Toyota 86 convertible, turbocharged variants not happening, says Scion

Doug Murtha, Scion's senior vice president, told WardsAuto at the recent Los Angeles auto show that the division, which sells the 86 as the Scion FR-S, "went down swinging" with its proposals for an 86/FR-S convertible.

Murtha claimed that Scion wasn't able to gather a coalition of interested countries and regions with sufficient projected volumes to make the project viable. With Australia accounting for 10 per cent of global 86 sales and Toyota Australia's previously stated desire to offer an 86 convertible, it's likely that Australia was one of the regions that put its hand up.

He concluded by stating, "I think we were pretty aggressive on our (submitted plan), but we looked at what we would have conceivably lost on the product and said, 'We’re not going to even push it further'".

As for the possibility of a turbocharged version of the 86/FR-S Murtha was just as frank. Although he acknowledged the demands of the blogosphere for just such a car, Murtha stated unequivocally, "That's not something that's coming".

Scion's senior vice president didn't explain why the company was unwilling to turbocharge the 86's 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer engine beyond its current output of 147kW of power and 205Nm of torque.