MONTICELLO and AMENIA, N.Y. — In 2020, Toyota sold three times as many RAV4 crossovers to U.S. customers in just one average week than the number of 86 sport coupes it sold all year. Subaru averaged one and half times more Foresters a week than it did the 86's twin, the BRZ, all year.
To look at it another way: The 86's 2,476 deliveries accounted for a scant 0.13 percent of the Toyota brand's total U.S. sales. The BRZ's 2,267 sales were just 0.37 percent of Subaru of America's sales. And annual sales in recent years of both are significantly below their peaks.
So with most American new-car shoppers snapping up crossovers of all sizes, SUVs and pickups, and billions of automaker R&D dollars being pumped into zero-emission vehicles, does it make sense to invest in a new generation of small, gasoline-powered, modestly priced sports cars that sell in tiny volumes?