The Best (And Worst) Of The 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon

The car world is always brightened up in January by the yearly Tokyo Auto Salon, the more fun-loving of the Japanese capital’s two motor shows. While the biennial Tokyo Mobility Show is defined by buzzwords like ‘electric’, ‘autonomous’ and, well, ‘mobility’, TAS is an opportunity for the people who run Japan’s car companies to say “actually, we’re car enthusiasts, and we’re going to prove it.”

The 2025 edition was no different, and brought plenty of surprises, some rather exciting and some a little underwhelming. Here’s a roundup of the best and worst of this year’s show.

The good

Toyota GR Yaris M

We were naturally expecting a lot from Toyota this year, a manufacturer that continues to impress with its devotion to keeping enthusiasts happy. While we didn’t get a preview of the new Celica like some reports suggested we would, we were treated to something arguably even more intriguing.

The GR Yaris M is a prototype based on Toyota’s brilliant little four-wheel drive hot hatch (and CT’s 2024 Car of the Year) but ditches its usual G16 turbo three-pot for Toyota’s new, and much-anticipated, 2.0-litre turbo four-pot. Not only that, but it’s sitting in the middle of the GR Yaris where the back seats used to be, like an old Group B homologation special.

What Toyota plans to do with this setup isn’t clear, beyond its plans to race it in the Japanese Super Taikyu race series in order to “further explore the potential of the GR Yaris.” We’re hoping that vague statement means Toyota’s thinking of putting this thing into some sort of production. However, the speculators in us reckon what we’re actually looking at is a thinly veiled mule for the long-rumoured new MR2, which is slated to use this very engine in a midship setup.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 N DK Edition

Another car that made it to the final three of our Car of the Year shortlist was the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, and it too made an appearance at TAS with a rather special version. The DK Edition has more aggressive aero and new chassis hardware, all set up under the watchful eye of legendary skid merchant Keiichi Tsuchiya – better known as the Drift King.

His input is sure to make the already massively entertaining 5 N even more of a grin-inducement device, although so far, the DK Edition has only been confirmed for sale in Japan and South Korea.

Mazda MX-5 12R

The ND Mazda MX-5 has been with us for nearly a decade now, but Mazda is clearly far from done with this generation of its wonderfully simple little roadster. The 12R edition is the first fully-fledged product from Mazda’s nascent Spirit Racing performance division and features some good old-fashioned tuning to things like the cylinder head and camshafts to lift power from its 2.0-litre nat-asp four-pot to 197bhp.

It’s topped off with various parts from some of the most respected suppliers in the biz, with Mazda procuring parts from names like Bilstein, Recaro and Rays. It all sounds fairly tantalising. The only catch is that Mazda’s only building 200, and they’re all destined for Japan.

Daihatsu Mira e:S GR Sport Concept

We’ve been mourning Daihatsu’s non-presence in Europe ever since this most Japanese of car makers left our shores in 2013. We’re mourning it even more now we’ve seen the Mira e:S GR Sport, a proper kei hot hatch of the sort you might have bought as a starter car in Gran Turismo 2.

It’s officially just a concept for now, but it looks pretty production-ready to us. It’s been overhauled by Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division (for Toyota now wholly owns Daihatsu), which has turbocharged a five-speed manual Mira and thrown a set of sports seats and an angry new look at it. Kei rules mean it still only has a 660cc three-pot engine and 63bhp, but cars like this have a long history of being way more fun than their raw numbers suggest.

Liberty Walk Lamborghini Miura

Somewhere in a villa near Lake Como, a Concours d’Elegance judge presumably threw their negroni at a wall and tore open their finely tailored linen shirt in a rage when they saw what Japanese widebodyist Liberty Walk had done to a genuine Lamborghini Miura.

We can’t help but enjoy the sheer audacity of it, though. The Nagoya outfit sourced a less-than-showroom-fresh example of the rare ’60s supercar and set about it with angle grinders, giving it the signature LBWK treatment of wide arches, tucked wheels and a truly gigantic wheel. No matter how much of a sacred cow you think the Miura is, just set aside your rage for a moment and look at it. Looks ruddy cool, doesn’t it?

The bad

Subaru WRX STI S210

Not everything at TAS has been worthy of excitement. Our interest was piqued before the show when we saw that Subaru, after countless disappointments, had finally rolled out a proper STI-developed version of the new WRX.

That interest quickly faded away when we looked into the specifics of the S210. Despite that name placing it in a lineage of extra-special Imprezas and WRXs, it has the exact same power figure as the standard version of the old WRX STI. Worse still, it only comes with a CVT gearbox. We’re not sure what Subaru was thinking with this one. It’s only building 500, all for Japan, and quite frankly, we’re fine with that.

Honda Civic Type R Racing Black Package

The FL5 Honda Civic Type R is a properly sensational hot hatch, so we were highly intrigued when Honda started teasing something called the Racing Black Package. What could it be? Some even more hardcore, stripped-out track-focused version?

Erm, no. It’s basically a black upholstery package. In all fairness, as much as a lurid red interior is part of the CTR’s identity, it does sort of clash with some of the more vivid paint colours the FL5 comes in, so the choice of something more muted wouldn’t go amiss. So far, though, it’s something that’ll only be offered in Japan, and with a name like Racing Black Package, we were kind of hoping for something a little more.

Nissan Skyline GT-R EV

Look, as unpopular as this may be, we’re not anti-EV at Car Throttle. We’re not even against swapping electric gubbins into a classic, as long as the classic in question is appropriate for an EV swap – that is, more defined by its style than a rip-roaring powertrain. EV-converted Pagoda Mercedes SL, or classic Land Rover? Count us in.

For us, though, Nissan’s decision to take an R32 Skyline GT-R, rip out its iconic RB26DETT twin-turbo straight-six, and slot in a pair of electric motors is a step too far. Much too far.

Nissan can make all the noises it wants about trying to make this thing a driver’s EV, but that rather misses the point. The company says it has no plans to commercialise this swap (presumably because there’s not a single soul on earth who’d be interested in buying it), so it’s really just a thought experiment that probably went a bit too far. We’ll forgive you, Nissan – just don’t do it again.