How is the 2020 Toyota Supra Everyday?

As fate would have it, we took delivery our long-term 2020 Toyota Supra at the moment we all went into lockdown. This means that since then, we’ve logged no commuter miles, no road trips, and only 300 miles have been added to its odometer. I’ve got some observations, nonetheless.

With so few on the road right now, the Supra still elicits questions as if it were an exotic Ferrari. “Is that the new Supra? How do you like it? Is it fast?”  The $56,565 Supra has a celebrity status that outshines its actual place in the automotive landscape. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this level of station from such a readily available car. Even the be-winged Honda Civic Type R didn’t receive this amount of attention. Each trip to the grocery store, gas station, or take-out restaurant turned into a Q&A with masked car enthusiasts. The Supra really is the celebrity it deserves to be.

Since its arrival and thanks to largely open roads, our 2020 Supra has maintained an average 27 mpg, slightly better than the EPA’s 26 mpg combined estimate. We’ve still not had the opportunity to test our long-term Supra, but this one feels as potent as the last one we tested that ran from 0-60 mph in just 3.9 seconds. It’s as fast as it looks; maybe faster.

I still love the hatchback’s its ability to accommodate half a dozen shopping bags. Yes, I still wish it had an external hatch release or bumper-kick protocol available, but the reasonably tight quarters mean the bags stay essentially where they were placed.

I’ve already mentioned how dim the instrument panel and central display are, but the problem seems to be more inherent than previously thought. The car’s dimmer switch is inoperable – it doesn’t change the illumination of the dashboard at all. We’ll ask Toyota to address this on the car’s first visit for service in the future.

Honestly, driving the 2020 Toyota Supra is a mixed bag of emotions and enthusiasm. I love how capable  and quick it is, yet I’m not in love with it. The rear suspension, in particular, isn’t optimal. The rebound damping is too abrupt; meaning it isn’t gentle enough. The initial impact is well damped, but the resulting hop thereafter is not. Apparently, this shortcoming was addressed for model year 2021, and according to features editor Christian Seabaugh, “[Toyota has] retuned the chassis and damper tuning, for starters. Then it changed the electric power steering, adaptive variable suspension, electronic stability control, and active differential programing. And finally, it added new front and rear bump-stops and aluminum braces that increase lateral rigidity. The end goal of these not-insignificant changes, Toyota says, was to ‘increase roll resistance and improve cornering stability. ‘”  We’ll keep you updated as best we can.

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