The BRZ: An Un-Love Story

"Gatsby's Ghost" (Gatsbysghost) 05/05/2014 at 21:54 • Filed to: None

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Due to the unique circumstances of my living situation (by way of which I'm living in England part-time for nine months), I spent almost a year shopping for cars, culminating with the decision about a month ago to buy my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But the first time I drove that car, my impressions were actually pretty heavily colored by disappointment.

I'm going to reflect a little bit on how I came around from my initial...well, almost hatred of the 86, all the way to a place where I actually decided to buy one.

Fortunately for me in my capacity as a retrospective automotive navel-gazer, I wrote a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! when I drove the car in July of 2013. Here are some excerpts from my test notes—the bits that I found most troubling at the time (N.B., I had nice things to say about the car, too, and you can check out the full review for those, but these were my complaints at the time):

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Exterior:

"...you could be forgiven for looking at it and coming away unimpressed, or even disappointed. I especially dislike those fake vents between the front wheels and the A-pillar; they cheapen the entire exterior of the car, and they really diminish the curb appeal."

Interior:

"This, I'm afraid, is where things start to go badly wrong for the BRZ."

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"I was not a fan of the cheap-feeling stereo in this car. It felt like an aftermarket head unit, and it seemed perilous to try and operate the thing at highway speeds. The gear knob is also a letdown, to be sure. It looks and feels cheap, and at idle, it vibrates around quite noticeably."

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"An enormous, critical omission is that of a center armrest. [...] I'm sure you can buy an armrest as a dealer-installed accessory [Ed.: No, actually, you can't.] but…really? Should you have to? This is something that would annoy me every day. But I would almost hate to lose the storage space represented by the cupholders in the center console–mostly because there's so little storage space in the cabin.

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"I was hoping the interior would feel snug, like a glove, but really it just felt claustrophobic to me. I am hoping that future versions of the car incorporate a marked re-thinking of the materials and the space of this interior. [...] I couldn't help but wonder: what would this car be like with the GTI's interior? I'll go ahead and answer my own question: it would be almost flawless."

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"Also, based on prior experience with this kind of thing, I am 90% sure that in the first 10,000 miles of the life of a BRZ, all of the air vents and the other pieces of plastic trim are going to shake themselves loose and start rattling and/or buzzing in a really annoying way whenever you rev the engine or go over a bump."

Ride:

"If this is your only car, and if you live somewhere where you'll need to drive on even slightly imperfect roads, then the ride in the BRZ borders on unacceptable."

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"A C5 Corvette has an excellent, sporty, connected-yet-comfortable ride quality; the BRZ (much like my old Mazdaspeed3) does not."

Gearbox:

"The clutch is not as good, I'm afraid. It's on the lighter side (which is good for everyday driving), but I honestly couldn't feel the friction point at all. I just kind of had to guess where it was, and hope that it was there"

Sound:

"Maybe you're someone who likes the sound this car makes. I can't imagine what sort of person that is , but maybe they're out there. Anyway, I hate it."

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"First of all, it's loud, and I mean loud . I'm all for shedding sound-deadening material to save weight, but this engine makes a terrible racket, and a bit of sound insulation wouldn't hurt this car."

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"It's drony and clattery, and it sounds like it's fueled by rusty scrap metal. This is especially painful because it's such a hoot to rev the engine."

Toys:

"...the one area in which it does purport to deliver toys (i.e., its audio head unit) is unforgivably bad. It's confusing and low-rent, and you would do much better to replace it with an aftermarket unit. The thing is, you shouldn't have to. I don't care that it doesn't have radar-guided cruise control or night vision, but the stereo is a basic thing, and doing it right doesn't add much extra cost or weight, so Subaru doesn't have much of an excuse on this one."

Value:

"For the right person, this car is a 10/10 value, but for the wrong person (count me in that category), it just doesn't make any kind of sense to buy a BRZ. So I'm going to split the difference, giving it a score of 5/10 for value. If you get in this car and decide that you can deal with the depressing interior and the god-awful racket its engine produces and the way it crashes around over bumps, then I wholeheartedly recommend that you buy it. But I cannot recommend it without that caveat."

Two months later...

So what possessed me to buy this car that I apparently hated? Well, two months after I drove the BRZ, I was still thinking about it—still trying to reconcile the car I wanted it to be with the car it was. And I couldn't do it without more data; I needed to drive it again. But I didn't want to bother the good people at the Subaru dealership a second time, so I headed over to the local Toyota dealer and hopped in an FR-S. Man, was I in for a surprise.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and I kept thinking to myself how much more honest the FR-S felt than the BRZ. It wasn't putting on airs by claiming to have "luxury" features like partial-leather seats or a (god-awful) navigation unit. No, the FR-S is a car with cloth seats and a stereo that has actual physical buttons; it's a Japanese Bruce Springsteen. It isn't lying to you .

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I won't bore you by going through every single positive thing I felt or noticed about the FR-S, but somewhere in the two months between these two drives, my mind really opened to the 86 twins. I interpreted this as a preference for the FR-S at the time, but now I understand that I had come to "get" the Toyobaru writ large. Here are just a couple thoughts I had on the experience:

"In this, among other ways, the FR-S is a bit like using stock Android after having tried a really cumbersome corporate skin (like something from LG, or HTC Sense). You realize that all of the so-called "features" that the skin offered were really just getting in the way of using the device."

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"In the FR-S, there were moments when I lost myself in the car; the car itself seemed to disappear as I drove along. This is a profoundly strange feeling, and maybe some of you know what I'm talking about from experience, but essentially my brain stopped distinguishing the steering wheel and my hands as separate entities; in these moments, the urge to change gear felt as natural as the urge to inhale or exhale. It felt like the distinction between myself and the car was blurred. If this has never happened to you, then it must sound unspeakably stupid. But to me, these moments where I get lost in the machine are blissful. Moments like these are a big part of the reason I love cars. I've only experienced them a handful of times before; this car put me in a position to have that experience on a test drive."

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

"I stepped out of the FR-S today and immediately felt a pang of intense desire: I wanted badly to make this car mine, to drive it to work every day, to wash it by hand, to take it on road trips and to explore its limits on Flagstaff Road. I haven't wanted a car this much in a long time."

After that test-drive, I started re-thinking my whole judgment against the twins. Had the BRZ really been that bad? What if the leather and Alacantara seats were really great? Would I really care about the awful infotainment system if I could just plug in my iPhone?

I hemmed and hawed and watched hours of YouTube footage of BRZ drives—Motor Trend's Head2Head comparisons, Winding Road's POVs, and even subaruwrxfan's weekly updates. And then I left for the first leg of my extended stay in England.

Six Months Later...

Fast-forward another six months to March 2014, and I have been spending every waking moment of my free time looking at cars on the internet. That doesn't actually distinguish those six months from any other period of time in my life, but I was seriously shopping for a car to purchase on my return to the U.S.. I went home for a few weeks in March and test-drove some more cars: a 2007 Cayman. A Focus ST. A V6 Mustang.

One day, I stopped at a Subaru dealership on a whim. They had a beautiful WR Blue BRZ Limited on display in the very front of their lot, and I thought I'd take a look, and maybe convince them to let me drive it.

I dealt with a great salesman (who actually didn't know too much about the BRZ, but he was low-pressure and didn't pretend to know more than he really did). This time, when I fired up the engine, something just clicked in my head: of course it was as good as the FR-S. It was better . The seats? Lovely. The Subaru Forester Gump-grade nav system? Who cares. No armrest? Go down to the sheriff's station and take it up with Sergeant Like-I-Give-A-Damn. This is a special car.

That's the thing that you have to get about the BRZ—the thing that took me almost nine months to grasp: it is special in a very intangible way. It's a car worth making some sacrifices for. I have some complaints about NVH, and I'm almost certain that the head unit will try to kill me at some point, but let me put it this way: I am not a morning person, but this is a car that I regularly wake up at dawn to just drive . What a car. What a masterpiece.

153624 - Straight Six > Gatsby's Ghost 05/05/2014 at 22:00

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Great piece. Makes me want to take a ride in a Toyobaru. Maybe I'll try to snag one at autocross next week!

Spaceball-Two > Gatsby's Ghost 05/05/2014 at 22:18

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"it's a Japanese Bruce Springsteen. It isn't lying to you ."

Why are you in my head? Great read.

Nate Bleker > Gatsby's Ghost 05/05/2014 at 22:30

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Picked up a WRB limited in January and I couldn't agree more, it kicks the crap out of my old bugeye's interior by a long shot. I just can't bring myself to modify it either, the balance of this car is so awesome that I'm afraid I'd mess it up!

AthomSfere > Gatsby's Ghost 05/05/2014 at 22:40

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For whatever reason, your mention of those vents made me ponder a cleaner car...

Interneting is hard. Its quick, and dirty and I am no PS pro, but an interesting concept methinks.

Gatsby's Ghost > AthomSfere 05/06/2014 at 05:51

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Interesting! I liked the 2000GT-style windows, but without them, those rear buttress-looking things put me in mind of a Lotus, actually. Neat idea. I think it would work especially well if the car were just a little bit shorter—a true two-seater rather than a 2+2(ish).

Don't despair of your PS skills! I think it came out pretty well for a quick and dirty sketch!

And, no matter how you slice it, I like your version (that is, without those stupid non-vents) much better than I like Subaru's implementation. The Scion version looks better, too, imho. They don't have to put up with huge fake vents, AND they get that cool "86" boxer badge. That's the one aesthetic point that the BRZ gives up to the Sciyota, if you ask me.

Gatsby's Ghost > Spaceball-Two 05/06/2014 at 05:52

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Thank you! I had the RCR guy's voice in my head as I wrote parts of this—so maybe the issue is that you've got him in your head? If so, then god help you...

Gatsby's Ghost > 153624 - Straight Six 05/06/2014 at 05:53

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Thank you! And please, I encourage you to do so! I don't think you'll regret it. But either way, write a little bit about it for Oppo and let us know your thoughts!

Gatsby's Ghost > Nate Bleker 05/06/2014 at 05:54

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Totally agree. I mean, I'm a stock kind of guy to begin with, but when a car already has this much going for it, I don't see myself changing too many things. Enjoy yours! :)

AthomSfere > Gatsby's Ghost 05/06/2014 at 06:32

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Yes, that flat piston 86 badge is awesome.

With the masked rear windows the car looks looks like a rear engine car to me now that I have slept on it.

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts (And PS encouragement).

153624 - Straight Six > Gatsby's Ghost 05/06/2014 at 17:16

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Good idea! Perhaps I'll do a piece about straight six's first autocross.

signintoburnerlol > Gatsby's Ghost 05/12/2014 at 19:24

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Not bad. Typical arguments.

Kay, lets go drifting.

manifold engines > Gatsby's Ghost 05/12/2014 at 20:05

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Sometimes it takes a while to:

Wilky Way > Gatsby's Ghost 05/12/2014 at 22:43

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Oooooooh I was about to rail you a new asshole for the first half of the review....then I read the part about the FR-S till the end and I was happy again :) I completely agree with the car feeling natural; After 15k miles I feel like I know what the car is doing and what I should be doing without really thinking about it. Personally I went for the FR-S because I liked the styling better and didn't care for the BRZ extras.

OppositeLoctopus > Gatsby's Ghost 05/13/2014 at 12:52

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Great post. And I'm glad you brought up that fake vent thing on the BRZ. As stupid as it sounds, that styling element was a crucial factor in my decision to buy an FR-S instead :-)

AthomSfere > AthomSfere 05/13/2014 at 18:25

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This seems to be a popular find randomly, so I re-posted it to see who else likes it.

RazoE > AthomSfere 05/13/2014 at 18:41

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How about no?

PheeNoIVI > AthomSfere 05/13/2014 at 18:44

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I don't know how I feel about the window delete. Might like it better with those Mustang type grill things there. -Don't know what they're called.

Rico > AthomSfere 05/13/2014 at 18:56

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Remove the pillar and the vents but leave the window and the lines and it looks as clean as ever.

I sat in a special edition FRS at the NYIAS and all I kept thinking was I hope it looked that way on the inside because of the hundreds of people who were touching everything. I was not impressed at all =/

AthomSfere > Rico 05/13/2014 at 19:31

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Remove the B Pillar?

AthomSfere > PheeNoIVI 05/13/2014 at 19:34

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Ah, Mustang Louves or louvres?

I always felt like this was lying, "I am vented" but all it does it add weight. Why not delete the heavy glass and just call it a day? I can see your point from a aesthetics perspective though.

PushToStart > AthomSfere 05/13/2014 at 19:35

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I think it needs the small side window there, but I think it looks nice without the fake vent. The vent never bothered me, but it looks way cleaner without.

Rico > AthomSfere 05/13/2014 at 20:00

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Yeah, just one solid window.

AthomSfere > Rico 05/13/2014 at 20:33

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And your ignoring the requirements for safety, or assuming we can make it work? Just honestly curious.

It would also decrease rigidity.

PheeNoIVI > Rico 05/13/2014 at 21:12

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Yeah purely on aesthetics. I think it looks kind of plain without anything. Useless weight is a no-no lol

Rico > AthomSfere 05/14/2014 at 09:48

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I mean safety aside I was thinking more along the lines of this:

Rico > PheeNoIVI 05/14/2014 at 09:49

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Like this:

DriftDraft > Gatsby's Ghost 02/03/2019 at 17:03

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Before I go test drive a BRZ, what part of the “ NVH” do you mean? Is it only noisy, or does it horribly vibrate as well? Noise I can handle, but vibration nails  my bad back.