The New Celica and MR2 Are One Car Now? New Details!

(All images from BestCar Magazine)

Since the Celica has been confirmed last month, people have been wondering where the rumoured MR2 is in Toyota’s release line up. After all, it was teased in their anime series on YouTube, so most people are just waiting for them to officially announce its existence. However, the MR2 fans may be disappointed as it seems that the Celica and MR2 may be the same car now.

BestCar Japan in their latest magazine stated that the newly announced Celica will have 400PS from a 2.0 liter turbocharged inline 4, all-wheel drive, and a mid-engine layout. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The editors over at BestCar think so too, and they’re saying that the MR2 might be mixed in with the Celica to create a single car model instead of being distinct from each other. This makes sense considering that the cost of creating two cars with nearly identical specifications except for engine layout in the same segment would be too much. Additionally, based on what we have now it does seem like the new car is homage to both the Celica GT-Four and MR2 with the AWD and mid-engine layout.

The editors in the article have also added that Toyota has too many sports cars in the waiting list right now, such as the new GR Supra, GR86, Starlet and the supposed MR2. Therefore, the fusion of the Celica and MR2 would make a lot of sense to shrink its sports car lineup by one model. Some extra details also include the availability of an automatic or a glorious 6-speed manual, another big win for Toyota if true.

 As for pricing, it’s still murky but they’re saying that they’ve been told it's around 11,000,000 yen (RM312,445), which is insane pricing for a Celica if true and they’re hoping that isn’t the case. Realistically, they would probably bring it down to around the RM180,000 to RM250,000 ballpark, which would be below the Supra but it may be on par with it. The article also mentions that the Celica will go into production around late 2026 and be delivered in 2027.

Now here’s the fun part, speculation. Will the Celica have entry level trims? Perhaps it will with the X15 engine that was revealed earlier this year, which is a 1.5 liter turbocharged inline 4. Toyota could either make it rear-wheel drive or front-wheel drive and give the premium trims the GR-Four system. Someone in the comments of Kirk Kreifels’s recent video on this even speculated that the MR2 and Celica nameplates may be trims for the car instead. So for example, the MR2 trim has RWD and the 1.5 turbo engine whereas the higher Celica trim gets AWD and the 2.0 liter turbo engine, which wouldn’t be a farfetched guess. 

Overall, take everything in this article with a grain of salt as things are obviously subject to change. The MR2 name may either be truly fused with the new Celica or perhaps be a completely separate model in the future. Either way, the news is quite exciting and there’s much details to come in the near future as Toyota slowly finishes up the details of the production car, what do you think about the new Celica?

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Read More: Enthusiasts Rejoice, The Celica is Back! Toyota Exec Confirms Revival of Beloved Nameplate

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