Toyota Offers Hidden Supra Discount
Though the Toyota GR Supra launched for only a little under $50,000, it’s been hard to find one near that price as the demand for the highly-anticipated vehicle has been, especially at the start, through the roof. Some were even priced at above $100,000.
Markups were expected because of the hype around the Supra, but now that the car has been out for some months, it’s easier to find a GR Supra at a more reasonable price near MSRP, though there haven’t been any special offers to sweeten the pot — until, finally, March 2020.
According to CarsDirect, Toyota is offering a $1,000 discount for the Supra in the form of an unadvertised dealer cash incentive that should be available at most dealers around the country. That brings down the car’s starting price to $48,990, excluding a $930 destination fee. It’s $52,990 for the Premium model and $55,150 for the Launch Edition, though good luck finding any examples of the latter that haven’t already been claimed.
More Supra: Check out the sports car’s specs and features
That makes the Supra even more affordable than the BMW Z4 with which it was jointly developed, though still more expensive than the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, or even the Nissan 370Z. The Z is probably the car most like the Supra — two seats, rear-wheel-drive, Japanese, and a focus on handling in a way that American muscle tends to lack — but it’s positively archaic, as it is based on a 12-year-old platform.
Toyota says its development target was the Porsche 718 Cayman, and in that respect the car delivers both on the track and at the drag strip. And with the $1,000 dealer discount, it undercuts the German sports car by close to $10,000. Last year, the Supra outsold the 370Z (with 2,884 models to 2,384) despite being available for only about half of the year — and probably would have beaten the 718’s 3,880 sales over a full calendar year — so the buyers are certainly there.
The offer supposedly runs until the end of March, and since it was the first and unadvertised, it could have been a way for Toyota to test the waters for future discounts. That being said, the COVID-19 pandemic, which is affecting the industry in a significant way, will likely be muddying the data.
Toyota Manufacturing: Toyota has built nearly 30 million vehicles in the U.S.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.