Hmm, if parents want to help out buying the car, would the VIP member status be better off under their name? Or under my own?

I'm just reading one of the FAQ's and it said: "
Are family members eligible for Leave No Trace members VIP Partners Program?

While VIP Partners referrals are only issued to Leave No Trace members, immediate family members including spouses and domestic partners residing in the same household are eligible, subject to dealership verification of membership status and address."

but on another faq:
Q - Who is eligible to participate in the VIP Program? A - Any VIP customer must be an active member of the SOA marketing affiliate for a minimum of 6 consecutive months. Immediate family members, including spouse and domestic partner residing in the same household are also eligible for VIP pricing, subject to dealer verification of member status and address. The VIP Partners Program offer is non-transferable and does not extend to the member’s relatives such as parents, siblings, children, etc.

So... I presume if I'm purchasing it with parental help, it might be better off signing up for the program under parent's name? or what?

The STI was excluded from the VIP program for awhile so I'd find it unlikely that most dealers will accept it on this car. I'll find out what I can from a friend at the local Subaru dealer.

When you say that the STI was excluded for a while, do we know if that was a decision at a local dealer level, or a corporate nationwide level?

I'll be very interested to hear what your local Florida dealer tells you.
I'm in the northern Florida area.

That I'm not sure about. I just remember threads about it back when the STI came out but that level of detail definately left my brain years ago.

Cool, I'll be checking with Mastro around here, they are by far the best local Subaru dealership for performance Subarus.

What matters is that the STI is not excluded now. Doubt this car will be either. Not sure why you think most dealers won't accept it since SOA reimburses them the difference.

I signed up with Leave No Trace yesterday.
6 months and counting for my discounted BRZ.:)

If the dealer knows they can sell the car over sticker due to limited availability and increasing intrest in the car, then expect the BRZ to be excluded. I have seen this many times with other makes and models. With the Camaro it was this way, however, if you ordered the car before the in dealer date you could get it for sticker or [In some cases.] below.

Only way to know for sure how this will all play out is to wait and see what happens. Right now it is all just speculation.

At this point anything can happen.

Well of course it's not excluded now. The car has been out for quite awhile now.

It was excluded when it first hit the US. If the BRZ is excluded, then I'm sure 7 years later it won't be excluded anymore too. IIRC it lasted for 6-12 months on the STI from the release in 04.

Also, the reason why is simple. If you are a subaru dealer and there's enough demand for the car to sell it at full MSRP or even over MSRP, why would you accept the minor money from Subaru while losing potentially thousands? Some dealers won't care, or won't be in a market where the car has lots of demand, but some markets I would not be surprised at all to see it rejected.

One thing I haven't found is what Subaru pays to the dealer, but I believe it's just the 2% under invoice and not the difference between invoice and MSRP. So the Dealer will get a check for, say $450 on an invoice of $22,500. Now let's say the MSRP was $24,000 and the "regional market adjustment" that some idiot would pay is $2,000. So instead of making $3,500 they make $450 (and that's assuming you don't neg the $450 as a 50/50 split, etc).

In the STIs case, by the time you could use the VIP pricing you could easily buy one for the same money by walking into a dealer.

For $20 going with LNT for the chance of using the VIP program is still a worthwhile risk and I'm sure a lot of people here will be able to use it (assuming Subaru doesn't pull the "limited availability" card which if the 1-2 cars per dealer per month is true there's a fair chance they'd pull that card...), I just expect it less in the high demand markets for this car.

Hmm. That is a familiar post. Oh yeah. I posted the same thing with less detail and easier to read.

I wasn't disagreeing with you obviously. I was just adding more info to your point while replying to tranz.

Do you have any idea from your friend? Or its more of a, lets see what happens when its released?

Been too busy at work to visit the dealer. I'm playing hockey against him saturday night so I'll ask him then.

Well some people on Nasioc claim that the BRZ will be an extremely low production run. Hmm... *shrugs*

Both FRS & BRZ gonna be low production first 6 month.