PW_Plack
Pre-takeoff checklist
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Paul Plack
Worthy of note, the BRZ is the only Subaru sold in the US which is available only in RWD.
New Scion fr-s (Subaru) BRZ
- Thread starter Skyscraper
- Start date
Worthy of note, the BRZ is the only Subaru sold in the US which is available only in RWD.
JBrown243
Pre-takeoff checklist
wait for them to come out with a BRZ STi then get that
One of my wife's friends got a good deal on a Ford Explorer once because while the car was officially "Magenta Mist" the dealer was having a hard time unloading a pink SUV.
Dr. O
Pattern Altitude
Gonna be blunt here (sorry) (not much though)
Only a FOOL buys a NEW car.
You take a $1500 - $3000 (or more, depending) hit to the wallet the instant the front wheels touch the street.
Lots of 18 month to 24 month lease cars out there for sale at a significant discount.
Lots of used cars of various ages.
Hunt for Aunt Agnes, deceased, who's Buick is parked in the garage with 11K miles. You can find one of those every five years and always be driving a low mileage vehicle for a fraction of buying new.
I was a 40 something, working physician before I bought a NEW car - and that was only because a guy totaled my perfectly good, if a bit rusty, 10 year old truck that morning by blowing thru a stop and giving me the ol T-bone routine.
I needed to go to a seminar in another state two days after that and did not have the time to go shopping for the right deal - and was too damned tight, errrr frugal, to rent a car for a couple of weeks while I looked for a used car.
Of course, I drove that car until it fell down over the wheels - had to, or I could never look myself in the mirror again - but it always bothered me that I paid TOOOO much.
I will defend myself that it was model change time and it was the last previous model year left on the showroom floor - and I put the sales manager in a choke hold until I found his bottom dollar.
Am I cheap. Am I tight?
Nope, just frugal, laddie.
Which is why I had the cash money for the Duramax Diesel 2500HD I bought USED with 23 miles on it.
I smile every time I get in and hit the key.
Only a FOOL buys a NEW car.
You take a $1500 - $3000 (or more, depending) hit to the wallet the instant the front wheels touch the street.
Lots of 18 month to 24 month lease cars out there for sale at a significant discount.
Lots of used cars of various ages.
Hunt for Aunt Agnes, deceased, who's Buick is parked in the garage with 11K miles. You can find one of those every five years and always be driving a low mileage vehicle for a fraction of buying new.
I was a 40 something, working physician before I bought a NEW car - and that was only because a guy totaled my perfectly good, if a bit rusty, 10 year old truck that morning by blowing thru a stop and giving me the ol T-bone routine.
I needed to go to a seminar in another state two days after that and did not have the time to go shopping for the right deal - and was too damned tight, errrr frugal, to rent a car for a couple of weeks while I looked for a used car.
Of course, I drove that car until it fell down over the wheels - had to, or I could never look myself in the mirror again - but it always bothered me that I paid TOOOO much.
I will defend myself that it was model change time and it was the last previous model year left on the showroom floor - and I put the sales manager in a choke hold until I found his bottom dollar.
Am I cheap. Am I tight?
Nope, just frugal, laddie.
Which is why I had the cash money for the Duramax Diesel 2500HD I bought USED with 23 miles on it.
I smile every time I get in and hit the key.
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That is why I tested a whole slew of sporty cars before buying:
Toyota/Subie BRZ twins
BMW 335i
Mercedes C350 coupe
Nissan Z
Mazda Miata
Focus ST
VW GTI
Mustang GT 5.0
I'm not a fan of GM vehicles and thus did not test Camaro and Corvette.
Of the cars listed, three were in a class above the rest, the BMW, Mercedes, and Mustang. I went back and drove these three back to back, and I could find no earthly reason to spend the extra on the Germans. Interiors are very simialar, braking and handling similar, and the Mustang actually far exceeds these two in total performance. To achieve Mustang levels of performance in the Germans one would have to step up to the M3 and AMG versions of these cars. Again, I see no earthly reason to spend double for the same performance. And it's not that I don't know or appreciate German cars, I've owned two VW, a BMW, three Mercedes, and presently cruise a nice E class turbodiesel as our family vehicle.
The Mustang was the most fun of any of them, and that was my goal, a fun car.
zaitcev
En-Route
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Pete Zaitcev
There's no accounting for taste. I looked at Mustang and while the current one is a huge leap in performance over SN95, it's also plain huge. It was uncomfortable in it everywhere outside a track.
The real fail of BRZ for me is that it's a 2-seater. Bunta Fujiwara could carry a vat of tofu in the classic 86, but what about the modern one? This is where a fail-wheel-drive like Fiesta wins. The paradox is, if one can afford a second car, he/she probably can step right over the Toyobaru. If not, well... Otherwise it's a sublime car for anyone not intoxicated on power.
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That's a little over the top, what do you drive? I'm sure I can find something distasteful about your present ride. All cars are a tradeoff.
My only comfort issue in the Mustang, funny you should call it huge, is that I find it a bit small. Fortunately the front seats are disproportionately large for the car's size so it's not a problem for anyone in the front.
After filtering by price and features I'd pretty much come down to a Subaru WRX or the Mustang. Test drove the WRX... it felt too much like a small appliancemobile for something that's supposed to be fun to drive. Never really got the hang of it's clutch/gearbox. I could tell it had some speed and power but when it would accelerate you just didn't feel it- typical high-rev 4cyl without enough low-end torque. The instrument cluster just bugged me... big tachometer up front and center with the speedo off to the side just didn't feel right. The big draw to the WRX for me was it's AWD capability which with our winters would be a plus, but I was worried about the problem I'd seen in our Outback and many other AWD vehicles. You have grip and control and you feel very confident on a slippery road... right up until it lets go and man does it let go. I had visions of myself in a ditch within the first month of winter. Oh I know a Mustang is worse but that's kind of the point- I'm not actually going to be stupid enough to drive it in snow when I have a perfectly good 4x4 pickup. But overall the problem with the WRX is when I was done I didn't feel like I'd driven a fun car.. more like a slightly peppier small appliance sedan.
The Mustang on the other hand actually looks and feels the part. It has low-end torque that properly pins you back in your seat. The clutch feel is perfect, the gearbox is a tad clunky but you don't have to shift too much with all that torque so it's less of an issue. You've got the nice big seats up front and that retro dash and big hood up front so you feel like you're in a real car not an appliance. Probably the biggest thing is if you take this car down a lesser traveled highway late at night and put on some AC/DC everything is just... right. And that's a big thing, most of us who buy cars like this are not trying to one-up anyone on a race track, nor are we trying to choose something practical. It's about the feeling it gives you when you're driving it and on that count the Mustang wins.
The Mustang's drawbacks...
The back seat. Unless you're transporting children or very small persons they're really just a place to stick a grocery bag or something.
People want to race you at stop lights... and it's almost always some kid driving some old pile that isn't even remotely in the same class. Usually people with actual nice/fast cars that would be a threat are trying to avoid eye contact because they have no interest in illegal street races.
People try to stop you in parking lots and talk to you about your car. I'm flattered, really but this is the bazillionth time this has happened and I'm on my way somewhere. Yeah, I know it's cool... I bought it.
You need to watch your speedometer or use your cruise control dilligently. In 6th gear on the highway just a little pressure on the accelerator will bring you up from 70 to 80 or 90 faster than you'd think... and the noise/road feel doesn't really change. On the plus side if you want to pass someone the only reason to downshift into 5th is if you want to really make a point.
In traffic it's hard to see around larger/taller vehicles which unfortunately is most of them.
The soundproofing is such that you don't hear the tire chirping you're making at every intersection until you put the windows down.
I don't know I'm reaching at this point... the stupid fake plastic gas cap on the trunklid is tacky.
After filtering by price and features I'd pretty much come down to a Subaru WRX or the Mustang. Test drove the WRX... it felt too much like a small appliancemobile for something that's supposed to be fun to drive. Never really got the hang of it's clutch/gearbox. I could tell it had some speed and power but when it would accelerate you just didn't feel it- typical high-rev 4cyl without enough low-end torque. The instrument cluster just bugged me... big tachometer up front and center with the speedo off to the side just didn't feel right. The big draw to the WRX for me was it's AWD capability which with our winters would be a plus, but I was worried about the problem I'd seen in our Outback and many other AWD vehicles. You have grip and control and you feel very confident on a slippery road... right up until it lets go and man does it let go. I had visions of myself in a ditch within the first month of winter. Oh I know a Mustang is worse but that's kind of the point- I'm not actually going to be stupid enough to drive it in snow when I have a perfectly good 4x4 pickup. But overall the problem with the WRX is when I was done I didn't feel like I'd driven a fun car.. more like a slightly peppier small appliance sedan.
The Mustang on the other hand actually looks and feels the part. It has low-end torque that properly pins you back in your seat. The clutch feel is perfect, the gearbox is a tad clunky but you don't have to shift too much with all that torque so it's less of an issue. You've got the nice big seats up front and that retro dash and big hood up front so you feel like you're in a real car not an appliance. Probably the biggest thing is if you take this car down a lesser traveled highway late at night and put on some AC/DC everything is just... right. And that's a big thing, most of us who buy cars like this are not trying to one-up anyone on a race track, nor are we trying to choose something practical. It's about the feeling it gives you when you're driving it and on that count the Mustang wins.
The Mustang's drawbacks...
The back seat. Unless you're transporting children or very small persons they're really just a place to stick a grocery bag or something.
People want to race you at stop lights... and it's almost always some kid driving some old pile that isn't even remotely in the same class. Usually people with actual nice/fast cars that would be a threat are trying to avoid eye contact because they have no interest in illegal street races.
People try to stop you in parking lots and talk to you about your car. I'm flattered, really but this is the bazillionth time this has happened and I'm on my way somewhere. Yeah, I know it's cool... I bought it.
You need to watch your speedometer or use your cruise control dilligently. In 6th gear on the highway just a little pressure on the accelerator will bring you up from 70 to 80 or 90 faster than you'd think... and the noise/road feel doesn't really change. On the plus side if you want to pass someone the only reason to downshift into 5th is if you want to really make a point.
In traffic it's hard to see around larger/taller vehicles which unfortunately is most of them.
The soundproofing is such that you don't hear the tire chirping you're making at every intersection until you put the windows down.
I don't know I'm reaching at this point... the stupid fake plastic gas cap on the trunklid is tacky.
Skyscraper
Cleared for Takeoff
I used to really value having four seats and four doors until I realized that pretty much all my backseats were in perfect condition. No kids here and it's almost always just the girl in the passenger and me in the drivers. Sure a little more cargo room is nice but I really do prefer to feel like I'm wearing the car. And I don't need tons of power, just a nice amount of zing and I'm perfectly happy. The FRS/BRZ is not super fast but it's certainly not slow either.