Why are all these Toyota Supras listed incorrectly?

As a car buying expert in Jalopnik and a professional car buyer, I get emails. Lots of emails. I have chosen a few of your questions and I will try to help you. This week we are discussing the incorrect ads for the new Toyota Supras and we find an “old” but recent car.

First off, how come I see a lot of four cylinder Supras listed as six cylinder cars?

I was recently watching 2021 Supras on AutoTrader and noticed a lot of Supras I6 42-45k $. I was excited until I read the details. Many of these dealers classify the Supra as a 2.0-liter 6-cylinder.

I count 17 within 300 km of Austin, TX. Is it stupidity / ignorance or tactics?

It’s not just a problem in Texas for Supras. I carried out this research across the country and found a similar model of weirdly inexpensive six-cylinder cars. When the options fill up, you see lists that look like this –

Then, once you click on the list, you see the details – and that’s where the possible explanation comes in.

It looks like Autotrader is labeling these cars as having a turbocharged 2.0-liter six when we all know it’s a four-cylinder model. If I run this nationwide search for six-cylinder Supras on Cars.com and then sort by price from low to high, I don’t get any mismatches for four-cylinder cars. All cars are correctly listed as Supra 3.0 models.

As to the explanation of whether these Autotrader listings are ‘stupidity / ignorance or tactical’ it could be all of the above but I suspect there may be some sort of error in the Autotrader system which assigns a bad labeling to these cars. I contacted Autotrader to get a statement, and will update the message if they respond.

Then, is it even possible to find a modern car without a bunch of electronic features?

“I currently drive a 2003 VUE that I bought 2 years ago, and I don’t really like driving an SUV. It was cheap ($ 1200 and road ready), but I want to drive a car again. I have never in my life had a car that was less than 10 years old, and I despise all the technology I see in cars these days. I want a basic FWD manual (NO CVT PLZ) preferably with manual windows and locks, no bluetooth / heated seats / cameras / GPS / sunroof. I keep looking around and can’t figure out how to search for vehicles that match my criteria. I can choose all of these options, but not rule them out. Can you tell me where / how I look for cars that match my preferences? Most sites tout all of these cool features that I hate, and I just want a simple, basic barebones car, the less electronics the better. “

I don’t think you can buy a car made in the past four years that would meet these requirements. Backup cameras have been mandatory for several years, and I know of no modern vehicle sold new in the United States without power windows. Bluetooth has been a feature of most vehicles since 2010. There are “basic” front-wheel-drive and manual-transmission cars out there, but they will have some tech and features you don’t care about. Almost anything that has been built, even a little bit recently, will not meet your needs, you may want to plan something from the early 2000s.

Got a car buying puzzle you need help with? Write to me at [email protected]!