In recent years Toyota has started to introduce car models that are not made by Toyota themselves. It started off with the GT86 which is designed and made by Subaru. In the US there is the Toyota Yaris sedan is actually Mazda 2 or a Mazda Demio (in Japan) and now there is the new A90 Supra which is designed and made by BMW. What is going on with Toyota? Are they taking short cuts now?
In 2013 Toyota worked with Subaru to have the GT86 / BRZ built. Subaru built a better car of themselves (the BRZ) with the profit they earned from building the GT86 for Toyota. The biggest difference was the BRZ had slightly better handling and used better materials for the car's interior. Saying all this, Toyota's GT86 sold more than the Subaru BRZ due to Toyota's wider dealership network and greater access to more markets.
In 2015 Toyota rebadged the Mazda 2 and sold it in the US as the Toyota Yaris Sedan. It is was a joke since Toyota didn't even bother to make any changes to the car apart from swapping the badges where applicable. The infotainment system was 100% mazda and even had the same i-loop and Skyactiv system in the car. This was downright a lazy effort on Toyota's part.
This year Toyota introduced the new A90 Supra which was designed and built by BMW. Toyota didn't hide the fact that the car was essentially a BMW claiming that BMW makes the best inline 6 cylinder engine and they wanted such and engine without having to develop one themselves. This time Toyota did put in some effort and changed the styling to create its own unique exterior.
With all this model borrowing and rebadging what is really happening to Toyota? They are a big company that is capable of developing cars on their own and do they really need to ask other car companies to make cars for them? Toyota isn't like Proton where the R&D team (previously before Geely took over) were made up of morons! Toyota has a massive R&D budget and have the capacity to make some very good cars. They were in fact right on top with new car development in the late 1980s and 1990s. It is very unlike Toyota to have other car companies make cars for them. It is common practice in the automotive industry where car companies share car model platforms and parts to save on cost and enjoy economies of scale. Toyota is one that was very good at this but they didn't share parts and platform with other car companies except for Daihatsu which they owned.
If Toyota keeps up the trend of borrowing models from other car companies soon it will lose its identity and Toyota fans may move to other car brands. it is pointless to buy a car that is rebadged when you can get the original for less money unless the rebadged version is a lot cheaper. In smaller car companies it is common to just rebadge models from bigger car companies but doing it the other way round is just shocking.
One would never expect Toyota to do this and when they first introduced the GT86 Toyota claimed that it was a technical collaboration with Subaru. Most people would have thought that this is acceptable and was probably a one-off project. When Toyota took the Mazda 2 and rebadged it as the Yaris Sedan that was just wrong!
hopefully this trend will stop soon. It is very strange to see such a top 3 car manufacturer do this.
