Lonnie,
Great questions as always. I love geeking out on most topics I post here, but try not to bore anyone. But if there is interest, who am I to not go into more detail!
Desertnate:
I`d like to hear the story, or at least a "Cliff Notes" version of it!
I was only casually looking after some circumstances led me to realize the car I had at the time needed to go. After a little internet searching, I realized there were no BRZ`s or it`s Toyota twin located within 500 miles of where I live.
Armed with this ammo, I wandered over to my local Toyota dealer to see if ordering was an option. The dealer told me Toyota is not orders, he only had three GR86`s inbound in the next few months and they were all automatics. A quick check also revealed all the inbound inventory to other dealers in my area were all automatics too. Scratch Toyota.
I then went to the Subaru corporate site to look at the BRZ and utilized the "contact me" option just to see what happens. Within 20 minutes (at night even) an internet sales rep texted me and told me they could order a car and have it in 16 weeks. I was game and set up an appointment at the dealer for the following day. The next day I go to the dealer, test drove a previous gen car and proceeded to start the ordering process. However, when the dealership goes to place the order the car they see that Subaru USA has shut off all orders! I find out later, customer orders in two months had already passed total sales from previous years and outstripped production capacity, so they shut off orders for the rest of the year!
At that point, I`m a little defeated and figure it isn`t going to happen or I`ll have to fight nation wide for any car I can find. All that changes when the sales man says, "I actually have a car just like you want on the lot, but we can`t sell it at the moment". Wow. Turns out, this particular dealer supplies all the Subaru`s for the St. Louis Auto Show. Subaru USA send them the cars for the show and after it`s over, they are able to sell the vehicles. This BRZ was an auto show car. At the time it, was still a corporate demo car (but not to be driven) and wouldn`t show up on any listing. However, the dealership allowed me to put a deposit down to lock in the car. I then just waited for the show to end and Subaru USA to transfer ownership of the car to the dealership so they could sell it. The rest is history.
What year is it? How many miles on it?
It`s a 2022, the brand new overhauled model for this model year. I had 12 miles on it when I drove it home.
What made you decide on THIS particular car? Did you try out or look at an thing else before you bought this? So does this Subaru BRZ have an automatic or the manual six-speed transmission? (Ah, yes, all the Captain Obvious questions!)
I decided on this particular car because it was the ONLY one in this entire part of the US. It also was equipped exactly like I wanted and the color I wanted. For 20+ years I wanted a blue car, but could never get my choice of color and options to line up. In the past I gave up color in favor of performance.
I came to the BRZ or GR86 because I was looking for something simple, light, tossable, and inexpensive. My BMW 435 was fast, but it was a snoozefest to drive and really big/heavy at the autocross track and hilly backroads in my area.
I considered a 2019 or newer Miata with the new engine, but it is way to small for use in any regular basis and I prefer the flatter cornering in the BRZ/86 cars. I considered a Mini Cooper S/JCW or another GTI as well, but I`m not a big fan of FWD cars, even those that handle well. They just don`t have the same balance. I also considered a Cayman, but for my price range I would have been in a much older 981 generation car with no warranty and really expensive parts/maintenance. This BRZ is very close in size, weight, and power to that 981 Cayman.
Of course it`s a manual! I`ve never owned an automatic car as my daily driver.
I also assume that your "other" sedans are front-wheel drive, where this vehicle is rear-wheel drive. Not going to say that this is a poor man`s Porsche Cayman because that would offend 981 Cayman S (formerly BudgetPlan 1) and even you. Let`s just call it an "affordable" sports car.
I`ve owned/driven both FWD and RWD cars over the years. My last car was RWD as well. I prefer that layout. Our other car is a "AWD" Toyota SUV, so there isn`t a real comparison.
This car totally bulls-eyes the "affordable sports car" market. It`s only real competitor is the Miata, which is more expensive these days and has less power. The only other distant competitors are the Veloster N, GTI, and Mini Cooper S. Subaru and Toyota freely market it an affordable sports car. Frankly there isn`t anything close any more. The Supra and Z are bigger, heavier, more powerful, more complex and more expensive. Ditto for the current gen Cayman or the Pony cars from Chevy and Ford (or BMW, Merc and Audi if we`re honest)
It won`t hold a candle to the current 718 gen Cayman, and probably not to the 981 gen mostly due to power, but I would put it up against the 987 gen and it would probably be extremely close with a set of wider wheels/tires. mid-engine/RWD does offer amazing balance, but this BRZ platform is pretty well balanced as well.
LOVE that Subaru blue color, by the way. Looks great already for what you have done to it
Thanks, the more lighting conditions I see it in the more I like it. Like I mentioned before I`ve been wanting a blue car for a very long time and this World Rally Blue is an amazing color and suits the car really well. I can`t wait to give it a light polish and a quality coating.
On a completely different note, how are YOU dealing with The Weather Channel`s Landon-named snowstorm happening in the St. Louis area on Thursday, Feb 03, 2022?? It looks like quite the ordeal watching it on TWC.
So they named it? Nice.
It`s a little ugly right now. Yesterday, it alternated between rain/sleet, so last night we had about 2" of sleet with 1" of ice under it. You could play hockey on my driveway last night. It`s been snowing since late last night and we`ve probably got about 5~6 inches snow out there right now. Going to be a fun time shoveling when I get off work in a couple hours.
I`m teleworking and my wife is a teacher who got snow days. We`re just watching the storm pass by.
They really woke the earlier models up. Having said that, I don`t even know if they offer one for the brand new ones. Seems like I read some pretty impressive increases while keeping the car drivable from both Edlebrock and Vortech on earlier versions.
