Earlier this week, the automotive community, as a whole, held their breath in anticipation as Toyota lifted the veil on one of the most anticipated cars of the decade. The all-new Supra, a nameplate we haven’t seen in the US since 1998 and one that hasn’t been in production since 2002. Toyota simply wasn’t revealing a new car, they were debuting a successor to a legend. Since the reveal in Detroit this past Monday, many seem to be incredibly divided over its styling and surprisingly brazen German lineage. However, for me, it was love at first sight. I think the new Supra is fantastic, and, if anything, BMW’s involvement in the production could potentially be a huge benefit. I love this new Supra so much that I will be purchasing one…4 years from now.
Never before have I liked a car so much and been in a place where I can plan to afford something so cool, so it’s a little weird for me to be setting such a specific long-term goal. However, since I’ve got quite a lot of time to think over and plan this decision, this got me thinking and led me to an interesting question. What will it be like buying the new Supra under Toyota’s Certified Pre-Owned program?
A weird question, I’ll admit, but considering that the new Supra is based upon BMW’s new Z4, the first thing I did was to try and spot the differences between BMW’s and Toyota’s Warranties. What I found was rather surprising. BMW offers a 1-year unlimited mileage warranty on top of their standard 4-year/50,000-mile new car warranty. On the other hand, Toyota only offers a 1-year/12,000-mile warranty on top of their 3-year/36,000-mile warranty. That means a pre-owned Toyota Supra would have an entire year of comprehensive coverage less than an equivalent Z4 from their in-service dates despite being essentially the same car!
However, Toyota does have a trick up their sleeve that BMW can’t even come close to matching. Toyota offers, on every single CPO vehicle they sell, a 7-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty. That means that the Supra will have its entire BMW-derived engine, transmission, and trick rear differential covered for far longer than any equivalent Z4. This alone, I believe, will make the Supra a considerably better second-hand proposition over the Z4.
Now you might be thinking, “Toyota is too smart to offer that long of a warranty on what is essentially a BMW” and to that, I would say yeah, probably. However, the story between the Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ is remarkably similar. Despite being exactly the same car, both cars fall under their respective brands’ new and CPO warranties. So, if precedent is anything to be followed, I wouldn’t be surprised if Supras will be available with Toyota’s clearly superior Certified Pre-Owned warranty.
Now with that out of the way, I have another 3 years and 11 months to figure out exactly what I want to do to void that warranty.