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My 2022 Toyota Supra 3.0 GR: Booking, delivery & initial impressions

13th September 2022, 14:35 by Rahul Nagaraj

It's been around 500 km now and I've started getting the hang of the dimensions of the car, feeling much more comfortable inside the cabin.

BHPian Amey Kulkarni recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello Peeps,

Finally, the wait is over and she has arrived on the auspicious eve of Ganesh Chaturthi.

If I'm not wrong, I may be the first person to post a delivery experience of the Supra on the forum which ultimately converts into an ownership review. The cherry on the Cake!

Details of the car:

Make: Toyota
Manufactured in: BMW Austria. Yes! It's a BMW underneath.
Model: Supra 3.0 GR
Variant: Premium
Exterior Color: White Metallic
Interior Color: Red
Year: MY 2022
Booked on: June 2022
Discounts: NIL
Standard Warranty: 3 Years or 100,000 km
Service Package: Included for 3 years (paid on top)
Accessories: 3M Ceramic Tints, Sports plates

Specifications

3.0 L, Inline 6, 24V DOHC, Turbo, RWD
382 PS
500Nm
8-speed Automatic Gearbox

Booking Experience

I booked the Supra on 25th June 2022 and the waiting period communicated by the Sales team conservatively was 3-6 months due to the unsure dynamics of the market currently however, I'm glad she made it here in just two months.

GCC Spec of the Supra is only available in one trim which is the fully loaded "Premium variant" which I absolutely loved as there was no confusion about which variant to choose from. Simply take it or leave it!

The booking experience in Dubai has been professional overall whether it was my Golf GTI at first or the Supra now. However, there were some observations as appended:

No Display car
No Test Drive car
The Sales Executive attitude was average. Wasn't even offered a coffee in spite of booking the car on my first visit. Well, that's this region anyways, migrated people are pretty cold.

Luckily, there was one white Supra being delivered and I could get a feel of what I was going to book/buy. The pictures can simply not depict what you get to see in person. She has personifying curves and the overall aura is mind-boggling.

The Wait

Golf GTI was in stock and thus the overall experience was smooth without a fuss. However, it was surprising when it came to the Supra. After paying a small token for the booking (INR 40K approx), I was kept informed on the status of the car every week. This was a delight to see. With this proactive approach, I can even forget the coffee I deserved during the booking. The struggle if I may even call it was getting the car from the port to the showroom. The showroom folks were struggling to commit a delivery date due to the long queuing at PDI; which I wasn't allowed to witness. We "Indians" like things to be planned especially when it comes to precious purchases and here it's quite chilled out in that respect.

Delivery Day

All said and done, when the car arrived in the hands of the showroom folks that's when things started rolling. The car was delivered in a day on my request with a few things to be sorted prior to the delivery such as Loading GCC Maps on Navigation, 3M tints, Car registration and installing Sports plates on the car.

All in All, when I saw the beauty in flesh I had laser eyes. It made me feel forget everything that I might've felt impatient about. My family shared the same feeling as well. Reiterating my earlier statement, the photos do not depict how gorgeous she looks in person. Toyota has definitely outsmarted BMW on this quotient and the Z4 M40i on which the Supra is based on which is sold at almost twice the cost.

One with the Golf GTI

Initial Impressions and Running In

I simply love this courtship period with the car when she itches you to cross your line but you don't. This is the time when I really feel we get to learn and mould the car to our liking. My family and I set out post-dinner for coffee runs to run in the car and understand the features of the car. This was done with the Golf GTI and the same implies to the Supra too.

With that said, we got a beautiful home and the necessary rituals were done. My wife and I couldn't resist sitting at home with the new beauty parked in the garage and we headed straight to the gas station to collect Salik (toll sticker). The first drive felt odd, to be honest. I was driving her like a noob. A low GC car with small windows, all curves around and the broad stance felt intimidating at the start and that's where I knew I need to give her driving hours to sync in the feeling.

Generally, before I take the steering into my hands, I also like to run through the manual to give a quick check on running-in guidance and customize certain settings to my needs and comfort.

In Supra's case, I noticed certain settings which required personalization e.g.

The infotainment is iDrive from the BMW again which looks nice and the UI is user-friendly.
Connecting my iPhone 13 Pro Max for wireless Carplay was a breeze just through Bluetooth pairing.
Profile name and ensuring all settings are saved to this profile
Disabling the lane change correction setting
Adjusting the seat, ORVMs and setting to the memory function 1
Audio system equalizer
Parking assist settings
Heads-up Display height
Setting shortcuts for the band nos viz - Sports mode customization, TPMS, Equalizer etc.

The manual states running below 4,500 rpm and limiting the speed to 160 km/h until the initial 2,000 km. However, while driving I noticed that the car is mental. Even 4,500 rpm is quite high for the initial km. I'm conservatively driving her below 3,000 just to be soft initially and gradually will increase the load.

It's been around 500 km now and I've started getting the hang of the dimensions of the car, feeling much more comfortable inside the cabin wherein initially it felt very claustrophobic with small windows, blind spots, low ground clearance overall handling etc.

With these initial impressions and thoughts, I will leave you, folks, here and see you in the next chapter of the Supra's ownership review.

Link for more details on Toyota Supra GCC Specs.