Fixing the worst part of the BRZ

"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures) 01/09/2020 at 15:13 • Filed to: None

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I’ve now had my BRZ for 15 months, and for the most part I absolutely love it. There is however one thing about the car that I found myself endlessly annoyed by on day 1 and hate every bit as much more than a year later. Is it the Prius tires? The power? The engine noise pumped into the cabin? Nope, it’s this motherfucker right here.

The factory stereo unit in the BRZ is far and away the worst modern era unit I’ve ever used. The lag is abysmal, the dials are vague, the call menu is mediocre at best, but the real hell comes when you connect it to a phone, either via bluetooth or USB.

Starting with the simplest of tasks: playing music. Play music stored on your phone and it’s fine. Track info shows up on the screen along with cover art (if you have the cover art in your library), just as you’d expect. Pandora is similar, though it would crash on me every third or fourth use. Use Spotify or another audio player though and it all goes to hell. The display will show the track info for the first track you play, but won’t change when the track changes. You can be three hours into a drive and the display will still be showing that first song it played.

Next there’s Starlink, Subaru’s signature interface. On their more robust cars with the extra safety features and cameras and such this is probably pretty good. The BRZ though got a stripped down version which basically looks and feels like a back alley bootleg of Apple Carplay (it should go without saying at this point that the unit doesn’t have actual Carplay or Android Auto). Starlink is a handful of apps; news, weather, some no-name music apps, a concert app, and Yelp, and they’re all pure garbage. Go into News and it looks like an early 2000s high school student HTML project. Go into weather and you get the same quality graphics and your only weather location options are your current location plus a selection of major cities. If you’re headed anywhere else you’re SOL on knowing what the weather’s like. All the apps have an average lag time of 5-10 seconds between every single command/selection given (yes, I timed it), and most don’t work at all unless the car is stationary. This is good and reasonable from a safety standpoint, but literally no one sitting stationary is going to choose to use this ugly laggy mess over the smartphone connected to the car to provide the ugly laggy mess with internet connectivity in the first place.

And then there’s the piece de resistance. The be all end all reason I knew from my very first road trip that I needed to replace this turd of a head unit. When you listen to a podcast or an audiobook on an iPhone (and perhaps on an Android as well, I have no experience with one so can’t compare) and have navigation going the phone will pause the book/podcast when giving nav instructions so you don’t have the two talking over each other and miss something. This makes total sense. However, when the phone pauses the audio program the stereo mutes itself and won’t unmute until the audio program resumes. This means you completely miss the navigation instruction and if you weren’t looking at the screen of your phone (which you’re not supposed to be doing in the first place, this is the whole point of spoken instructions) you miss your turn/exit/whatever. Whoever thought this was acceptable needs to be fired. Out of a cannon.

I could go on listing the many other frustrations and issues with the radio (like the fact that there’s no way to turn the screen off, even when the system is turned off), but that was the big one that started the replacement countdown timer. I’d originally intended to keep the car completely stock until it was paid off, but that stereo made itself my one exception.

While I knew I wanted to replace the unit, it took a while for the opportunity to actually do it to present itself. Other issues kept taking my time and money (I had to replace both my phone and my laptop last year, and I’m one of those suckers using overpriced iFruit), and as the year approached the end I was still swearing my way through trips with the factory unit. Then Christmas brought a surprise.

Pioneer’s AVH-1440NEX. Not new or top of the line by any means, but it has decent graphics and all the features I wanted. Plus Pioneer units are by far the easiest to install in Subarus. Autoharnesshouse.com offers a full plug and play setup for Pioneer units so no cutting/splicing/soldering/etc is required.

I spent an afternoon searching through the forums to see what I would need and what issues people had encountered, then placed orders for the harness and some dash trim (more on that in a bit). The harness was the first to arrive, and as promised it made installation shockingly easy.

Pictured: the factory head unit surrounded by the fake carbon fiber trim. I forgot to take a “before” photo

First, the disassembly of the car to do the installation. I had to remove the fake carbon fiber dash trim from the dashboard to access the factory head unit, then remove the glove box, A-pillar trim, and pull down the headliner to install the mic in the factory position (not the easiest spot to locate it, but I wanted the install to be as clean and unnoticeable as possible). Only two pieces in this process require tools, the sun visors, which need to be removed in order to pull down the head liner, and the stereo head unit itself. Everything else can be pulled off by hand without much difficulty. (A note to anyone attempting anything similar, the plastic clips that hold the sun visor in place have push tabs on the front and back. These can easily be pressed in with a small hard object - I used my smallest allen key. If you try to remove these clips without pressing the tabs you’ll likely break them).

Next step was the wiring, and as stated the harness made it easy. The complete harness kit ($100) came with three parts, the main harness which provided all the power/functionality/back up camera input/audio output/etc (that’s the harness hanging down in the photo), an adapter for the AM/FM antenna, and an adapter to retain connectivity through the factory USB port at the base of the center console. I was particularly happy about that last one since it means I don’t have an iPhone/USB cable hanging out of the dashboard/glovebox all the time that I wouldn’t be able to remove without taking the dashboard apart. This way I can easily swap between phones/operating systems or just remove all cables and have the clean look back.

The hardest part of the installation was honestly running the mic up the A-pillar and securing the mic and wire in a position that wouldn’t shake the mic or cable around too much. Everything else was done inside five minutes. A quick power up showed everything was up and running properly.

Putting the carbon fiber trim back on demonstrated the main cosmetic issue with changing out the factory unit. While the factory unit is technically a DDIN, the face of the unit is wider than a standard DDIN. Furthermore, the unit isn’t a rectangle but a trapezoid, wider at the top. This means a straight head unit swap results in massive panel gaps.

Unacceptable. I’d known about this in advance, so I’d ordered two trim pieces to help solve the problem. The first came the day after the wiring harness, a plastic rectangular surround piece meant to fill in the difference between a standard aftermarket DDIN unit and your typical rectangular Toyota factory unit. The piece I ordered was from Metra and, simply put, it’s kinda crap. The plastic is flimsy and glossy piano black (hello, finger smudges) and while the vertical opening is correct the width is still about 6 mm wider than the unit. Even worse, instead of Metra having a different kit for different cars and sending you the correct one for your car, they just have a single kit which includes every bracket for every car.

Of the ten pieces of plastic in this photo seven went straight into the trash. None of it was even recyclable. Furthermore I had to spend a better part of a half hour breaking the 20 incorrect tabs off each of the two brackets I actually did need, then spend even more time cutting the bracket down to fit. So much needless waste. (I’ve since bought a second trim bracket from Scosche, which I’ll be trying for comparison. More on that when it arrives.)

With the plastic trim piece installed this is how the unit looked. Much better than it was, but still a noticeable gap.

Scosche does offer a trapezoidal DDIN trim kit that would (supposedly) take care of this issue, but I opted for a different solution. In some other countries the car comes with a standard rectangular head unit, akin to the pre-2o16 U.S. market BRZ. In these countries instead of the two-piece fake carbon fiber dash trim of the 2016, or the two-piece black-with-red-stitching of the 2017+ (which also suffers from the trapezoid head unit), cars come with a single piece black-with-red-stitching trim piece. This to me looks much better than the carbon fiber since it matches the seats, shifter, handbrake, door trim, etc. Despite this not being a USDM item, you can still order it direct from Subaru in the States (part number 66077CA201). Prices vary by as much as $50 on these. MSRP is $164, and most of my area dealers were within $15-20 of that, but a bit of shopping around found it as low as $113.

The Subaru dash trim came the day after the Metra bracket. A quick tug on the factory trim and a quick pop in of the new one and I had the swap completed in under three minutes. Fitment still isn’t perfect, but it’s a massive improvement over the trapezoid and does overall suit the interior better.

I’m going to keep toying with trim brackets until I find one that does a satisfactory job sealing the panel gap, but overall I’m thrilled with the swap, both in terms of functionality and appearance. I feel like the new head unit isn’t providing as much bass/deep tones as the factory unit (when I have to pull it out to install the new brackets I’ll plug the old unit back in to test this), and the FM signal isn’t as good as it was, but otherwise the unit is so much better than what I had and absolutely worth the effort.

UPDATE: The reduced bass and FM signal issues were the result of a loose connection. Fixed the connection and both are now fantastic. I also received the dash trim kit from Scosche, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 15:23

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What was your total spend on this upgrade ? Is this a 2019 car? Are there lower trim levels that don’t force you to have Space Shuttle dashboard? And most importantly, will this car drift?

Thank you.

EL_ULY > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 15:24

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That  trim is way radder. So odd the fitment was sort of an issue with the unit. Glad it was updated because a lagging screen is mega annoying.

Tripper > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 15:37

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That’s a nice setup. Really cool that you can get that dash piece. A good car stereo shop should be able to make trim piece for reasonable money if you want it to be perfect.

412GTI > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 15:38

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That’ll be a way nicer upgrade. Funny ever since having CarPlay I usually mute the direction voice and just go on the direction on my screen since it’s more inline with my vision. 

gin-san - shitpost specialist > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 16:00

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It’s such an odd issue but I’m glad you got it sorted, mostly.

I guess the interface on the new Pioneer unit is Carplay? I’ve never seen it before but it looks like a simplified iOS. Hopefully this treats you a lot better, no car interface in 2019 should lag like a first gen Samsung phone.

MonkeePuzzle > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 16:12

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I’d have been tempted to cut the buttons off the side of the stock radio and mount them to fill the cap. Some plastic fill and the gap issue would be resolved. Of course you’d have two rows of buttons that do nothing. 

CB > MonkeePuzzle 01/09/2020 at 16:22

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Then you put fake labels on them: oil slicks, ejector seat, drift mode, et cetera.

Dusty Ventures > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/09/2020 at 16:29

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Car is a 2016. The BRZ finally got an updated unit with CarPlay/Android Auto in 2018 (in the higher “Limited” trim only). In 2016 both trim levels had the stereo unit and dash mine came with.

As for price, Pioneer lists the 1440NEX head unit at $350. Wiring harness cost $100, replacement dash trim $115, and the Metra bracket around the new head unit was $30. Since the head unit was a gift I paid $245 total, but including the head unit this would be $595. Obviously that price could go up and down depending on head unit, but since Auto Harness House seems to only make full plug and play kits for Pioneer units I’d recommend staying within that brand.

And yes, it drifts very well.

Dusty Ventures > gin-san - shitpost specialist 01/09/2020 at 16:39

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Yep, that’s CarPlay on the display, and it basically is a simplified iOS. Provides access to certain apps (basically navigation, audio/media, and some messaging apps) via the unit (to be clear it speaks text messages and will type out dictated responses, you can’t read or type them on the screen for safety reasons).

Here’s a super basic runthrough of the unit. This one’s the 1550 not the 1440 but it’s pretty much the same.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 16:49

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Thank you for all of that! That’s a big project. I hope you enjoy the fruits of your labor. All of that dashboard stuff makes me nervous; looks like yours turned out very well.

The newest, fanciest car in my fleet of 6 or 7 vehicles is a tossup between the 2012 Versa and the 2011 Mazda 3, which is a stone cold base model with a 5sp manual. Love that car, but harsh ride, oversteer and LOTS OF ROAD NOISE. But still fun to drive and I only gave $4k for it. The Versa is surprisingly nice to drive. My 18-year-old daughter destroys it bit by bit drives the Versa and each time I get in it and drive, I’m surprised anew by how comfortable it is.

Last summer, I rented a 2018 GMC Canyon and that thing drove like a dreamboat and it had a head unit with all that fancy-schmancy stuff and it worked very well and I enjoyed using it. But I can’t see spending the kind of money it would require to own such a car.

My nephew-in-law had a BRZ that I never got a chance to wring out before he traded it in.

Great call voting in Stef as a new moderator. Do we get to trade in — trade out? — one of the old mods in exchange?

I’ve made some stickers. News at eleven.

TRivet > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 16:58

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Great article! I have a 2015 WRX, so I understand your issues with the factory unit. I miss my Pioneer head unit from my Jeep. The head unit was a 2009 and it was STILL much better than the 2015 Subaru factory stereo.

Damn......off to Crutchfie l d to window shop......

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 17:08

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It still bugs me that manufactures stopped making radios in DIN standard sizes. 

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/09/2020 at 17:37

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What’s this about OVERSTEER, a harsh ride and lots of road noise from the 2011 Mazda 3? Those are all qualities I am interested in especially if the harsh ride means a stiff suspension. Is there anything to be said about steering feedback/weight? If you could tell me more it would be super appreciated 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) 01/09/2020 at 17:56

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I’m not sure if OVERSTEER is the word, or TWITCHY. It has decent power for a small Japanese car and very good brakes, with rear discs even on the base model. The suspension is what I would call “taught.” If you lived close by, I’d say come over and drive it! I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area...

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 18:10

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They must have changed the headunit hardware between 2016 and 2017. The unit in my Dad’s BRZ looks like the one you had but doesn’t exhibit the lag yours did.

Dusty Ventures > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 01/09/2020 at 18:12

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Ever try using a podcast/audiobook and waze simultaneously? I’m curious if they fixed the muting issue as well

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 18:54

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My dad’s old school, he just uses the head unit for music over bluetooth or USB and occasionally phone calls. The 2017 doesn’t even have GPS n avigation .

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 19:45

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I’d rate it as second worst, on account of it’s a relatively cheap fix. Seatbacks which don’t re member where they were when you flip them forward are the worst, beca u se they make the back seats junk storage area  basically useless and can’t be fixed short of replacing the seats, which is (a) expensive and (b) a waste of otherwise excellent seats. Or have they fixed that in more recent models? Mine’s a 2013.

i86hotdogs > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 20:05

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I envy you for not having to run a dedicated power wire for the new unit. I went from the bone stock audio system in the transit connect (radio, aux jack, clock...that it) , to an amplified CD player with bluetooth, usb, phone calling and all the goodies (no screen, though). Since there was quite a bump in power, I had to run a dedicated power line from the unit directly to the battery. It wasn’t impossible, but something I did not anticipate.

I do all my electronic shopping at Crutchfield. They typically throw in the installation brackets and harness for free or severely discounted if you buy a head unit. They also can assist you step by step over the phone.

theapexfiles > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 20:06

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Subaru of Japan has an alternative to the metra crap. Never used it but it's supposed to be way better. Check japanparts.com

Dusty Ventures > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 01/09/2020 at 20:07

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16 doesn’t have nav either, 2015 was the last year that was an option

Lukewarm waters > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 20:34

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Had to go with the Sony xav-5000 for the capacitive touch screen and Android Auto

But I was lazy and had the guys at Fry's install it for me 700 out the door on my 2013 XV Crosstrek

Rallywagon > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 20:48

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This was exactly how I felt about my 2017 head unit. I couldn't even get the Starlink to work at all and the navigation muting when pausing music was maddening. I still loved that car unconditionally but sadly had to sell it due to severe spinal problems that were exacerbated by the seating position. Your new setup looks great and I hope the pioneer serves you well 

Dusty Ventures > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 01/09/2020 at 21:18

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Same seats. Doesn’t really bother me just because it’s so rare that I need to go behind them

feather-throttle-not-hair > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 21:29

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That looks pretty good. I’ve heard the head unit on those were crap, but i’ve never seen it elaborated. Sheesh!

M > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 01/09/2020 at 22:19

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I can’t stand that either. I also can’t remember another car that suffers from this design idea.

What really annoys me about this car is the relative cheapness of everything. I understand the economies of scale and all that, but BRZ buyers are going to be cross shopping it with other, much nicer cars. Granted, it’s going to have better driving characteristics than almost all of them , it's just not as nicely built as the rest though

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > M 01/09/2020 at 23:27

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I don’t find much of it “cheap” as such. They’ve sacrificed solidity for lightness, sure, and it’s built to a price point. But what’s there is well built - mine’s been totally reliable and is still rattlefree after 6 years - and the driver touchpoints are nicely tactile and well thought out: it’s not like you r  typical “economy car” in that res pect.

What I don’t like is that they seem to have made an active effort to disrespect the “ not driving focussed but everyday useful” features like the stereo, seatback controls, cupholders, trip computer and even speedo (the ana log dial’s basically useless). It’s so consistent it almost seems like a design philosophy decisi on: “ we don’t want this to be a DD so we’re goi ng to fill it full of niggles if you use it as one”.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Dusty Ventures 01/09/2020 at 23:44

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I’m used to it now, but it used to drive me insane in the early days of having the car beca u se my previous vehicles had got me into the habit of tossing stuff in the back seat rather than using the trunk.

SmugAardvark > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 03:25

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Looks like a good install though!

I actually replaced the OEM head unit in my C5 on Tuesday, mostly because I wanted Bluetooth and also because I don’t own any cassette tapes these days. The factory Bose system GM used kind of sucks, in that each speaker has it’s own amplifier.

Fortunately, the aftermarket has solved that with various harnesses and adapters. Unfortunately that even when using one of these adapters, the sound comes out a little flat and muddy, even after tweaking the EQ settings in all conceivable manner.

So my next step will be to replace all the OEM speakers with aftermarket ones. The sooner I can de-Bose this car, the better.

Stef Schrader > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 03:46

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Huh, the 86 actually had a different unit , but it was terribad, too. The Toyobaru is so good otherwise...why? Why must they taunt us like this? Why???

I also noticed it came with a (terribad, as it’s worth noting again) rectangular unit. If you could undo the 86 embroidery to the side, would this actually work in a BRZ with a head unit swap? ( Strictly hypothetical; the non-USDM BRZ dash trim actually looks better in this case .)

Gernie B > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 07:52

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17 BRZ here. Nice article. I agree completely. This is the worst stock head unit of a modern car. I don’t even get the cover art of mp3s thru Bluetooth. Just the square with a music note in it. I was surprised when you said yours did. I wrote to subaru and they said they used that screen from the Spotify template but the cover art won’t come thru.

What’s worse is if you get the factory optional subwoofer, there’s no gain control so it’s set so loud it rattles your trunk with no way to turn it down other than to use the fader to throw most of the sound to the rear speakers. (it works off the front channel). I’ve found subaru sells a $15 wire part that plugs in line between the sub and head and cuts the volume by half. I’ve ordered it but have not r ecieved it yet.

Another annoying thing is similar to your issue only w Bluetooth, (I never used Spotify) where the id3 tags of the music only reads the first instance of a song on your phone. So for instance, if you have a live album by a band but have the studio album with the same songs on it, it will display the song that’s playing but from the wrong album. It also happens when 2 band have songs with he same name. The song will be correct but the band and album are wrong.

When my podcasts stop and you get only the last 2 words of the navigation directions is the most frustrating thing ever.

I actually paid the $30 for a map subscription thru Magellan, and used it once in 3 years so far . The built in maps are a joke. And you can’t set it while you’re moving. Forget about listening to what you want if you’re using it. Google maps thru Bluetooth work way better, but don’t be listening to podcasts while you’re using it. Music works fine. It drops the volume and speaks over it. Podcasts, not so much.

I too am looking to replace this and I’ve heard that pioneer and Kenwood have great units for this car. I’ve also looked at Chinese Android units like J oying that offer a total Android interface that can run Android apps and has screen sharing and wifi connectivity.

Crutchfield has the trapezoidal dash adapters you seek, by the way.

What did you do for the backup camera? I’ve read there’s a voltage converter you need so it will work w aftermarket stereos, and what did you use for steering wheel control adapters?

Thanks for the article. It's nice to know I'm not alone in my frustration with buying a brand new $30k car w such a piece of crap infotainment unit. 

Steve > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 08:57

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The OE head unit is the bane of my existence in my WRX. It makes me feel better that someone else feels the same way. I just haven’t gotten around to changing yet.

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/10/2020 at 08:58

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I appreciate the offer but I may be a little far from you. Normally I’m in SW Ontario, but today I’m near Cancun!!! (I can not recommend Puerto Morelos more).

You’ve changed my mind about that gen of Mazda 3, I’ll give one a shot while I’m out car shopping. It sounds like all the stuff I liked about my EK civics! Through roundabouts on decent tires the rear end would let loose before the front, made me realize FWD can be VERY fun 

Dusty Ventures > Gernie B 01/10/2020 at 09:20

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The full harness kit from Auto Harness Horse includes the voltage converter in the harness. My 2016 didn’t come with steering wheel controls, but there’s a maestro kit that can take care of that. If you contact AHH they can walk you through what you need, their communication is top notch.

And yeah, I found the trapezoid brackets, but I like the look of the newer panel way better

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) 01/10/2020 at 11:00

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Both the 3 and the Versa are surprisingly nice in their own ways. The 3 has a nice shifter...

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 11:01

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I’m just here to say I know that bridge and I love the UP. I need to plan a trip this summer since it’s been a couple years since I’ve been there.

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/10/2020 at 11:28

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Nice shifter is another plus, I HATED the one in the Saturn Ions I had. Didn’t realize a manual could be that bad. I’m not a fan of the super light no feedback steering of the Versa

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) 01/10/2020 at 11:29

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The Versa steering is electric...

The worst shifter I ever experienced was in a Honda Fit. Worst. Ever.

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/10/2020 at 12:45

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What how why it’s a Honda are you sure something wasn’t broken? That’s why the clutch on my first Saturn Ion felt weird. And yes yeah I know that’s why it sucks. EPS is the bane of my existence

Ra's Al Ghul > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 13:26

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All these after market head units and not one of them uses the stock mic. Why?

Dusty Ventures > Ra's Al Ghul 01/10/2020 at 13:39

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Different amperage iirc

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) 01/10/2020 at 13:50

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#RevHang

25233guyver > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 15:04

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I was happy and in agreement with everythinguntil this effectively became an advertisement.  https://workshoptwelve.com/frs-brz-86/

arl > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 15:10

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Good for you - that’s a lot of work. Doing electrical work in my car is one thing I don’t thin k I’ll ever do. God knows what I’d screw up.

I loved Car Play in my Ford until last week. One of them (not sur e which one, but I suspect Ford, ) got an update that disables scrolling in any app. Playing Spotify and want to look through your playlists? Nope! Fuck you! Want to look through your contacts and make a phone call? Nope! Fuck you! Want to browse your audio books in Audible? Nope! Fuck you!

I think this is Ford thing. I’ve heard of certain auto manufacturers locking down Car Play so you can’t scroll - all in the name of safety (or more likely, liability. Fucking lawyers).

So what do we do? Drag out the phone, unlock it, scroll anyway. So much for a safer Car Play interface!

M > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 01/10/2020 at 19:29

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I agree, I didn’t mean that it feels like a cheap car, but relatively. I was cross shopping with the 1 and 2 series and Miatas . Compared to even the most base 2er, it definitely feels cheap and lacking a lot of common features. And I mean features commonly found on a mid level Corolla .

In the end, the awesome drive with more usable space and comfort than the Miata is why I chose it for my DD. On the flipside, after years of BMWs, Minis and fully loaded Toyotas, I’m starting to miss a lot of the equipment that I’ve gotten used to throughout my entire driving life.

If I'm lucky enough, my next car will be a Cayman

Dusty Ventures > arl 01/10/2020 at 19:32

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I don't trust myself doing electrical work either, which is why the harness kit was a godsend. The extent of the electrical work I did was connecting 7 uniquely shaped plugs that would be impossible to get wrong

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/10/2020 at 19:49

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It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes going from an old car with NO rev hang to something modern. It really is the little things that matter. I almost wish a Volvo 240 wasn’t my first manual car 

arl > Dusty Ventures 01/10/2020 at 20:07

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Makes sense. Sounds like the upgrade was worth it.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) 01/10/2020 at 20:08

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Rev hang isn't an issue in the 3.

Dusty Ventures > theapexfiles 01/10/2020 at 23:36

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Found it. If I don’t like the Scosche I’ll try that one next

Brickfoot Ginger > Dusty Ventures 01/11/2020 at 10:11

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Nice pic.  Are you in Houghton?

Dusty Ventures > Brickfoot Ginger 01/11/2020 at 14:33

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No, I just visit it every October

Brickfoot Ginger > Dusty Ventures 01/11/2020 at 21:29

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If you make it to Copper Harbor, swing by Brickside Brewery and ask for
Jason.  It would be cool to meet, first beer is on me.

Ra's Al Ghul > Dusty Ventures 01/15/2020 at 11:39

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You do know that if you push down on the volume button on the stock radio for like 3 - 5 seconds the display turns off and the audio still works, right?

Dusty Ventures > Ra's Al Ghul 01/15/2020 at 14:04

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That’s on the older system, doesn't work on the 2016+ unit.  Doing that on mine would turn the audio off and the screen would go to a dim (but still on) blue with the text “audio off” (or something to that effect. Can't remember exact wording)