Took the new Subaru BRZ for a 45 minute spin the other morning.
ON MY OWN!!
Very fun car to drive!

Handling / cornering - 11 out of 10. So tight and precise through any corner or bend.

Power - it's actually got just a nice amount of power. Of course many people want more power, but it gets going pretty quick... good to very good acceleration, without the sort of power that will chew up your tyres in 10,000km or less.

Cabin - quite well finished... except the clock is crap! It looks about 15 years old!
Should have spent $25 on a nice clock, like a smart phone appearance.

You wouldn't want to be 6'2 or taller. A driver at 6'2 would be about the limit... I'm 6'0 and it was fine.

Vision in your blind spots is a bit average.

Back seats are actually very dressy parcel shelf! Where I had the drivers seat positions, there was literally zero leg room in the back. Drivers seat was pretty much touching the rear seats!! Logical progression is into the WRX for an extra $5k...

Centre Console - the bone on the outside top of my left calf... bone on the side of the knee... well it rested right on a hard edge on the console. I would literally want to stick a "padding disc" in there...

Would I buy one? - I would probably go the Rex instead. But my wife would go the BRZ.

Out of 10 Ratings;
As a second car, or a car for the wife - 9/10
Single persons car - 9/10
Value - 9.5
Handling - 10
Power - 7.5
Gearbox - 7.5
Interior - 9
Exterior - 9
Turning Circle - 9 or 10.

I can see why the Toyota86/SubyBRZ took out car of the year... great fun car.

Gearbox - short gear stick, and tight cluster in the box. Maybe too tight.

I've picked out a half dozen slight negatives, above....

Huge Positives... where do you start...
1 - Fairly easy to get a little tyre screech when you try... which is pretty cool.
2 - I probably didn't get it past 4th gear. 3rd and 4th are so much fun... Awesome range of power and speed in 3rd and 4th... probably gets you from 20km/h through to 110km/hr... If I was on the Great Ocean Road, I would imagine that I would just be in 4th for most of the time... occasional shift down to 3rd... and less occasional use of 2nd or 5th... Keeping in ming that it is a 6 speed box (I think). 6th would be Highway cruise mode.
3 - finish quality and looks, inside & out... awesome...
4 - suspension... I think the engineers have nailed it... Really firm and tight, and precise handling... yet at the same time when you hit a sharper bump or a speed hump, it's not bone jarring either... Very comfortable...

I didn't even pop the hood!

Timing is everything - or not.

Just a few days after Toyota's 86 sports wins a major New Zealand motoring title, Subaru has launched its identical car, the BRZ. This Subaru BRZ offers all the motoring excellence that made its sibling, the Toyota 86, the Motoring Writers Guild New Zealand Car of the Year. As everyone probably knows, the 86/BRZ is the result of a collaborative effort between Toyota and Subaru.
The car was engineered by Subaru staff on an Impreza platform, and the engine under the bonnet is a development of Subaru's latest boxer engine. And both vehicles are built at Subaru's Gunma plant near Tokyo.

Toyota provided the transmissions for the car, and it also provided the direct fuel-injection system that has been of major assistance in making the engine such a great unit. And the motoring giant also provided the larger portion of the finance for the project.

Overall, it has obviously been a very good joint project. But the trouble with such initiatives is that one marque has to launch its car before the other - and in the case of this great little rear-driven sports car, it was the Toyota 86.

Toyota New Zealand was able to launch the vehicle in substantial numbers, too. In fact, there were enough around to sell a lot to waiting customers, plus get supplies out quick-smart for all the motoring press to drive in time for them to vote it this year's Car of the Year.

And Subaru New Zealand? It had to sit and watch as the 86 grabbed all the initial limelight, then had to accept the fact that its first shipment of cars for sale this month comprised just 12 cars and that only another 17 will be coming by April next year.

Such is the limited supply of the BRZ, that the company expects to receive no more than 40 of the cars over the whole of 2013.

landyacht said...
i didnt realze it was also a subi. Ive only seen one with a toyota badge.
why would you release a car with 2 brandnames on the same car.
they look great ,but why didnt they put the AWD set up from the wrx in it instead of cheaping out with just RWD.
I get the feeling that the designers and engineers had their balls cut out by accountants

Releasing a rebadged cars has been going on for years.....
Nissan Patrol - Ford Mavrick
Toyota Lexen - Holden Commodore
Ford Telstar - Mazda 626
Mazada 323 - Ford Laser and I think nissin shared this one as well
Toyota Landcruiser Sahara - Lexus top of the range 4wd
Toyota Camry - Holden Apollo
I think some Toyota Corollas had holden engines for a while

Joint projects, making consumers think they have more choice, marketing (people who buy a top of the range lexus don't want a Toyota badge) and saving costs. At the end of the day, there are only a few car manufactures out there. Most are actually the same company.

The thing that puzzles me if correct:
Toyota 86 - $29,990, Subaru BRZ - 37,990

but you cant put your windsurfer in the back so why bother!

Regarding the "badge engineering" of the aussie/jap cars like:
commodore/ lexcen,
telstar/ 626
laser/ 323
apollo/ camry
barina/ swift
ford P.O.S. capri convertible/ mazda pocket rocket (shared the same body)
and others,

This was primarily a tax reducing scheme for the benefit of the Jap. companies.
By purchasing a bulk lot of Aussie manufactured vehicles and rebadging with Jap. names and a few minor cosmetic changes, the Jap. companies could then claim Aussie content which then offsetted against the Japanese manufactured vehicles.
This dramatically reduced the amount of import duty and taxes (or whatever you call it) that our government levies on imported vehicles.

Holden and Ford didnt complain as they were selling bulk lots of cars at wholesale prices- which didnt bother thier profit margin at all.

The Holden "starfire" 4 cylinder motor was just a cut down holden 6 cylinder.
The Holden version was a piece of junk.
The Toyota company bought the rights to manufacture the engine- they got it working much better than our mob could- but it was still a dog.
I suspect it was another tax reducing scheme that Toyota tried (aussie content)

Stephen

Ian K said...

if you can get a bicycle inside an 86, anything will go in. i've had trouble getting a bicycle inside a VW transporter.

You didn't mean VW Polo by any chance?

sn said...

laser/ 323

Laser was built by Mazda in Japan, (at least our KN was)

rod_bunny said...

sn said...

laser/ 323

Laser was built by Mazda in Japan, (at least our KN was)

I had a ford telstar with a build plate under the bonnet that said manufactured by mazda motor corp. Might have been tax schemes in the eighties and early 1990s but think now most cars are aimed by a few big companies. My 2000 Rex was made by Fuji heavy industries who must have and probably still own Subaru.

BTW - what Aussie companies? Ford and Holden are US and just assembled in Aus in my view.

I had a Nissan pathfinder a few years back, I think the RHD versions were assembled in Spain. Jags and BMs are now made in India I think. The car industry is a funny thing.

Still remember my road trip from Mackay to Port Macquarie in a sedan Impreza.... 2 x boards, 3 x sails , 2 x masts plus associated gear for Lord Howe. A BRZ for windsurfing should work, although like the impreza no room for a wife and/or kid.

cisco said...

Simondo said...

Took the new Subaru BRZ for a 45 minute spin the other morning.
ON MY OWN!!
Very fun car to drive!


Would I buy one? - I would probably go the Rex instead. But my wife would go the BRZ.

If you want it and can afford it, why do you not own it. It is just a car FFS.

Why are you swearing at me?
We bought an investment house instead of a new car... Sorry if I can be boring with "my" money!