One of the big advantages of buying the Toyota Supra is that you get BMW’s electronics with it. Not that Toyota’s gear isn’t any good but BMW’s iDrive is among the best infotainment systems on the market and far better than anything offered in modern Toyotas. Having said that, it seems as if the Supra is getting the short end of the Bavarian stick. According to this new report, BMW won’t be lending its new sibling its iDrive 7.0, which means Supra fans will have to live without Android Auto.
For now, the Toyota Supra is stuck using iDrive 6.0, which admittedly is still very good, but it’s not the latest and greatest that’s available in even the BMW Z4, the Supra’s mechanical twin. Which seems a bit unfair, if we’re being honest. The Supra shares the same engine, gearbox and chassis as the BMW Z4, yet it’s not good enough to get iDrive 7.0 or Android Auto? That just seems odd.
However, according to Toyota, the lack of iDrive 7.0 and Android Auto doesn’t seem to deter many, if any, customers. “We’re collecting customer feedback to see if that’s something they’re interested in,” said Ben Haushalter, Toyota’s senior manager of vehicle product planning. “We visited over a dozen dealers … we met with owners. Honestly, the Android Auto question hasn’t come up as huge detractors so far.”
Admittedly, this shouldn’t stop anyone from buying a Supra, either. It’s a great sports car with killer looks and a badge that will garner respect from most car enthusiasts (the jaded types will sneer at it for its Bavarian DNA). We’ll get our hands on the Toyota Supra soon enough and when we do, we’ll check out the sixth-gen version of BMW’s iDrive, which has Supra-specific graphics, to see whether or not the newest system is necessary or if customers really are fine with the older system.
[Source: Roadshow]
