Review: 2020 Toyota 86 Hakone Edition… and my left foot

The law don\’t want no gear jammer

My first attempt behind the wheel of the 86 Hakone Edition was simple enough: a round-trip between my home and the nearby Speedway. All I had to do was climb a hill; my home resides between two of them.

I wound up stalling so many times, I had to have help from a neighbor to bring the car back to the house.

The next day, I asked my landlord if he knew how to shift, and if he could teach me if he could. He said he\’d have some time available Saturday morning, if it would work for me.

Thus, we spent an hour on a Saturday morning at a park-and-ride parking lot working on shifting. I didn\’t stall as many time as the first time, and even managed to get out of first on a few occasions.

Alas, the success was short-lived. The stalls and shuttering returned, and I was back to square one. My landlord did all he could to help, but nothing stuck.

Once he saw my left foot, however, he figured that maybe the manual was never going to be in the cards for me as a driver.

In closing

I will say the 86 Hakone Edition looks stunning in the sunlight. I\’ll even add it\’s definitely a driver\’s car with the six-speed manual. It also won\’t hurt you at the pump between home and the track, not with an mpg rating of 24 city, 32 highway, and 27 combined.

Sadly, this stunner isn\’t the car for me. Not because of anything wrong with the car, but because I\’m not built correctly where it counts regarding the stick.

Combined with the fear of burning out the clutch due to lack of skill before it was picked up (and, thus, forcing the fleet company to pick it up via flatbed), I\’m not sure I\’ll ever be a member of the three-pedal mafia.

For those of you who do hold memberships, though, if you can find the 86 Hakone Edition at your Toyota dealership, I\’d recommend getting it immediately. Only a small number were made, and now that it\’s no longer on the Toyota website, it\’s only a matter of time before it disappears from the lot altogether, along with the first-gen 86 in all of its forms.

Or you can wait until the second-gen 86 debuts in 2021 for the 2022 model year. Whichever you prefer.

Photos: Aubernon Highway/Cameron Aubernon