Toyota GR86 & Subaru BRZ Axed in Europe Over New Safety Rules

Both the Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ have been axed from the European market.

European folks are about to witness yet another death of an ICE-powered sportscar from its market, as both the Toyota GR86 and the second-gen Subaru BRZ have been officially axed.

Responding to an email by Motor1, both Toyota and Subaru have confirmed that the second-gen BRZ and the GR86 are no longer available in the Old Continent. In response to this, Subaru’s marketing and communications boss Jurgen Ehlenberger said that the BRZ is set to be discontinued in the European market by 2024.

Meanwhile, Toyota Gazoo Racing communications boss Patrick Scheelen commented that Toyota will stick to its original plan of selling the GR86 in Europe for only two years, with said period about to expire by the end of this year.

While some of their peers were dead due to the ever-stricter emission regulations and the EU’s rapid electromobility push, these two beloved sporty coupes are dead due to safety concerns. Thanks to the new and stricter General Safety Regulations 2 (GSR2), both the GR86 and BRZ are required to be re-engineered in order to comply with these new regulations, which both Toyota and Subaru deemed to be unfeasible from a business perspective.

Assuming Toyota decides to re-engineer the GR86 to comply with these regulations, the Japanese marque said that the GR86 would be a totally different car, as any re-engineering work done on this coupe "would detrimentally affect the dynamic character of the car."

With both Toyota and Subaru refusing to ‘tweak’ their models to comply with the new GSR2 standard, this means that both marques cannot take new orders for the GR86 and BRZ, and more alarmingly, are prohibited from selling any available stock.

Surprisingly, the older Mazda MX-5 Miata ND managed to survive this ordeal

While this breaking news brought sadness to both Toyota and Subaru, JDM enthusiasts and petrolheads in Europe are still able to buy a new, fun-to-drive Japanese sportscar in the form of the beloved Mazda MX-5 Miata.

The current ND-gen Miata will stick around beyond the GR86/BRZ’s 2024 deadline, despite the sporty roadster being the oldest model of the three. Unveiled way back in 2014, this ageing roadster would still be available for Europeans to purchase and indulge in, with more special edition models planned to make their way on the Old Continent.

We have tested the new Toyota GR86 in its glorious 6MT version earlier this year!

Closer to home, both the Toyota GR86 and the second-gen Subaru BRZ are currently on sale in the Malaysian market, with two of them offered with both 6AT and 6MT transmission options. We recently took one GR86 6MT for a test, so be sure to stay tuned here at Caricarz.com to read our take on Toyota’s iconic two-door coupe.