I'm fine with the interior as well, and compared to everything else I cross-shopped in the price range it was no better or worse really. My previous car was a MINI Cooper, which I never had major complaints with (although the center console control layout is whacky) and the FR-S is fine by me.

Yea I agree the hvac in my series 10 compliments the center console a lot. Head unit could be better but I hardly really use the radio anyways. Seats are nice, I really favor the Brz alacantra seats though.

I really don't mind my FRS interior at all. I love the seats, and really dig the gauge cluster. I also came from an S2000 that was also simple, but to the point. I feel its on par for the price point minus maybe a GTI IMO.

Interior is one of the reason I picked this car vs some others I test drove.

I love the interior. Only real knock I had was the terrible standard FR-S stereo unit. I ended up getting the BeSpoke upgrade for free so now I have no complaints.

Well......... actually I do have one complaint. The useless and redundant speed gauge should have been omitted in place of other needed gauges. Since we have a digital readout of the speed the gauge is pointless.

coming from driving a S2000(which i still own) and previously before that a 2004 STI

my thoughts:

the layout, not as good as the S2000, then again thats about perfection as far as how a cockpit should be setup. that being said, if i'm going to nitpick.....

-- the turn signal and wiper stalks require way too much movement to activate, i drove my s2k this morning and almost broke off the turn signal stalk changing lanes.

-- seats are great, much more comfortable long term than the S2000 or the STI were, though i'm pretty sure the bottom half of the seats are straight out of an STI/WRX

-- arm rest arm rest arm rest, and not just the center console, the door is just too high to comfortably rest my arm on when driving(and steer with that hand) in the STI or S2000, this is easy to do. maybe its the wheel position, i'm not sure

-- materials, eh who cares, i drive cars, not rub my face and tap on every surface out there


and thats about all i have time to write

I like the interior in the FR-S, the Red and Black looks good.

Although i would of liked the option for Black with Blue (on the stitching, seats etc). Mainly if other upgraded parts on the car have some sort of blue on them to match.

TLDR: I am very passionate about my simple climate controls and I anthropomorphise inanimate objects that I love like my cars and my house so I wrote a novel about it.

I actually love the interior on my FR-S for a lot of the reasons that some people seem to hate on it.

The "fake carbon" doesn't actually strike me as the intent of the pattern, I tend to think of it as more of a houndstooth type of pattern and it obviously was a shape that was forefront in their minds as they designed the car given that the same pattern is molded into almost every other piece of plastic on the car (ie the door switch panels, the plastic around the climate knobs, the gauge cluster, etc) and is also the same shape used for the grill pattern.

I actually had one of those "overwhelming sense of joy and love for my car" type of moments when I went to adjust my air temp and vent selection on the first day I drove the car in the cold and KNEW I was in control... that somewhere back inside the dash I was adjusting a baffle that controls the mixture of hot air from the heater coil with cold air from the outside... and that at no point is that baffle going to move without my permission... and at no point is the AC compressor just gonna turn on on it's own whim.

That was the day that I truly KNEW, without a doubt, that I had 100% made the right choice for myself in buying the FR-S over a BRZ Limited. Before then I had been a bit jelly of how cool and fighter jet all those toggle switches look on the Limited's climate control... but then I remembered some of my previous experiences with "auto climate control" type systems where you are turning a knob to set your desired interior temperature rather than turning a knob to set your desired hot-to-cold air mix.

To me, auto climate control is blasphemy because it takes me out of control rather than putting me in control and keeping me connected and close to the car. I prefer my temp knob to function as a "mix" knob rather than a thermostat... it's how the faucets in my house work, and as the pipes heat up in the morning I just mix more cold in to keep the water at the temperature I want it to be for my shower. I don't mind that it's not regulated to some specific number, in fact I prefer it not to be because it makes me feel more in touch with my old house... the rate at which the water gets hotter is like an indicator of how much my pipes cooled down at night while I was sleeping, as they heat up I feel like the house is waking up just like me.

For the car, it's the same kind of thing... if I just leave the knob at the 12 o-clock position when I head to work in the morning, the air starts off icy cold and I know my engine is cold. By the time I'm pulling off the freeway it's gotten to a nice and comfortable, just-right-keep-the-edge-off type of temperature... then after a few sprinty starts and tight corners down the final back roads to my work it's toasty and hot, just reminding me that the car has a fire breathing demon under the hood that is now finally warmed up and ready to go, begging to go play some more... right as I'm done driving... makes me wish my morning commute was longer sometimes... poor car.

I use that feedback from my engine as a way to stay closer in touch with my car, as a kind of "everything is OK" reassurance, an on-going diagnostic of how well my engine is handling heat. If I had auto climate, then in the mornings if it is 45 F outside and I set my cabin to 60 F it would have the air mixture set to 100% air from the heater coil at first... then as the engine heated up it would begin mixing in cold air from outside in order to keep the temperature steady. All that feedback would be lost, because the air mixture would be completely out of my control.

Another issue I have with auto climate is that on hot days I generally tend to stick my mix knob to "full cold" and just let the car pull in ambient air from outside to keep me ventilated... if I need to cool down then I'll put the fan up higher and/or crack my windows to let the wind perform the amazing science of evaporation on my skin with my sweat. My body is perfectly capable of cooling itself for the most part, and the AC is more like an emergency bail-out for those really hot 105+ days.

I tend to think of AC compressors as dead weight and power saps, a lot of which could come from a long lineage of cars with less than 100 WHP like my Accord or my Fit... where if I turn on the AC it feels like a good third of my power disappears. So I like to have a lot of control over WHEN that unnecessary power drain is going to turn on and I like to be able to rest assured that it is NOT going to turn on when I don't tell it to.

With auto climate such a thing is nearly impossible, as on a hot day if I ONLY want vent air I would then have to constantly adjust my cabin temp to exactly match the outside temp... if it's a few degrees hotter outside then my AC is kicking on in order to match the cabin setting, then if it becomes a few degrees cooler outside then the auto climate will begin HEATING my incoming air on an already hot day. Auto climate has no place for a guy like me, who doesn't care what temperature it is but just wants some fresh air blowing over him... without an AC compressor kicking on at random... without hot air getting mixed in at random.

Now, granted, I could be wrong about how the auto climate works on the Limited as I have never played with it in person... but any other car I've been in with auto climate in the past has always been a "set and forget" system that only lets me choose what temp, fan speed, and vent for the air to come out of but never lets me just have fresh air with no intervention from AC or heat if I don't want it. Auto climate is a luxury feature meant for luxury cars where comfort and convenience are key... I want my car to be a DRIVER'S car, where feeling at one and in harmony with the car are key. Therefore, I applaud Toyota's decision to use such a simple climate system in the FR-S and I think it was not done as a cost cutting measure but something done out of respect for the concept of a driver's car being a simple, no-nonsense, in touch with the machine that propels you forward kind of car.

Sorry about the long rant... I guess I just really, really love the interior of my car. It's not luxurious and it's not fancy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sorry to break it to you but the AC compressor will still cycle on and off on its own whim regulated by a thermistor inside the cabin to limit the amount of cool.. at least that's how my 1993 toyota with manual hot/cold slider and a/c button worked...

I'll try to finish reading your book later... :lol:

I like our interior, simple, clean and it WORKS. Sure it would be great to have a few gadgets and higher quality panels but this is a drivers car!

No it doesn't, it only turns on if you press the A/C button or have defrost on that's his point, it does exactly what you tell it to you don't have to set an arbitrary temperature target. You're thinking of the BRZ "climate control", not sure about your 20 year old Toyota, my '93 Toyota doesn't do what you describe, neither does my '91 Nissan, it does what the buttons tell it to do.

I kind of wish it did turn on intermittently though, there's no way to get cold air through the vents without it.

I looked through the wiring diagram for the MT fr-s and here's what I found.
reference: Official 2013 Scion FR-S & Subaru BRZ Electrical Wiring Diagram

I still need to find how the main body ECU uses OT+ and OT- but my toyota had a thermistor as well in the circuitry that controlled the AC compressor magnetic clutch. Only reason why I know is because the car had an engine swap and I needed to get the stock HVAC system to kick on the new motor's a/c compressor.

You have proven that the wiring schematic calls out a thermistor in the cabin. Doesn't mean it's used for anything or that it's actually installed, we know it's used for the BRZ climate control, I'm inclined to believe that they use the same wiring for simplicity as the thermistor is likely very cheap compared to the effort of differentiating the two harnesses.

Edit: Not to mention the 10 series has climate control, even less reason to take the thermistor out.

It sounds like you don't have any more proof than I do and you're disputing the wiring diagram because some other model has the climate control option. The only way to find out is to sit in your car with the A/C on idling and listen for the compressor to kick on or off.

I'm not an a/c person but it makes sense the compressor shouldn't run all the time. in my 93 toyota that has the basic a/c on/off switch, the compressor will cycle on and off on its own. I'm not sure how much of that is to keep the cabin at a reasonable temperature and how much of that is to keep the evaporator from freezing. Guess I will have to dig further...

14k+ miles, the A/C only cycles on and off when the A/C button is pushed or the defroster is on, you can hear it at an idle, you can hear the belt chirp (lots of threads made on that 'issue') and you can feel the load on the motor, I don't notice it all the time (my attention is usually elsewhere) but I have yet to feel or hear it unless the proper setting is engaged. Even on max cold the compressor isn't running all the time, as you noticed with your Toyota. I thought you had implied that the compressor will kick on even if say you had it set to warm air from outside, did I misread you?