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

[industrial]

To be fair, I've had more issues with my brz than any other car I've owned. It's not a pos but it's pretty annoying sometimes. If I didn't love my car, I would've traded it in by now. If I had these same issues in an appliance car, I'd not put up with it. That's just what cr's take is. I've taken my car in for....

Hpfp chirp
Flashing cel from low idle dip with ac on
Navigation system constantly dropping sats
Severe taillight condensation
a ton of rattles

All in the first year.

I've also had 2 cracked windshields. Haven't had one since 2003 before this car. I don't know what's up with that.

Consumer reports is probably the best source for unbiased somewhat scientific reviews. Face it, from the reliability standpoint, our cars kind of sucked it in the first year. Cr is just saying that.

[alan.chalkley]

The 86/frs/brz are all built , in the same factory , by the same robots.
So how then does cr dream up different ratings between them?

[Vincenttam]

The people who writes these articles goes around driving mercedez, bmws, and audis with an ego higher than Kim jong-un. These guys review everything the people of ft-86 wasn't looking for when buying this car. I walked into the dealer knowing how shitty it's sound system was, paying 27k for a car with less than 200 hp. These who ha's probably gave it an amazing rating cause the previous writing was a Jeremy Clarkson **** worshiper and the December writer wasn't. I did some writing on some ios apps in the past and trust me, getting whats written on paper to publishing isn't hard.

[ZionsWrath]

The fact that the cars are basically the same and have quite different ratings makes it pretty much horseshit.

There was another car ranking test and it went like

FRS
Mustang
BRZ

Really?

[industrial]

Originally Posted by ZionsWrath

The fact that the cars are basically the same and have quite different ratings makes it pretty much horseshit.

There was another car ranking test and it went like

FRS
Mustang
BRZ

Really?

They are just reporting what owners reported. It's just a data collection project. These cars are wonderful but they aren't perfect. No need to get so defensive.

[PabloN]

Originally Posted by alan.chalkley

The 86/frs/brz are all built , in the same factory , by the same robots.
So how then does cr dream up different ratings between them?

One reason could be the nav system, assuming most people dont get that in their FR-S (CR says that of their 17 problem areas in-car electronics got the most complaints in 2013). Someone on the Subaru forum suggested bad service at Subaru dealers was the difference. Doesn't really matter to me--I have 10,000 miles including a 3300 mile road trip this year and the only "problem" is crickets. Where are those "Banned by Consumers Reports" stickers, guysmiley?

[Mikem53]

Rattles, squeaks and nav issues do not make the car unreliable or corner any worse.. The nature of this car is different than that of a corolla or Camry.
So many on here complain about noises that are "normal" in a lightweight
Sports car... CR doesn't delineate between types of cars... It just counts complaints and tallies a number.. Useless info for the enthusiast crowd..

[BadMoon]

Originally Posted by industrial

To be fair, I've had more issues with my brz than any other car I've owned. It's not a pos but it's pretty annoying sometimes. If I didn't love my car, I would've traded it in by now. If I had these same issues in an appliance car, I'd not put up with it. That's just what cr's take is. I've taken my car in for....

Hpfp chirp
Flashing cel from low idle dip with ac on
Navigation system constantly dropping sats
Severe taillight condensation
a ton of rattles

All in the first year.

I've also had 2 cracked windshields. Haven't had one since 2003 before this car. I don't know what's up with that.

Consumer reports is probably the best source for unbiased somewhat scientific reviews. Face it, from the reliability standpoint, our cars kind of sucked it in the first year. Cr is just saying that.

I've had several new cars in the past few years and this is by far the one with the most problems.

However, I still love it all the same.

[wrussi]

hey guys stop being fanboys, customer reports is right on most of its claims.. this car has more rattles than a 98 hyundai. the radio sucks (2013 bespoke is pretty much useless unless you have an iphone 4s. c'mon toyota!) and speakers rattle . the chriping/crickets on the engine while harmless make a new car look pretty bad! the engine RPM dips while using AC. amm i can go on and on.
keep in mind that as of this date neither toyota or subaru have working fixes for any of this stuff besides the taillights. that is pretty bad for a company as big as toyota/subaru
now i know this is the first year of a completely new car so stuff like this is expected but
is customer reports somwehat right? yes. do i care what customer reports says? no do i still love this car despite its shortcomings? yep!

[R.S-HawK]

Originally Posted by industrial

best source for unbiased somewhat scientific reviews.

[ZDan]

As noted above, CR reports what car owners report to them in surveys. And they don't report at all unless they have 100 survey respondents on a given vehicle. It's not like they decided they don't like the car and gave it "unreliable" ratings.

[stevemp5]

Im not surprised.. piece of shit quality build!

[Tfrase]

You aren't alone. I am keeping mine as long as it will run.... I bought this because I had such an awesome experience with my Rav 4 I owned prior.

[Porsche]

Originally Posted by industrial

I've also had 2 cracked windshields. Haven't had one since 2003 before this car. I don't know what's up with that.

I have read that they specified thinner glass in order to save weight. However, I have not seen that confirmed from a reliable source. But, it does make sense. My BRZ weighs about 100 lbs. less than my smaller S2000.

Just judging from what I've read on the forums, when a BRZ/FR-S get a chip in the windshield ... it quickly turns into a major crack requiring windshield replacement.

Overall, I am concerned about CR's judgment, because it could result in significantly lower resale value after 4-5 years. The issue FOR ME is not whether CR's judgment is flawed or not, the issue is the impact on the general public and what value they place on the BRZ/FR-S as a used car.

Older Honda's we've owned had remarkable resale value after five years. Our BRZ may not do nearly so well, especially if CR persists in downgrading these cars. None of this would matter if we were to drive the car into the ground, keeping it indefinitely.

I think I MUST be concerned with CR's reports despite my early production BRZ (delivered June 2012) being essentially just fine.

I believe CR affects public perception, for better or worse, and public perception affects the car's resale value.