on how big that particular pie was. And then Subaru went and undercut everybody: the 2025 BRZ Series.Purple was capped at just 500 units, the smallest number on this entire list, 860-club included.

Here’s the part that actually matters if you’re shopping and not just collecting trivia: these cars don’t depreciate like a normal used sports coupe. The 2020 Hakone, the 10th Anniversary, the TRUENO, and the 2025 Hakone are all currently asking more than their original window sticker on CarMax — some with under 20,000 miles. The almost brand-new 2026 Yuzu is pricing almost exactly at MSRP despite already carrying 6,000 miles. Only the original 2017 car – the 860x 2- and the 1,418-unit TRD Special Edition are the only two priced meaningfully under sticker. More units built, less mystique, ordinary used-car math. And regardless of the rarity, I suspect they are just fun to drive.

And finally, skip MaxCare. These aren’t expensive cars and should be reliable as hell!

February 15, 2023February 26, 2023

Shoichiro Toyoda Passes at 97. Turned Toyota Into a Best-Selling Brand. Love me Some Toyotas!

Shoichiro Toyoda, the son of Toyota’s founder who joined the company in 1952, became Chairman, ushered Toyota into the modern era, and remained as honorary Chairman for life, passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 97. The man’s impact on the automotive industry is beyond my writing talents but you can read more here in the Washington Post or here in Jalopnik. Toyotas have wandered in and out of my life over the last 40 years so I thought I’d post a few loosely linked to, of course, their CarMax 従兄弟さん (cousins – clever, eh?) It is a CarMax unicorn blog after all.

Before we go to the CarMax inventory I thought I’d include the Toyota “Toyopet Crown” above, the first Japanese car imported to the United States back in 1958 – before I was born! It flopped miserably and after Shoichiro Toyodan drove one around the US to get first hand impressions he went back to Japan and gently raised hell. If you want the whole story, read the Toyota UK magazine piece here.

Ironic that 65 years later the Crown is being reintroduced to the US market, albeit in a wildly different elevated-sedan-not-quite-crossover 2023 model. Those aren’t on CarMax lots just yet, so will go with three that are, and those are also three that I have owned back in the day – two as CPO’s before I ever heard of CarMax and one as a brand new car back in 1996.

Had I not been the one to locate this car on the web I would not be able to identify it as a Toyota Avalon – a 2020 model. The Avalon came to the US in 1995 and has been berated by car magazines ever since as a Japanese Buick. My two yen is that writers are plagiarists (I know I am) and will parrot critiques to be clever or consistent. Having owned and rented Avalons I’d say it’s unfair. I take that back – it does float like a Buick, as does probably a dozen other family cars this size and it’s no better or worse. But every review has to have the “Buick” comparison. Anyway, I chose this one because it’s fairly loaded and I dig the wheels. I have always dug BBS style black spoked rims with silver lips. Someday I will put those on a V-12 Mercedes.

The Avalon is loaded with adaptive cruise, Apple CarPlay, JBL audio, heated and cooling seats and on and on. About as comfortable of a ride as you’re going to find at this price point.

Unfortunately, Toyota just won’t give us a decent motor in the Avalon. The 3.5 liter V-6 ony has 301 horsepower and takes all of six seconds to hit sixty. I can’t live with that. But if you can, this car is now here in College Station, Texas. It was once $44,000 and three years later is $10,000 less. Skip MaxCare.

Stock No. 23680936 VIN: 4T1DZ1FB6LU039867

And here we have the only surviving photo of my 1996 Avalon I bought in 1998 as a CPO. Loved that car and my pre-teen boys did too as we drove up and down the East Coast on vacation. If only it had a bigger motor. Sold it to buy a brand new Acura MDX, and regretted that.

And FWIW, below is the Toyota Avalon I rented in August 2022 to play a music gig in Stafford, Virginia before driving to North Carolina to do some work. Never made it. Came out of our hotel in the morning to find the window smashed and my guitars stolen. We NEVER leave the guitars in the car! Had to ditch the car in Richmond but in my short time with it I started to wonder if I could own another?

Gotta move on. Below we have a 2022 Toyota Camry TRD (Toyota Racing Division). It looks badass and has a wing and is the TRD trim…and yet it’s really just a gussied up Camry. The suspension is tweaked for better handling and the exhaust for better sound, and yet the motor is the motor – same 3.5 liter six cylinder with the same horsepower. The Camry shares the Avalon’s platform so other than the suspension this car is the same.

Clearly Toyota has the engineering and racing pedigree to give us more. I so loved it fifteen or so years ago when Toyota went into NASCAR, thinking that’s gotta be disruptive for the good old boys on the ovals. Especially when they teamed up with Joe Gibbs Racing, Mr. Gibbs being a hero around these parts from his NFL days. I have wondered how they run a V-8 for NASCAR without offering it on the street.

Hell, let’s pull on that Toyota racing thread a little more and watch the Rod Millen Celica set the record for his class at Pike’s Peak back in the day. Why is this relevant?

Because I got to ride around a track in a race car with Rod at the wheel scaring the living hell out of me in a prototype some time back. It was a short oval and I was stunned at the grip, the lateral G-forces, and how we didn’t end up in the wall. I love to drive fast and think I’m above average at it. This was at a whole ‘nuther level. Got me a Rod Millen autographed Hot Wheels Celica out of the deal. In fact, got two and tried to sell the second one on eBay to declutter my office, with no luck.

Back to the Toyota Camry. I got sidetracked. The Camry is equipped almost identical to the Avalon above and the interior is modified a bit. The Avalon has enormous rear seat room while the Camry is simply adequate to very good.

No point in showing the obligatory motor photo – it really is identical to the Avalon. Motor Trend tells me the 2022 Toyota Camry TRD sold new for perhaps $34,000, and this one is slightly used at $38k – wondering if MT showed MSRP and cars were marked up tremendously during the pandemic/supply chain mess? CarMax prices are coming down so don’t think they’re gouging. Either way the car is here in Sanford, Florida.

StockNo. 23362535 VIN: 4T1KZ1AK2NU061169

What’s this doing here? Well, its the lone photo I have of my 1990 Toyota Camry I bought in 1994 when my Merkur XR4ti melted down. This Camry was my first CPO and my introduction to extended warranty work. Toyota rebuilt the 2.0 liter four banger when the car had 80,000 miles and was inexplicably burning oil. Romantic sidebar. I met and asked my wife-to-be out on a date when I was the owner of a cool Merkur. It collapsed before we went out, and I had to car shop in time for our first date. I actually asked her “if I get something dull like a Camry will you still go out with me?”, not knowing how not into cars she was. She said of course, I bought the four cylinder five-speed Camry and we are still together 29 years later. And she still thinks her Buick Encore was a good car. The Camry was my introduction also into the stress free life of knowing my car was going to start every day and make it to work with no drama. Regrettably I had to sell that Camry not long after the rebuild when I was assigned overseas again.

Last on our nostalgic Toyota tribute in honor of Mr. Toyoda is this 2020 Toyota RAV4 TRD Off Road model. Wouldn’t think of a RAV4 as an off road model, and yet Motor Trend gave it reasonably good reviews here for actually going off road comfortably. Loved their description “Comfortably is the key word there, because as we all know nothing off-roads better than a rental car.” No locking differentials or two speed transfer and yet they thought it didn’t need that – pretty good AWD system anyway. The Off Road trim elevates the car a good 1.5″ and doubles the towing capacity if you need that.

The RAV4 is just as loaded inside as the Avalon and the Camry; heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, CarPlay, JBL sound, cross traffic alert – why is it the European cars I look at cost twice as much and so often don’t have this equipment?

The 2020 Toyota RAV4 TRD Off Road packs a 203 horsepower 2.5 liter four cylinder that’s just good enough for this little SUV. The car sold for maybe $42,000 three years ago and carries a little more discount than the Camry. It’s “Coming Soon” here in Roswell, New Mexico.

Alright, who off roads in a cute-ute? Well, I did. Owned a first gen first year RAV4 in 1996 in Israel. Drove pretty much the entire country on paved roads and even ventured into the wilderness from time to time. Car was $15,000 new.

The photo below was my RAV4 successfully getting air out of a ravine four-wheeling with friends from the Embassy. Was a hoot. What you will not see is the time I tried to drive the “Burma Road” from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the rain and buried the RAV4 in the mud a mere 100 yards or so off the paved highway. Tried everything I could to dig it out with no luck. Hailed a tow truck that extracted the vehicle – then wanted to charge me $600 for doing so. I said no way – it’s an Embassy vehicle and he would need to deal with my local national motor pool guy to collect. There was no local national motor pool guy but the Embassy expediter helped me out the next day haggling the fee down to $200. Probably cost me another $50 to clean the mud out of the interior after the hours I spent getting in and out of the car trying to rock it free. Sigh.

I’m not a total buffoon when it comes to off roading, though. There was a time in the 80’s when I successfully drove Pakistan’s Swat Valley in a Toyota Landcruiser – a RHD FJ60, I believe, with a diesel six and a four speed manual transmission. Indestructible. It would be embarrassed by it’s RAV4 grandson.

There was also a time there when I may or may not have bought a couple of hundred Toyota HiLux pickup trucks for some local boys who may or may not have been fighting what we affectionately called “The Soviets”. (This is NOT the West Virginia National Guard.) Challenging logistics – Pakistan is RHD and Afghanistan is (was?) LHD.

One of the innovations Mr. Shoichiro Toyoda gave us in the 1980’s was NUMMI Motors (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), the joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. Toyota got a manufacturing beach head in the US and GM learned how to make cheap, small cars of decent quality. NUMMI produced Toyota Corollas and its rebadged twin, the 1985 Chevrolet Nova. NUMMI reopened the Fremont, California GM plant for this effort in 1984.

The Chevrolet Nova didn’t last, although it was not a bad car by any means. My best friend bought one new. By 1988 the Nova was no more. At the time I lamented that GM learned how to build cheap economy cars, and Toyota came away positioned to sell us….the Lexus below. Lexus was the second Japanese manufacturer to spin off a luxury brand (Honda/Acura being the first) and the V-8 powered LS400 debuted in 1989. I’m thinking Toyota got the better end of the deal from NUMMI.

I’m almost done. It was my pleasure to assist a young lady in my office way back in 1985 pick out her first car – a used Toyota Tercel. Bronze and adorable. The Tercel was cute too. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

And finally, my best friend jettisoned his 1985 Chevrolet Nova for a really spiffy second generation 1991 Toyota MR2 that he loaned me once or twice. It was an honest to God grown up’s sports car and so much fun. Mid-engined and manual transmission. I once wanted a Fiero and feel a bit sheepish admitting that now.

This could go on and on. By the time I’m done Mr. Toyoda’s son, who recently stepped down as Chairman, will pass on! Impressive legacy left by Shoichiro Toyoda with the Toyota dynasty, and I’ll leave you with two unlikely Toyota products below that we could not have imagined when those first economy cars came off the ships way back when – a gigantic pickup truck and a luxury semi-exotic. Then again, maybe the HiLux and the first gen Supra were paving the way all along?

November 28, 2022November 27, 2022

Quick Hit – 1 of 600 Toyota Supra A91-CF Edition

What we have here is a “rare” 2022 Toyota Supra A91-CF Edition – rare in that only 600 were made, and all were allocated to North America. A bit of a unicorn. The CF stands for Carbon Fiber, and yes, much of the upgrade over a regular Supra A91 is really lots and lots of carbon fiber stuff – front splitter, rear spoiler, rocker panels, and side and rear canards. (Learned what “canards” were just for this car!) And black matte 19″ wheels with silver “Supra” calipers.

Toyota will tell you in their press release that all that carbon ain’t just window dressing, and that the splitter and duckbill spoiler and other carbon doodads actually increase downforce. Haven’t been able to find any reviews that support that, but Toyota wouldn’t make that up, would they?

The CF Edition also gets you a red and black Alcantara leather interior with “unique stitching details”, according to Toyota. And more carbon fiber trim. It’s as handsome of an interior as you’d find in any BMW Z car! This one has adaptive cruise control, Apple CarPlay, heated seats, and the upgraded JBL audio system.

The Carbon Fiber edition may or may not make the car go faster, and yet the 2022 Supra AF-91 is really, really fast. Like 3.8 seconds to 60 mph and a governed top end of 160. The Supra is powered by a 382 horsepower, 3.0 liter turbocharged inline six cylinder motor coupled with an eight-speed automatic, and is rear wheel drive. Yes, it’s (not so) secretly a BMW Z4 and was even built in Germany. With lots of carbon fiber.

The 2022 Toyota Supra A91-CF Edition was the most expensive Supra available at perhaps $68-70,000 MSRP last year, and significantly more than the four banger. Then again, there were only 600 made and that gives you some bragging rights. (The only other Supra I covered was this 1 of 1,500 2020 Supra Launch Editions, and that one was only $52,000.) At this time there are about a dozen A91-CF’s for sale on cars.com at about the same price point as this one. This one-owner, California coupe is selling for $65,998 here in Oxnard, California. It’s still under manufacturer warranty, and while I wouldn’t recommend MaxCare for too many Toyotas, keep in mind this is a BMW underneath and repairs will not be cheap in a few years. Enjoy.

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

Quick Hit – Four NOS SUV’s for Snow? (And Inventory Coming – Maybe More Unicorns?)

New old stock (NOS), or old stock for short, refers to aged stock of merchandise that was never sold to a customer and still new in original packaging. Such merchandise may not be manufactured anymore, and the new old stock may represent the only current source of a particular item.[1] There is no consensus on how old a product must be to be NOS, and some people reserve an NOS label only for products that are actually discontinued. – Wiki

Not to be confused with nitrous oxide engine offerings, also known as NOS in the automotive hot rodding world, the handful of SUV’s below are what I could find of older vehicles with almost no miles on them – or damned near new in unicorn terms. They’re not terribly special otherwise, but I was sitting in my home office watching the snow fall and the plows at the ready, and thought why not?

Interestingly, I started writing this on January 19th when CarMax inventory was maybe 50,000 cars. On January 21st we are up to 65,319 vehicles! Pre-Covid CarMax held maybe 50,000 cars in inventory year round, and beefed up to 70,000 around the end of their financial year (spring). I’m already seeing some fascinating cars, unfortunately most are higher than my unicorn cap of $35,000. Think I’m going to have to up that. There was a time when CarMax offered lots of cars in the $5,000-8,000 range, and rarely one over $100,000. (Here’s the link to the first one I ever saw in 2017 – a Mercedes AMG GT S). Now the cheapest cars (3) are $9,000 and there are 36 cars on their lots that are over $100,000. The market has gone mad. Anyway, let’s get to the SUV’s. It’s still 19 degrees in Leesburg. Maybe when it warms up I’ll find us a real unicorn?

This 2014 GMC Terrain Denali is eight years old, and has only a couple of hundred miles on it. Adequately, but not opulently equipped, no third row, and a decent 301 hp six cylinder driving the front wheels, it’s mostly interesting as a bit of a time capsule. GMC sold about 100,000 units of these first generation Terrains yearly.

Find this single owner, accident free 2014 GMC Terrain Denali here in Las Vegas.

Stock # 21719671 VIN # 2GKFLUE36E6346763

April 6, 2021April 5, 2021

1 of 300 – 2020 Subaru BRZ TS ( and it’s 1 of 1,418 Twin Toyota 86 TRD SE!)

On one hand I don’t get the underpowered but surgically superior handling small cars. They’re just not fast. The Miata. The Toyota 86. The Subaru BRZ. All low powered four cylinders.

But a backroads spin in my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider, with only 110hp, reminds me of all that is right and salutary about a nimble sports car on a windy road. My apologies to these little sports coupes. So what we have here in the “Coming Soon” section on the CarMax website is a 2020 Subaru BRZ TS – of which only 300 were imported into the US. All in white. A true unicorn. And it’s not even on sale yet!

The 2020 Subaru BRZ TS is more than visual changes – it’s all about handling and braking. According to Motor1 – “The meaner version of the coupe uses Sachs dampers and coil springs with a tuned setup from STI. There is also a flexible V-brace in the engine bay. For sharper steering response, there are draw stiffeners on the chassis and sub-frame. Up front, Brembo four-piston brake calipers clamp onto the rotors, and there are two-piston stoppers at the back.”

The Subaru motor remains a 2.0 liter, 205 hp boxer four cylinder and all BRZ TS’s are 6 speed manual transmissions. The combo will only get you a 6.3 second 0-60 mph run, pitiful by today’s standards, but again it’s about the handling. The car sold new just last year for about $33,000, so truly amazing it’s selling at this premium, but then again it is just one of 300 in the USA! Skip the MaxCare – this car is under dealer warranty and no reason to expect reliability issues. Find it here in Fort Worth, Texas.

March 31, 2021March 30, 2021

Quick Hit – 2013 Toyota X-Runner. What’s an X-Runner?!

This is an X-Runner. Honestly, I’d never heard of them until reader Brandon Baker pointed this out to me today. The Toyota X-Runner was a “performance” small sport truck manufactured from 2007 to 2013 – makes this model the last of the line. A unicorn. Looks like lots of cladding and skirts and flares, but it has a tuned suspension, a solid 4.0 liter six-cylinder engine, and a six-speed manual transmission.

The motor only produces 236 hp and moves the 3,800 lb pickup to a seven second 0-60 mph run. But seriously, CarMax….what’s with the filthy engine bay? Maybe that sells trucks.

The X-Runner is pretty basic inside – Bluetooth, rear view camera, a CD player, and cloth seats. What’s surprising is this was a $28,000 truck new in 2013, and eight years later it’s offered by CarMax for only $2,000 less! Says to me there is a following for these pickups – even high mileage ones. It’s a Toyota, so I wouldn’t pay for MaxCare on this one. And it’s a Toyota manufactured in Texas, for what that’s worth. Find this three owner sport pickup here in Sanford, Texas.

March 20, 2021March 20, 2021

Five (Sorta) of 1,500 – Five of the First 1,500 Launch Edition 2020 Toyota Supras

CarMax has a knack for poaching limited edition, low production, and ultra low mileage cars, and it looks like the accumulation of scarfed up first run Supras is no accident. CarMax currently has five of them – two for sale and three on hold or being transferred. Five of the 10 Supras CarMax has overall are Launch Editions. The first 1,500 Toyota Supras offered when the iconic model was reintroduced in 2020 were tagged as “Launch Editions”. The cars got a carbon fiber panel with the numeric designation on the dash, but other than some unique visual changes insie and out the car is the same as all of the other Supras. The first Launch Edition off the line, obviously #1 of 1,500, auctioned for $1.2 million as a charity donation. Toyota sold less than 6,000 2020 Supras of all kinds, so not a lotta them out there anyway.

The Toyota Supra Launch Editions in red and white exteriors have red interiors you can’t get in other Supras (thank God!) and the black models come with black interiors. All five of the Launch Edition models CarMax snagged have the optional adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, parking sensors, and rear-collision warning – an additional $1,195 over the $56,180 purchase price per Car and Driver – bringing the original sales price of these models to $57,373. The five CarMax models are selling from $52-54k, not much off of the original price. They also have less than 1,000 miles on the Serramonte, California, to just under 8,000 miles in Richmond, Virginia. Damned near new. No need for MaxCare!

Collectibles? Maybe. Maybe not. The Toyota-BMW partnership, and the availability of a higher horsepower BMW Z4 M40i for about the same price (used, from CarMax) dilutes, to me, the specialness of the new Supra. But if you liked the original classic and want a second chance at being one of the first to buy a 2020 Supra – and want a plaque on the dash that says so, perhaps you’ll appreciate these. FWIW – in 3 1/2 years this is the first Toyota unicorn I’ve blogged about!

The Toyota Supra, of course, is powered by the BMW 3.0 liter inline six good for 335 hp – 20hp more than the last generation Supra, mated to an eight-speed transmission, that pushes the 3,300 lb sports car to a 3.9 second 0-60 mph run. That’s about the same as a base Porsche 911 costing twice as much.

The cars. If you have better eyes than me, or can zoom in better, you might have a better take on the limited edition numbers. I also have the prices because all of them were saved to my profile when available. On any given day availability changes – the Harrisonburg, Virginia car became showed up again as available while I was writing this (it’s been on and off the market for awhile). Here’s what I got:

Stock Number: 19181452

Price/Mileage: $51,998 / Less than 6,000 miles.

Possible Number: 708 of 1,500

Current Location: Harrisonburg, Virginia

Link: https://www.carmax.com/car/19181452

Stock Number: 20355149

Price/Mileage: $52,998 / Less than 8,000 miles.

Possible Number: 452 of 1,500 (or 652?)

Current Location: West Broad (Richmond), Virginia

Link: https://www.carmax.com/car/20355149

Stock Number: 19978108

Price/Mileage: $52,998 / Less than 1,000 miles.

Number: 1,489 of 1,500

Current Location: Serramonte, California

Link: https://www.carmax.com/car/19978108

Stock Number: 20088576

Price/Mileage: $51,998 / Less than 1,000 miles.

Number: 276 of 1,500 (who the hell knows?)

Current Location: Torrence, California

Link: https://www.carmax.com/car/20088576

Stock Number: 20156712

Price/Mileage: $53,998 / Less than 3,000 miles.

Number: 454 of 1,500

Current Location: Augusta, Georgia.

Link: https://www.carmax.com/car/20156712

If you hung in there all the way here – thanks for reading!

September 24, 2019February 10, 2026

Who Let The Interns Add Inventory?!

Got a kick out of this car that surfaced last week in the CarMax inventory. Thought you might find it amusing. CarMax carries nothing older than 2008 models, and 130,000 miles. Not sure if this would even be a bargain. It came up with no photo, and disappeared pretty fast, but not before a few of us saved it. Oddly, it has a stock number and by searching that it’s still out there in th CarMax ether as inventory! Here’s the link. Avalon