First Payment sent, Observations after 6 weeks.
 

Well, just sent in the First payment on my BRZ. Only 100 more or so..before she's all mine...:lol: (not really a 100 but a few).. Just some observations after 6 weeks of ownership. 2150 miles on clock. First Oil change is scheduled in couple of weeks. I rushed to get the required "1000" Miles on the clock, as I compete in AutoCross and needed it to be 'done' quickly...:thumbup:

Observations:
-Getting an avg of 30.4 mpg
-Handling is amazing. (Aftermarket rims/tires, Coilovers, Alignment, and rear Endlinks)
-Only one in town.. which is good and bad, have had random people at the gas station take a picture of it and give a thumbs up.
-Everything is still tight and no squeaks yet.
-Bluetooth goes in and out depending how much signal my GalaxyS2 droid has...I don't think its supposed to do that...but mine does for some reason.
-Speedometer on the left of cluster is absolutely useless.
-just figured out how to enable the 'gear' reference.
-the Ipod cubby needs to be bigger..
-Navigation Unit has frustrated the hell out of me. ( My trusty Garmin is way more accurate and quicker).
-Noticing some seat "wear" from getting in and out of it. It seems I use the bolster to 'slide' up or down depending on if I get out or in.
-Need some low profile mud flaps or a side skirt...Have a small rock ding in the rocker panel from the tires throwing up a rock...Not huge or noticeable but I know its there.
-Rear Window is pain to clean-In hotter weather the plastic gas residue from the interior plastic has left a film on the glass... getting in the back seat to clean it has become a 'chore' for me..as I am 6'3"/235...so it a bit tight..:/
-The Rear Seat is STILL pretty much Useless.
-Lets just call the trunk space...adequate and leave it at that. :|
-Stock Brakes are pretty solid/decent..Have Stainless lines and Fluid done.
-The Stereo is pain to use ..or I am not smart enough to find the "seek" function...:/
-Cruise control works well...just like all other Subaru's..:)
-It needs a center Armrest....BAD..:/
-the Keyless/pushbutton start is great... however sometimes the trunk won't open with button...
-Its a Sexy Sexy car... I am glad to be on-board with it and don't regret my decision to get one in the least. I wonder what the future will bring for this platform. As of now I am extremely happy with my purchase. :)

Looking forward to a tune, and a light weight freeflowing exhaust...and some other Power mods..:)..
More as I think of it.

Thanks to Kartboy, Wheeldude, Strano Performance, P&L Motorsports.

Bill

Seek should be just hold the forward button down for a sec a let go, not positive though ill have to check when I get back in later.
Ipod cubby is one of the reasons Im glad I didnt go with the limited, premium has perfect size spot without the push button start.

Im around 1500 mi and everything else you said is about spot on for me!

I found that seek..:)....but was wanting something that put in a particular channel/station... like to be able to put in :example: 101.5

Manual or auto

I noticed you didn't mention anything about performance/power which I find interesting being you are into moto cross. Wondering what power mods and exhaust you are considering to add, thanks.

I put my iPhone in the center cubby/cup holder. There's a slot there that fits in perfect.

My back seat gets used at least twice a week by my 3yr old son. He loves riding in my BRZ over any other option. He loves his "little window".

I am waiting to see what develops ... not sure what way I am going to go with... Cobb...opensource....I know right now its not going to be ECUTEK..regardless... A lightweight exhaust that makes power...Nameless is looking pretty good.. also going with a Kartboy LW Pully..when it becomes available..that and an Intake that makes power... Read...most bang for the buck..:)... from what I see...it should be right around 200 WHP or so when its all said and done...or at least thats what I am hoping for..:) ...a bit more if its available.

Bill

mine is a Manwell..:)

Maybe I am misunderstanding your question, but could you either put that frequency into a preset (press and hold the preset#) or, use BTA to say "radio", then "frequency one - oh - one point five"?

oh...Really??? I didn't know you could 'speak' to it... have to try that...thanks

Bill

I'm sure there'll be some aftermarket armrests coming out soon. Hopefully they'll be made by quality brands/companies.
Keep us posted on your tunes & mods! :)

With all the complaints I hear about the nav, I hope Subaru offers a trim-level without it! The HIDs can stay though. :)

Bill,

I agree with a lot of your assessments. I am now at 2,933 miles as of today.

The Ipod cubby is PERFECT size on the Premium model (without the push-start)

I agree, the Nav is more or less useless. Last monday my sister and I wanted to go to cedar point, I wanted to enter it in the Nav. After 5 minutes of infuriated button mashing on the screen I said hell with it and started driving south and a little east. I was also really excited that it was supposed to have live traffic updates... when I first used it they were all over the place for no reason, now I dont get any :mad0260:

I've ridden a little bit in the rear seat... I described it as "not the worst place I've ever been". I'd say 2 hours is my absolute limit back there. I'm 5'11" ~200lbs, though fitting back there is heavily dependent on my barely-over-5-foot wife driving so I don't have to amputate my legs

"-just figured out how to enable the 'gear' reference." - Apparently I have not figured out the 'gear' reference, what is this?

I haven't noticed any wear, just the fact that my shoes love to scuff up the door speaker

I have 2 tiny tiny stone nicks in the front bumper, but nothing on the rockers/rear bumper yet. I really need to go get a clearbra ASAP if I want to keep this thing looking nice.

The voice command stuff is OK. I am sure it works well if you memorize the 11 million command options in the nav system owners manual.

At first I was really apprehensive about the attention the car gets, especially around Detroit because we have quite a lot of the old-mentality people in the area who despise foreign vehicles, particularly Asian ones... but the reception has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly in the autocross community. Whenever I do get approached by people who aren't fans of imports I tend to direct the conversation to the fact that no US manufacturer makes a car remotely close to what this car is about, and it's a shame (which it really is). It's a brilliantly designed and executed car that is just an absolute joy to drive on the roads and on an autocross course. I've put basically 3,000 miles on it in 1 month of ownership, and I wish I drove it more.


What are you doing for oil changes? OE Subaru factory oil change? also, what intervals are you planning?

I think I am just going to bite the bullet and switch to AMSOIL 0W-20 for my first oil change before this weekend's trip to Toledo at 3,000 miles.

Irrational hate for a car because it isn't American. What kind of an aneurysm would they get if they learned that the Camaro was built in Canada, I wonder.

Somebody better not tell those old timers that most "American" cars (or at least their major components aren't even built here anymore while many Japanese companies have factories employing Americans all over the midwest and south.

I don't mean to derail Bill's thread. I was just commenting on his thoughts about the attention the car gets, and that even though I live in an area which is overwhelmingly pro-domestic, it still gets a ton of positive feedback. The reason for pro-domesticism and the issues of the whole thing could be a million-post topic in itself.

Same for me on the left-side speedo. I'm an analog guy, but having the digital speed read-out in the tach works great. It's almost like your eyes wander to left and you go..."hey, it even has a speedometer!".

Didn't even know about the gear reference, will have to research...thanks for the note on that!

Ditto on the rear-window cleaning...PITA! I'm 6'4" and feel your pain every time I have to climb back there.

Thanks for the review. Sounds like the interior is as sensitive to contact as my EVO was, and I wish cars in this price range had a little more effort put into the speedometer/tach, it's important.

What do you mean? The tach is front and center - right where you would want it to be. The digital speedometer works great, too.

Well cars, as in plural. This one, the non-digital speedometer hasn't gotten good reviews. In other $25k-$30k cars, the tach isn't positioned great.

The analogue speedometer actually works just fine. It's just that the digital speedometer is placed so perfectly that they really just didn't need an analogue speedometer. If it weren't for the digital, I'd be able to read the analogue a lot easier because I'd look at it more that once a week.

I hear you on this one. My Evo x gets scuff on the kick panel like its cool, just like my brz

Yep, and speakers too.

speaking of Speakers... anyone elses Stereo Sound like Crap besides mine.. you can't turn it up past half volume unless you want Distorted sound..:/ Very Disappointing..

I've been pretty satisfied with my sound quality so far. I found that my mp3 player eq settings were producing too much bass, so it took a little bit of tweaking between the mp3 player and the headunit, but now I've got pretty clear audio. Nothing groundbreaking, but I wouldn't call it disappointing.

I'm just over 300 miles and I couldn't have said it better myself on the issues you stated above. :thumbup:

Had mine for 6 weeks as well. There's a speedometer on left?

At about 1800 Miles Currently.
About the stereo, I noticed that the bass was way too overwhelming for most songs.
So my easy fix was to put the "sound position" -2 and it sounds a LOT better but you have to turn it up slightly more than usual.