[00:01] used to be the beige appliance king. And I don't mean that as an insult. For when you wanted the car to outlive your dog, your marriage, and possibly the sun. Camry, Corolla, Rav 4, Highlander cars with the emotional temperature of a
[00:15] refrigerator, but with the mechanical integrity of a Swiss bank account. And the company that once looked at excitement and said, "hm, will that of the only Japanese brands that remembered car enthusiasts actually
[00:29] exist. Honda gave us the Civic Type R, then immediately made every dealer act like it was a limited edition Rolex with a hatchback. Nissan gave us the new Z, which, yeah, cool, but also feels like it was developed by three people, a
[00:42] spreadsheet titled Please Don't Spend entire affordable roadster segment on its tiny, perfectly balanced back. Subaru is well, still selling you the same argument in a different shade of
[00:55] blue. And Toyota looked around at the burning ruins of affordable fun and said, "Fine, we'll do it ourselves. GR86, GR Corolla, GRS Supra, and now maybe, possibly, hopefully, dangerously, a new mid-engine
[01:10] MR2 style sports car. Yes, Toyota might accidentally save affordable fun again." And that sentence should not make sense because this is the same company that sells more beige crossovers than the human brain can process. But somehow
[01:24] while everyone else is building 5,000lb electric sadness pods with fake engine noises and 19 monthly subscriptions, Toyota is out here stuffing engines behind seats like it's 1991 and your uncle just discovered snap over steer.
[01:37] And that is why this new MR2 rumor or confirmation adjacent fever dream matters. Because the original MR2 was one of the most beautifully stupid ideas Toyota ever had. Take Toyota reliability. Take a tiny two seat sports
[01:51] car, put the engine in the middle, sell it to normal people, then watch normal people discover liftoff over steer in real time. The MR2 always has had poor also had a strong chance of meeting a tree sideways and explaining to his
[02:05] insurance company that uh technically yes, the car did rotate 270°, but it was oak tree entered the chat. And that's what made it great. Hey guys, real quick. The giveaway for the Shelby Supra and the $100,000 has ended. And well,
[02:20] the winners are being picked right now, but we're coming back bigger and better and better. So, click the link in the pin first comment because like Rocky who won the GTR, like Greg who won the 100K, you can sign up to be notified and get
[02:32] 100 free entries once it goes live. So, click the link down below, go put in what we have cooking. All right, back to the show. The MR2 was not trying to be practical. It wasn't trying to be a lifestyle crossover. It did not care
[02:46] retriever, or your ability to transport comfort. It was like a wedge of chaos. And that is exactly what the car world is missing right now. Because today, everything is either too expensive, too
[03:00] heavy, too digital, or too self-important. Sports cars used to feel like bad decisions that you could almost justify. Now they just feel like luxury watches with tears. I mean, the Nissan Z, it's cool, but by the time dealers
[03:13] adjustment parmesan on top, you're basically financing nostalgia with a B6. The Supra, it's great and I just gave one away, but half the internet still shortcircuited it because it was BMW kind of. And the Miata, well, is
[03:27] you don't sit in it, you wear it. [music] The 718 Cayman was the pure it and said, "What if we made less noise and everyone got mad and everything else
[03:39] is either 70,000 bucks, discontinued, automatic only, or weighs as much as a rental property?" So, when Toyota starts talking about a compact mid-engine sports car, people lose their minds because we are all starving. Car
[03:51] enthusiasts right now are like medieval peasants seeing bread for the first time in 6 months. Is that a small sports car? Does it have an engine? Is it under 80,000 bucks? Does the steering wheel still connect to something? And the
[04:05] be serious. I mean, Gazu Racing has already been playing with the GR Yurus M concept, which is basically a mid-engine science experiment, wearing a Yurus costume. Toyota has talked about using racing development to test the layout,
[04:19] all this stuff that actually matters when you put the engine where the groceries used to go. And yes, the reports say this thing could be using a new turbo four-cylinder, possibly the 2 L G20E, which sounds like printer ink,
[04:33] but could be one of the most important enthusiast engines Toyota has made in years, because Toyota does not need to build a 700 horsepower MR2. Please God, no, don't. This is how you create a cars and bids listing titled Lightly Damaged,
[04:47] where the car is in six different counties. A new MR2 does not need Hellcat power. It does not need Nurburgg ring lap record obsession. It doesn't need launch control that requires a terms and service agreement. It just
[04:59] needs to be light. It needs to be sharp. It needs to be kind of weird, you know, sports car look slightly embarrassed because that was always the MR2's job. The MR2 was never the fastest car in the world. It was never the most expensive.
[05:13] It was never a poster car in the mansion garage. It was the car that he parked behind the mansion owned by the guy who fixes the mansion's owner's Ferrari and somehow has way more fun. And guys, that is the magic. A midenine Toyota is funny
[05:28] mean, mid-enine layouts is supposed to be exotic car territory. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren. Stuff you see on Instagram parked outside a steakhouse with the caption, "Hard work
[05:40] definitely rents it for the weekend. But Toyota is doing it. Toyota doing mid engines is like your accountant showing up for work in a cape. I mean, you're confused, but you're totally listening. And that is why the new MR2 could hit so
[05:54] hard. Because Toyota has already rebuilt the enthusiast credibility in the weirdest way possible. The GR86 is still one of the best affordable driver cars on sale, period. Yes, the internet will argue about torque dips, RTV, oil
[06:07] starvation, and whether your uncle's clap 350Z is faster, but the GR86 is manual sports coupe in a world where goods. I mean, the GR Corolla is basically Toyota taking a Corolla and
[06:20] filling it with rally goblin energy. Three-cylinders, turbo, all-wheel drive, wide fenders, angry noises. It's what happens when an economy car drinks four espressos and discovers violence. I mean, even with the BMW jokes, is
[06:33] genuinely good. It's fast, it's tunable, it's good-looking, and annoying enough to start comment section wars, which is basically free marketing. So, if Toyota adds a mid-engine sports car to the lineup, that's not just another model.
[06:45] It is a statement that says Toyota is not just making enthusiast cars by little chaos department inside the world's most sensible car company. And that matters because Toyota can do something most brands can't. They can
[06:59] make weird stuff feel safe enough for normal people to buy. That was the MR2 formula. A Ferrari layout. But Toyota reliability, a baby exotic, but with baby exotic maintenance. You get the vibes of a supercar, the repair bill of
[07:13] a Corolla, and the handling behavior of a caffeinated shopping cart on ice. Perfect. Now, obviously there are reasons to be worried because every time we hear about affordable sports cars in 2026, we have to ask ourselves the
[07:27] obvious question, affordable for who? A normal person, a YouTuber, a Porsche owner, a guy that says just save up, bro, while living in his parents' automakers love saying affordable and then the car starts at $4999 before
[07:41] mandatory ceramic coating, nitrogen tires, window tint, and VIN etching. and also a $7,000 package called Performance Emotion Premium Plus. Suddenly, your affordable Toyota costs the same as a used Cayman. And now we are back arguing
[07:56] on Reddit like God intended. So Toyota has to be careful. The new MR2 [music] cannot become a fake affordable car. It can't be some $65,000 collector bait GR special that dealers immediately lock behind velvet rope and finance managers
[08:09] named Kyle won't let you even fart in the front seat. It has to be attainable enough to matter. Maybe not cheap cheap. Nothing is cheap anymore. I mean, a base Corolla now costs what a used BMW M3 used to cost if you squint hard enough
[08:22] and ignore maintenance like a true enthusiast. But the NR2 needs to feel like the people's baby exotic. That is the entire point. If Toyota builds a mid-enine car that only rich guys can buy as a garage decor, they missed the
[08:35] assignment. If Toyota builds this compact, lightweight, turbocharged, mid-engine sports car that that normalish enthusiasts can stretch for, they win. They embarrass everyone because the car industry keeps telling
[08:47] They're just too expensive. They're too hard to engineer. There's too many regulations, not enough demand. Everybody wants crossovers. And maybe that's true on a spreadsheet, but enthusiasts are tired of being told that
[08:59] fun is dead by companies selling 12 different versions of the same SUV with different headlights. Toyota has the scale to do it. They sell enough RAV 4s to fund a moon base. They can afford to let Gazu Racing cook a little. And
[09:11] honestly, that might be Toyota's secret sauce right now. Toyota can be boring when it needs to be boring and completely unhinged when it counts. Make the Camry reliable. Make the RAV 4 print money. Make the Corolla immortal. Then
[09:24] goblin for car people that still think a good Saturday involves tires back road and explaining to your girlfriend why the car only has two seats. That is the ideal version of a Toyota. Responsible parent Monday through Friday. Absolute
[09:38] menace on the weekend. There's something poetic about the MR2 coming back now. I mean, because the original MR2 represented a time when an affordable car still could be interesting. When automakers were willing to make strange
[09:50] little things just because they were cool. Tiny coups, pop-up headlights, te-tops, weird engine layouts, cars with personalities instead of a screen size. A new MR2 would not just be nostalgia. It would be proof that the affordable
[10:02] sports car isn't completely dead. It would say that there's still room for industry obsessed with range estimates and 0 to 60 numbers that nobody can use without losing their license and Hather security deposit. And no, it probably
[10:15] won't be exactly like the little old one. It might be hybrid tech. It might be all-wheel drive. It might be more expensive than we want. It might not even be called an MR2 because automakers love taking beloved names and then
[10:27] could call it the GR midship concept, performance, mobility, emotion device, and then act surprised when everyone else just calls it an MR2 anyway, but the spirit, that's what matters. Small, driver focused, mid-engine, Toyota
[10:40] built, that combination is enough to make people actually care. And that's what Toyota has figured out better than almost anyone else right now. You don't need to sell millions of sports cars for them to matter. Sports cars give the
[10:52] brand soul. Nobody buys a Camry because Toyota makes a GR Corolla, but the GR Corolla makes Toyota feel less like a tax appliance company. Nobody actually needs the MR2. I mean, that's the point. Cars we want are the ones that make us
[11:05] do financially irresponsible math at 1:47 in the morning. What if I sell the daily, downgrade the phone plan, stop eating outside food, and explain to my technically an investment? That is the energy the MR2 brings back. And yes, the
[11:19] [music] old MR2 had a reputation, especially the second gen. The internet acts like every SW20 was a death trap actively hunting teenagers. And yes, yes, putting a short, a lubious mid-enine car in the hands of people who
[11:33] learn driving from Gran Turismo, and confidence from Mountain Dew was always claims. But the danger is part of the myth. Modern [snorts] Toyota, they can fix it. Stability control, better tires, better suspension tuning, modern chassis
[11:47] mid-enine car that's playful without being a lawsuit generator. But hopefully they don't sand it down too much because the worst thing Toyota can do is make an the worst thing Toyota can do is make an MR2 feel too safe. Not safe, not stupid,
[12:00] and not YouTube crash compilation by lunch, but alive. The GR86 works because it feels alive. The Miata works because it feels alive. The old MR2 worked because even in normal speeds, you felt like you were driving something special,
[12:13] something with the weight balance, something with attitude, something that qualifying for Monaco, except you were going to Costco and the Ferrari next to you is a base RAV 4 with a dented bumper. That's what people want. Not
[12:25] more screens, not more weight, not more fake engine sounds named after planets, just a little car that makes you take the long way home. So yeah, Toyota might actually save affordable fun again. And the funniest part is they might do it by
[12:38] industry keeps saying can't work anymore. A compact mid-engine sports car from Toyota in this economy, that is either genius, madness, or the final proof that Gazu Racing has fully escaped containment. And honestly, good. Let
[12:53] them cook. Because if Toyota actually builds this thing right, if it's light, just stupid enough to feel special, it could embarrass a whole generation of overpriced sports cars. Not by being faster, not by having more horsepower,
[13:07] not by having a carbon fiber emotional support diffuser, but by reminding everyone what made sports cars fun in the first place. A small car, a great layout, a willing engine, a driver who thinks they're better than they are, and
[13:19] a back road that's about to teach them humility. That is the MR2 formula. Poor man's Ferrari, Toyota reliability, tree avoidance sold separately. And if Toyota brings that back, the car world [music] might actually be fun again. So, let me
[13:32] build the MR2? Let me know in the comments down below. Like, subscribe so year. And check out some of these ideal vids over here. I'm Brad Danger. This is Ideal. And promise me one thing. Keep living the ideal lifestyle. [music]