Best used sports car for 2024

For the fourth consecutive year, the Toyota 86 GTS is the winner of Australia’s best sports car in carsales’ Best Used Cars for 2024, proudly presented by Bingle.

The Toyota’s winning streak has also relegated the Mazda MX-5 to bridesmaid status over the same period, after winning the category in 2019.

It hardly seems fair, but the Toyota stays ahead of the Mazda by virtue of offering a similar driving experience, allied with roomier 2+2 seating and fewer of the packaging constraints of the MX-5. Field of vision is one example of that.

Not to take anything away from the MX-5, the 86 GTS is a practical little car that will transport a couple of young teenagers with little fuss, but it can also serve as a track-day car – although the automatic transmission does detract from driving fulfilment.

The Toyota 86 GTS is built at the same Subaru plant that also builds the almost identical Subaru BRZ; there is little to distinguish the two cars other than their respective badgework.

Subaru’s horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine powers both cars and sits low in the body and behind the front axle, contributing to the car’s sporting stance, its skateboard-style centre of gravity and its balanced weight distribution.

What the Toyota offers in Australia that the Subaru doesn’t is a broader range of variants and a larger pool of used cars in the market. In any case, if you can find a Subaru BRZ in mint condition at a lower price than a comparable 86 GTS, grab it while you can.

Crunching the numbers, RedBook’s score of 43.9 points is marginally lower than the previous year’s score, but the judges scored the 86 GTS slightly higher at 40 points for a total of 83.9, compared with 84 from a year ago. In 2018, the 86 GTS sold for $38,940 new, and RedBook values the same car in the used-car market at $30,000 in 2024.

One common complaint about the Toyota 86 GTS is ‘lack of power’, but the problem in reality lies with where engine output gets into stride, as former technical editor Ken Gratton noted when he tested both manual and auto versions of the car in early 2017:

“For maximum enjoyment it’s best to have the engine hitting at least 6000rpm before shifting up. As the output display in the trip computer revealed, the manual variant’s torque reaches its peak at 3000rpm and then dips before steadily climbing again from 4000rpm. Presumably that's the transitional point where the car's port fuel-injection hands over to the direct injection system. Revving the manual 86 to 6000rpm for an upshift will leave you at this sweet spot in the next gear.”

Ken offered unqualified praise for the handling of the 86 GTS, which is where a competent driver might make up for that lack of flexible performance: “In handling terms, the 86 offers tenacious front-end grip and a flatter stance than the Mazda, but lift off mid-corner and the Toyota steers in towards the apex without the tail threatening to break loose. It’s neutral and vice-free, in other words.”

Here’s what one of our judges thinks of the Toyota 86 GTS:

The choice of the Toyota over its arch-rival, the Mazda MX-5, boils down to personal preference as much as anything else. For many track-day enthusiasts, nothing can surpass the Mazda, but the Toyota offers extra practicality, an intriguing powertrain and performance and dynamics at least comparable with the Mazda, making the Toyota 86 GTS a deserving winner in its category of the 2024 carsales Best Used Car Awards, proudly presented by Bingle.

The 2.0-litre Mazda MX-5 GT RF scored 41.4 points from RedBook and 35.0 points from the judges for a total of 76.4.
RedBook value: $36,100

The BMW M240i LCI scored 32.3 points from RedBook and 38.0 points from the judges for a total of 70.3.
RedBook value: $47,100

How did RedBook weight the categories for scoring?
• 10 per cent for resale
• 10 per cent for ANCAP rating
• 20 per cent for cost of ownership
• Five per cent for service intervals
• Five per cent for number of days for vehicle to sell