I would say that this car is a modern, spiritual successor to the Subaru WRX STI. It has permanent AWD with a driver selectable front to rear torque split ratio. No other FWD biased vehicle has permanent AWD other than the current WRX and it is a pale shadow of what it could have been. That car's drivetrain is essentially unchanged for 10+ years. Plus it's made by Toyota and hence should be reliable beyond it's warranty period i.e. it's a keeper. Goes to show that when Toyota put's their mind to it, they can come up with a winner. After all, they have the financial and engineering resources to do it.
I am not so sure about pricing though specifically for the Canadian market. Unlike our friends at VW Canada who have really ensured that the GTI but specially the R are tremendous value here in the North, Toyota/Lexus have not exhibited such a preference
for Canada in their other products. So I will hold off on celebrating until Canadian pricing is out.
