Japanese publication Best Car reports a new Swift Sport is due to launch between March and May 2026, arriving as the long-awaited hotter version of the fourth-generation Swift, which made its debut in 2023.
It’s not the first time the outlet has claimed the Swift Sport would enter a new generation, making such claims in July last year, though then it said the model would be unveiled in September 2024 and go on sale in Japan before 2025. Both dates have come and passed.
However, the latest report claims the Swift Spot will be joined in the market by a revived Toyota Starlet, marking the potential semi-global return of the auto giant’s small-car nameplate.
The Starlet was one of Toyota’s smallest models between 1973 and 1999, when it exited production. Only the fifth and final-generation model was sold in Australia, albeit briefly from early 1996 to late 1999, when it was then replaced by the Echo which became the Yaris.
While the Starlet was brought back in 2019, it exists solely as a badge-engineered Suzuki Baleno. It’s sold as the Starlet in certain African markets and the Glanza (the last-generation model’s sporty twin) in India.
According to Best Car, the new Starlet and Swift Sport won’t rely on Toyota and Suzuki’s badge-engineering partnerships, with the two affordable but hot models expected to be mechanically unique.
The Swift Sport will reportedly be powered by the turbocharged 1.4-litre four-cylinder mild-hybrid engine which was later introduced for the European market in its previous generation. That engine produced 95kW and 235Nm, a different tune to the 103kW/230Nm Australian versions.
Meanwhile the Starlet is expected to become a part of Toyota’s growing Gazoo Racing (GR) performance vehicle family, likely as the smallest and most affordable option.
Reported to be based on the new-generation Toyota Passo – twinned with the Daihatsu Boon – the GR Starlet is claimed to be the carmaker’s basis for its Rally 4 category entry, and will feature a turbocharged 1.3-litre three-cylinder engine, as well as a six-speed manual.
While Best Car has previously reported on the return of the Starlet – claiming last year it would come back as an electric vehicle – Toyota GR president Tomoya Takahashi has said it would be his “personal dream” to bring back the nameplate.
Should this be the case, it would be one of many cars the Toyota GR division is expected to launch in the coming years, with a new Supra, Celica and MR2 among those understood to be in the pipeline.
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