Consumer Report now lists the FR-S and BRZ as "Unreliable Vehicles"!

[BlaineWasHere]

I blew my motor at 85k to what I think was a head gasket. So good luck everyone.

[bigred18]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Oh don't kid yourself. This forum is not representative of the vast majority of the buyers. I am afraid that many (most?) of these cars were bought by the "ooo shiny" crowd. This is also the direction that the marketing boys are moving in so there will probably be loads more.
I am with you on wanting to be the rare guy though and keep crossing my fingers that they do away with the Lava.

I knew that. I didn't even know this forum existed until I googled a car part.


Second bolded sentence sounds like a quote from some medieval movie:

"Barricade the door, do not let the enemy past our defenses!"

"Sir, it's too late. The enemy is already among us!"

*Gasp* Plot twist!

[D.Scrye]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Oh don't kid yourself. This forum is not representative of the vast majority of the buyers. I am afraid that many (most?) of these cars were bought by the "ooo shiny" crowd. This is also the direction that the marketing boys are moving in so there will probably be loads more.
I am with you on wanting to be the rare guy though and keep crossing my fingers that they do away with the Lava.

Tbh, I believe I've only seen 4 other lava FR-Ss, ever. It already seems to be the least common color. Does anybody know what the stats are for color distribution?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by D.Scrye

Tbh, I believe I've only seen 4 other lava FR-Ss, ever. It already seems to be the least common color. Does anybody know what the stats are for color distribution?

Buried way back in this forum is a thread that gave a breakdown by percentage. Lava was the lowest regular production at 5%. Now with the yellow release colour and some being discontinued there are likely some that are rarer (i.e. the original darker blue BRZ that was dropped).

[Quentin]

Well, guys, looks like other than the noisy HPFP, most of the early issues have been fixed and the FR-S and BRZ have rebounded for reliability ratings in the recent model years. We're now average per CR reliability and have "recommended" status.

[weederr33]

Why wouldn't you recommend this car?! Seriously.

[Fishbed77]

Originally Posted by R.S-HawK

Anyone who takes Consumer Reports seriously, when it comes to judging a sports car, needs to just buy a Camry.

/THREAD

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by Vracer111

I wouldn't bring my FR-S into a dealership to try and fix the 'crickets' with a new fuel pump replacement, a few owners have lost their Twins to that way... burned down to the ground. Leave the poor crickets be and enjoy their company, it's how you know you own a Twin! Consumer Reports articles can be quite useful though, they come in really handy when I run out of toilet paper...

Main reason why I have a dashcam hardwired for dealer work, and why I stay away from them as much as possible :
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz2ZW3Kw3XQ"]SCION FR-S Bad Dealership Service Experience - Burnout Revenge! - YouTube[/ame]

[Quentin]

Originally Posted by weederr33

Why wouldn't you recommend this car?! Seriously.

I love the hell out of mine... but I wouldn't recommend it to a lot of people. It is a special kind of car looking for the right kind of driver.

[Chanpion]

You know how many people here keep on getting their fuel pump here replaced even though it does nothing?

[Impureclient]

Originally Posted by BlaineWasHere

I blew my motor at 85k to what I think was a head gasket. So good luck everyone.

I did some research (AFTER I had already bought mine) and I ran across something about this happening. Then upon further inspection looking into the build thread on it,
it's apparent the car is doing some severe duty that 99% of the rest of us won't see with our cars that stay off race courses.

Originally Posted by BlaineWasHere

80k but without my abuse it would have lasted much longer.

My Cavalier Z24 blew at about 80k also and that motor is notoriously know for all kinds of issues. I think we are in safe hands for a while with these cars though as long as we take it easy on them and keep up maintenance.

[lionbacker54]

FYI, i just saw that consumer reports has revised their ratings of the BRZ and FRS. it's now better than average. in fact, they say that it's one of the biggest jumps that a car has made in reliability.

[Cal3000]

I think the FA20 is a pretty reliable engine. With 105k miles and almost 90k boosted it has been holding up. I have head gasket issues now though. I believe my head bolts have stretched bc of the super high cylinder pressures under boost. Under boost, my heads lift releasing exhaust gases into the coolant, but only under boost. Under vacuum, the car performs like normal.
These engines are not over designed in regards to stock power, but they well designed for what it can hold.

[MuseChaser]

Not to belittle Consumer Reports, but the reliability ratings are driven by, well, whatever consumers report. Mercedes and BMW always get slammed, but you've got to remember that they're expensive cars driven by owners who are probably much fussier and expect more than many other owners.. hence a lot more complaints, many for little stupid things that don't really affect the TRUE reliability of the car (i.e., will the car get you where you need to go or will it strand you?)

I used to read Consumer Reports faithfully, and subscribed to their magazine back in the old days. For household appliances I found it very useful, and they had a lot of good articles about how to shop for services, cars, insurance, finance companies, etc. Definitely had/has some value for consumers.

The rub was that whenever they reviewed something that DID fall within my area(s) of expertise (mostly home and professional audio; I've been building amps, preamps, and designing and building speakers from scratch for decades), I always found that they were WAY off in the stuff that really mattered, and put WAY too much weight on stuff that really had no bearing on anything. CR is great for getting some background knowledge where you don't currently have any, but it's useless as an enthusiast's resource.

Just like our cars.. CR isn't perfect for everything. It serves some purposes very well, and isn't really suited best for others.

Barry