Interior Gripes
 

I have a BRZ Limited. I don't understand when I hear people state that the FT86 has a worse interior when compared to other cars. (Most often the Focus ST).

I came from a 2010 Golf TDI, it had a fantastic interior. I don't have any complaints about the interior of the BRZ (besides the quality of what's in it...radio/speakers blow)

I expect a bias opinion asking here, but can anyone help explain to me?

Thank you!

Human nature bro............ We will never get along. Look at some of the threads

just bought a FRS a few days ago, still drive a 2007 camry and 2013 GS
lots of review says the 2013 GS has one of the best interior for a sedan, im fine with the FRS interior:iono:

There's a lot of hard, cheapish plastic - on the doors, the console, the knee bolsters. The display is pretty basic - cars $8000 cheaper have more information available in the DIC.

Those things don't bother me too much, but I can see how they might.

What does bother me is the idiotic lack of useful storage spaces. The glove box is great, but other than that there's nothing.

The way the console is arranged, if you use the cupholders, you have to reach behind yourself to get your drink (unless you're an NBA center).

And my biggest gripe is with the seat mechanisms. Every other two-door car I've owned, to get access to the back seat, there's a mechanism allowing you to push the front seat forward. Fine, these cars have it too. BUT, other cars, they always return to the positioning from which they started. These seats, you have to reposition/readjust every time you access the back seat.

Which makes the back seat useless even for storage.

Just wait for the rattles and you'll love the interior even more.

I put 8500 on my first one, and didn't have any rattles. Maybe I was doing something wrong?

I got rattles!! But my exhaust tones them out!!

rattles? i only hear loud music coming from the speakers

Huh? What did you say?

Huh? What did you say?

Lets see, the instrument cluster, the seat mechanisms, the center console, the hard plastic everywhere and of course the hunk of silver across most of the dash....is this a rhetorical question?

I don't have any major interior complaints either. I think the big one is the center armrest. When you get in the first time and drop your elbow into the cupholder and hurt yourself, you get all worked up about the interior, then start noticing flaws. Once you get the European armrest, suddenly everything else doesn't seem so bad. It's certainly not luxury car (for $27k, you can get any one of the following: Porsche handling, Porsche interior, Porsche power, and we got the handling already), but it's nice. I've driven a handful of similarly priced cars, and while the BRZ doesn't really stick out as being a great interior, it's certainly not the worst. I like the red lights and I like how it doesn't have an obnoxious info screen in the center of the gauge cluster. The seats do look like they belong in a luxury car, and are way nicer than most seats in this price range. The soft dashboard is a lot nicer than the hard plastic most cars have.

I think the BRZ has some interior pieces that really stick out as being fantastic, and a couple that really stick out as being terrible. The seats and steering wheel are straight out of a $50k sports car. The cheap knee pads, the lack of an armrest, the somewhat dated looking heated seat switches are straight out of a $15k econobox. The BRZ interior is a mix of extremes, with some stuff that seems really nice, and some stuff that seems really bad, and a lot of people get fixated on the bad stuff.

From owning two WRXs and one STi prior to my twin, I've learned that squeaks and rattles are part of what makes a Subaru a Subaru.

I like the BRZ interior. I like to think of it as something that resembles the GTR interior because of toggle switches. Fighter jets also have toggle switches. Everytime i press one of them when my gf is in the car i like to say "missile lock on enemy fighter."

At the very least the interior doesn't look like a 2004 Corolla.

The seat doesn't remember your setting, well unless you are carrying 4 people on the regular it doesn't matter because you can just access through the passenger side.

The sound system is a huge upgrade from my 2003 accord so not much I can say about that.

The 1 thing I wish I had was a button on the head unit to skip tracks. It is really annoying to push the next track button on the LCD display...

Otherwise I am very happy with my car and its interior.

Smaller cars = Less storage. One gets what one pays for.

The interior of my Honda S2000 had more interior storage space (comparing front seats only). And that car didn't have a proper glovebox. So I would have to argue that this actually is a reasonable gripe for the BRZ/FRS, since the S2000's interior is actually smaller (again just compared to the front area of the BRZ).

Honestly, someone tell me why there is just a bottle holder on each door. What is going on in that thick area underneath the arm rest on the door?

WTF do you want? there is a huge rear seat area for shit. You can reach to the passenger rear seat and fit a damn suit case. Can you do that in the door pocket on a S2000?

No major gripes so far. I agree the seat warmer switches and VSC switch is kinda cheap, and I agree the storage could be a little better, but it is not a big deal to me. The overall fit and finish is quite good. Seats and steering wheel are top notch. The driving position is spot on.

Love the aviation toggle switches, and the overall plastic touch/quality is quite good in this car. I honestly don't miss an arm rest like I thought I would.

Head unit for the radio could be better but there is a whole thread on that. I rarely eat or drink in my car so no big deal on the cupholders for me.

One thing I do miss is having a sunglasses holder somewhere in the car. My last couple of cars had one near the rearview mirror...

Glovebox is a good size too. My Gencoupe has a release lever on the front seats to slide them easy for my kids to get in the back. I do miss that. It worked really well.

Memory seats would be nice option too, since my wife is shorter.. But now I am just getting picky. :)

The interior is bland compared to similar priced or cheaper cars (genesis, cruze, focus..).

But I like the 90's styling / simpleness.

I hated the interior of the Focus. You are surrounded by cheap plastic and the My Touch system made me want to pull my hair out.

Having owned a 2013 Gencoupe I actually think the BRZ Limited is a wash. The BRZ plastics are higher grade for sure. The ridiculous instrument cluster in the center of the Gencoupe dash below the radio was rather pointless. The seats in the BRZ are much better as is the driving position. The Gencoupe had more useable storage and had more amenities. But that car was also one giant rattle trap. Took it in twice to the dealer and they could not address the massive rattle from the dash between 2-3K RPM. The Gencoupe also used this odd tacky material for the steering wheel.. I did not like it.

THILL says: "One thing I do miss is having a sunglasses holder somewhere in the car. My last couple of cars had one near the rearview mirror.."

I must agree.

Maybe the BRZ Limited is different but there's not that much cheap plastic in mine. The dash is a nice soft rubber. The arm rests on the doors are leather and the top of the door is also leather. The leather and Alacantara seats are fabulous. I personally like the instrument cluster. The heat vent dials are a nice rubber as well. All of the silver interior parts I would have liked to be brushed aluminum.

The center console is plastic. I wish it was the same soft rubber as the dash since it has the same texture design on it already. Other than that, the only thing I hate is the reverse pullup thing. I would have preferred the VW way of pushing down and going into first for reverse over what we have.

I'm very happy with the interior of my FR-S. I removed all the 'stuff' out of the center console and put in a cover/arm rest that allows me to use that space for misc. stuff. I don't miss the cup holders as no food or drink goes in my car except water when I'm on a trip and that fits in the door pockets.

I agree with everything you said concerning the interior fit and finish. This car does not have that much hard cheap plastic (speaking of the BRZ Limited). And you would be hard pressed to find a RWD sports coupe in the in this price range that does not cut corners on the interior finish and amenities. Gencoupe, Mustang, Camaro, etc. They all do. And with good reason.

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I was merely reinforcing his comment to say it was valid.

You guys never drove older (like mid 2000's) economy cars have you......

I agree I like the fit and finish as well. And the driving position is probably the best of any car I've ever driven.

I don't miss an armrest that much either, but its not gonna stop me from buying the euro style one.

As far as a sunglasses holder goes, I usually use the cup holder, like you I don't allow food or drink in my car unless its in a sealed bottle that goes in the door.

There is a release lever to slide the seats up, its on the side the lever towards the back. Also the fabric pull tab on the bottom does the same thing but you have to pull pretty hard to get it to release that way.

Yes memory seats would be nice, but then they'd have to be power seats and those motors add weight. I don't mind not having the power/memory seats because racecar! :burnrubber:

I don't mind the interior at all, even my ML350 2012 MBenz has tacky plastics in the interior. Silver pieces? I wrapped that shit with vinyl, took $40 and 3 hours. A little patience and practice, anyone can do it.

Arm rest? I usually have both hands on the steering wheel when I drive this car. Clicking/Squeaking noises? Yea try putting after market brake pads, struts, tower bars, coil overs, trans/diff/arm bushings and it will start sounding like a race car. Screeching braking noise and taking the chassis to the limit.

This car isn't meant to be a "cruiser". It rides stiff, low torque so you need to be busy with your gears, only comes alive when all nannies are off, etc.

Honestly, how much crap do you need to "store" in your car nowadays... its not like people are still keeping an enormous book of CDs for music. I know all I need is a place to set my phone down, maybe sunglasses too, glove box for reg and insurance card and maybe some napkins, pen and pad and 2 cup holders of some kind. What the hell else do you need? Got some papers or folders? Shove em between the seat and center console like everyone else, bag of stuff? Back seat. Pretty much anything else you can throw in the back seat or hell... why not even the trunk... The way I see it, the more space for crap, the more crap and clutter you will have. So i suppose my first question still stands... how much crap do you need to store in your car nowadays...

same here.

Love my limited interior, but I only drive it on the weekends- Hard to say if it was my DD. It has to be better than what was my DD, a 1991 Firebird I had for 18 years.

The 2010 Golf TDI the OP had (I had one too) has a sunglasses holder, it was useless for oakleys and anything that wasn't thin or didn't fold almost flat so no matter what it has or doesn't have people will always have complaints.

Totally true, my sunglasses had no hope of fitting in there. I kept a $10 backup pair up there. The door pockets were enormous in the golf though! When I was cleaning out my car I had 6 pairs of sun glasses, 8 cds, and many other odds and ends just in the driver side pocket...

I miss the door pockets. I used to keep an umbrella in the driver's side, and maps in the passenger side. I can ditch the maps thanks to the navigation system, but there's really no good spot to store an collapsible umbrella besides dropping it into the back seat, whereas most other cars have a long door pocket that holds one fine. I'm not sure if there's even a good reason not to have a door pocket (the doors are kinda short in terms of height, but I don't think the glass is particularly tall, and they managed to get the bottle holders in there)

The interior is pretty much what I expected except for the football field of silver. Absolutely hate silver. I covered it in vinyl but I'm not overly happy with how it turned out.

Love the Limited interior...have NO complaints...

My number one complaint about the BRZ interior is the windshield wiper stalk. Pull towards should be momentary wipe not spray. Very annoying having the wipers on intermittent, then having some water get splashed on your windshield, then needing to push the stalk all the way up to momentary, then resetting it back on intermittent. /FirstWorldProblems

Let's be honest, you get in the car, and you might notice some of this crap. The silver on the dash, I could take it or leave it. The cupholders being behind me is actually a bit of an annoyance and the only thing that I actually don't like about the interior, as opposed to just not caring.

But as soon as it fires up and I start shifting gears, I don't actually care about any of that crap anyways. You're driving your car wrong if the interior is giving you issues every day.

Allow me to add: I must qualify that it should read:
You're BUYING your car wrong if the interior is giving you issues every day.