Japanese Car Auction Find – 2012 Toyota 86 GT Limited

After learning about Toyota’s decision to delay the Toyota Prius due to a bland design, it got us thinking about the design of Toyota’s current lineup, and which cars truly stand out for their aesthetic appeal. It didn’t take long for the highly acclaimed Toyota GT-86 to come to mind.

Now, if you were to search for the GT-86 in our Japanese car auction database, you’d have a hard time finding any results. That’s because what we in the States call the GT-86 is sold in Japan merely as the Toyota 86. After realizing that, it was easy to identify a solid 25 of Toyota’s sports cars up for auction in Japan, not one of them rated lower than a 4.

Today’s Japanese car auction find is a 2012 Toyota 86 GT Limited in excellent shape. The deep black paint job is crisp and nearly totally unmarred. The modern-looking 17” twin spoke alloys are in particularly good shape, and a lot can – and has – been said about the GT-86’s design.

Compared to the Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S, the GT-86 has a slightly more rugged and linear design. Especially compared to the BRZ… The edgier 86 could be likened to a sharp knife cutting through the wind, while the BRZ is curvy and more closely resembles a raindrop falling from the sky. The nice thing about this black color-scheme is that the car’s A-pillar and roof line blend smoothly into the windshield, creating a pseudo-panoramic effect. And of course, because this is a GT Limited you’ll get the performance enhancing rear spoiler.

Inside, the Toyota 86 is a little less clean-cut. You can clearly tell that the cockpit was designed to evoke that of a race car. Again, you’ll notice a few extra features with the Limited model… Chief among them is the black/red leather and Alcantara seating (the normal 86 only has black fabric seating). The ‘red’ theme continues throughout the interior of the Limited model; the steering wheel, parking brake and shifter all get a red wrap to catch the eye. Also, you can’t see it in the image below, but there are aluminum pedals, a digital speedometer, and sleek silver accents throughout the dash.

In addition to the sporty interior design, you’ll also enjoy a surprising number of interior amenities. For example, automatic air conditioning, a built-in navigation/infotainment screen, push-button ignition, and a surprising amount of boot space for being such a small car (the rear seats fold down).

Of course, we have to at least mention the engine. The main reason Toyota partnered with Subaru in the first place was to take advantage of their mighty boxer engine manufacturing, and the workhorse in this Toyota 86 won’t disappoint. It’s a 2.0L water-cooled flat-four cylinder with Toyota’s D4-S direct-injection and an insanely high compression ratio of 12.5:1.

If you’d like to learn more about this stellar 2012 Toyota 86 GT Limited, simply continue reading below the auction sheet for a detailed translation of the specs.

“Great 4.5, interior B, first registered 2012 (month of first registration not stated), GT Limited, six-speed manual gearbox, AAC, service book, original alloy wheels, power steering, power windows, leather, original TV, original navigation system, airbags, adjustable suspension, HKS muffler, SD navigation system with digital TV and DVD video playback, black and red half-leather seats, seat heaters, HID, rear spoiler, 14,470 km, several slight cigarette burn marks on seats, minor scratches and minor dents, marks as per map”