Toyota made what you’d name a final minute change to its GR 86 coupe that’s so small you’d hardly discover it in any respect. Which is sort of ironic, as a result of the entire level of it’s to make the little boxer coupe much more seen, on-line no less than.
The 2022 sports activities automotive introduced a load of modifications, together with an even bigger 2.4-liter engine, and a one more new identify. The automotive that began life because the Scion FR-S and developed into the Toyota 86 in North America, and was also called GT86 in Europe, and FT-86 in Nicaragua and Jamaica, turned GR 86 to reference Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division and tie it in with the GR Supra and GR Yaris sizzling hatch.
However now Toyota has quietly modified the identify once more, eradicating the house between the letters and numbers. Thus, the “GR 86” turned “GR86”. Which may seem to be a pointless change, however there’s an excellent motive behind the transfer.
The house between the letters and numbers was making it more durable for purchasers to seek out the automotive on-line as a result of web searches, and notably social media hashtag searches, would see the letters and numbers as two separate entities (#GR #86 as a substitute of #GR86). The shift doesn’t change the automotive’s bodily badges, solely the best way Toyota communicates the GR86’s identify.
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The change has already been rolled out to Toyota’s Japanese and North American retail web sites, and might be quickly be adopted by its UK arm. “It has to do with website positioning,” a Toyota GB spokesman instructed CarScoops. “We wish folks to have the ability to discover the automotive simply when wanting on-line.”
It appears odd that this has solely occurred to Toyota now, a number of months after it first confirmed the automotive. We’re undecided how it will have an effect on issues like autos handbooks and printed brochures within the U.S., the place the GR86 is count on to land in dealerships in December. But it surely’s going to be much less of an issue in Europe, which gained’t be getting its first allocation of vehicles till spring 2022 on the earliest.