Toyota open to new joint ventures after sports car success with Subaru

It's pretty safe to say that the Toyota GT 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ joint venture has been quite a success so far. Here at Autoblog, we've had nothing but nice things to say about the Toyobaru coupe, and it's a similar story elsewhere in the automotive press.

Toyota has certainly been keeping track of the car's progress, and because of the success of this project, Autocar reports that the Japanese automaker is now more keen to do joint ventures in the future. Previously, Toyota had worked with PSA Peugeot-Citroën to create the Aygo/107/C1 city car, and let's not forget about the company's joint manufacturing initiative with General Motors here in the United States, NUMMI, which created vehicles like the Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix twins.

Speaking to Autocar, the GT 86's development chief, Tetsuya Tada, says that the automaker is interested in partnering with new companies "if we can jointly produce something exceptional." Toyota will work with Subaru on a convertible version of its new rear-wheel-drive sports car, and the deal with PSA Peugeot-Citroën will be continued for the next-generation trio of city cars.