NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW: New-look Toyota 86

Toyota has revealed the first significant upgrade for its affordable rear-wheel drive boxer coupe, the 86, since it was released almost four years ago in mid-2012.

Confirmed to make its global debut at the New York motor show on March 25 – as the Toyota 86 rather than the Scion FR-S, following the Toyota youth brand's axing last month -- the MY17 86 will go on sale in Australia in the fourth quarter of this year.

Apart from confirming North America will adopt the Australian and Asian name for the new-look 86 – rather than Europe's GT86 nameplate, or FT86 as it's called elsewhere – Toyota revealed three exterior shots of the revised compact coupe.

While the interior is yet to be revealed, Toyota says it brings revised exterior and interior designs, led by a more aggressive front bumper with bigger grille and outboard bezels, revised headlights with fresh LED running lights and new rear bumper and LED tail-lights.

Redesigned alloy wheels and a stand-alone 86 badge on the front fender and inside the headlights complete the mild exterior makeover.

Inside, only top-spec GTS models will bring new 86-branded 'soft-feel Grandlux' material for the instrument panel surround and door trims, plus new seat trim with silver stitching and audio controls for the steering wheel.

There's (slightly) bigger news under the bonnet, where the Subaru-sourced 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated four-cylinder boxer engine gains 4kW more peak power and 9Nm more maximum torque (exact Australian specifications are yet to be confirmed), bringing its outputs to about 151kW and 214Nm – but only for manual versions.

Toyota says 86 manuals will also come with Hill Start Assist Control (HAC) and "a gear ratio change", but it's yet to clarify whether that means a shorter or longer final drive ratio, or revised internal gearbox ratios.

If it's the former, the slightly more powerful 86 manual will most certainly be a bit quicker, at the expense of fuel consumption.

The only other change – for all models – is "a revised suspension tune [that] focuses on shock absorber and spring rates", leaving it unclear whether Toyota has made the 86 softer of firmer.

Toyota executive director sales and marketing Tony Cramb said that with 16,546 sales since June 2013, Australia continues to be one of the world's most popular destinations for the 86.

"With sales in excess of 16,000 units in Australia to date, the 86 has been a phenomenal success," he said.

"A pure focus on dynamic response and driver engagement has struck a chord with its growing fan base, and this 86 update is sure to add further fuel to that fire."

The 86 has indeed been a smash-hit Down Under, where it soared to a best of more than 6700 sales in 2013 – it's first year of sales, following long waiting lists.

Sales plummeted to just 4250 in 2014, however, and a further 30 per cent to only 3000 last year, which was still enough to edge out the Hyundai Veloster as Australia's top-selling sports car.

After two months of this year though, 86 sales are down a further 8.5 per cent to 440 – well below the Ford Mustang's 745 sales and within reach of the BMW 2 Series Coupe/Convertible (361), Veloster (337) and Mazda MX-5 (324).

“When we announced the transition of the Scion models to Toyota we hadn’t planned on changing the names of our cars, but by popular demand, for our sports car, we decided to adopt the global name of 86,” said Toyota Division Group Vice President, Bill Fay.

Apart from the rebadged Toyota 86, two other Scion models will get new names for 2017, with the Corolla iM and Yaris iA joining Toyota’s small car line-up in the US.