The Toyota FT-86 concept wowed us at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show for being a sexy RWD 2+2 that wouldn’t cost us an arm and a leg to buy.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, Toyota->ke88 may have other plans for the production version of the FT-86. During a recent meeting with dealers in Las Vegas, Toyota announced that the FT-86 will be badged not as a Toyota, but as a Scion->ke79. What’s more, the previously stated $20,000 price tag has been bumped up to somewhere around $25,000.

Is this a good or a bad thing? Well, it depends on who you ask.

While we’re not completely enamored with the FT-86 falling under the Scion brand, we understand Toyota’s decision in doing so given that Scion hasn’t exactly been setting auto sales on fire. The Scion-badged FT-86 could be what Scion needs to kick-start its line-up back to prominence.

Despite the announcement, Toyota has not thrown out the possibility of seeing a Toyota version in the future. As far as we’re concerned though, we don’t see the merits of having a Toyota version now that the production version of the 2+2 sports coupe is being badged as a Scion. They’ll be competing against each other in a market that Scion desperately needs to make an impact on.

We think that having a Toyota version of the FT-86 will undermine the Scion version. But that’s what we think. If Toyota sees a more promising result than what we’re seeing, then more power to them.

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