BRZ/FRS TOO LOW??
 

Over the past few months I've been searching for my first car, one that is fun to drive, has a manual variant, has higher than average mpg, and can last a long time without high repair costs (15+ years). From the information I can gather online, the BRZ seems like the best choice. The one problem I have is that there are many small hills near where I live. I'm afraid the front chin of the car will get scraped more often than not.

So my question is whether a BRZ/FRS can get easily scraped when driving over bumps in the road or flat roads that almost instantly turn into hills.

any input will be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just don't lower it if you're at all concerned. Better yet, take it for a test drive around your area (or ask your local forum members).

I can't imagine you will have problems scraping on hills.. maybe some ridiculously sized speed bumps at worst. Even lowered, I don't scrape on much of anything as long as I am careful.

I've been scared by a few things, but have actually been surprised at the clearance. I've cleared some pretty scary looking speed bumps without issue. I wouldn't push it, though. If you think it's going to be close, either take it slow or find another route.

This car does not scratch as often as I think it would. The front lip is actually tilted upwards. Hell i scratched more on my stock '10 honda civic coupe than the twins.

how about on a road such as this?
http://1funny.com/wp-content/uploads...bumpy-road.jpg

Thus isn't a pic from where I live, if any of you were wondering. mainly I'm thinking about the smaller bumps(the bumps closest to the picture)

I've gotten overly confident with the stock height, it's not all that bad. Took a steep entrance going sideways today and heard some scrapes. Looked under my bumper/under panels and is still spotless, dunno what the sound was from. But yeah, scraping has never been an issue for me, you'll learn over time what is maneuverable and what isn't.

If you're worried there's always lip kits. The suspension is firm enough such that it shouldn't scrape under normal driving conditions through speed bumps (unless you're going over 25mph over it). stop worrying and just buy the darn thing.

no one will look under your front lip and call you out on scrapes lol

Stock most less likely than lowered. Mine scrape leaving work everyday. I'm about an inch from bottoming out on my driveway so I just go slow. I'm lowered on coilovers.

I'm stock and I've never once scraped with mine on an incline. Not even in my driveway with the incline on it. Speed bumps, never once scraped on them either. The only time I scraped was my dad drove it and underestimated the front of the car and that block of concrete in parking spots.

You won't scrape anywhere except odd driveways meeting roadways, exits of small retail parking lots, or poorly designed speed bumps in bad parking lots.

No scraping on a normal road surface given the posted speed limit.

Can't say the same if posted speed limit was 15MPH and you fly over a bump at 45.

-alex

Carefully if your going down on a downward slope. I scraped my front bumper once getting out of a plaza but I repainted it so yeah.

I also have a thin drive way that was made sometime in the early 50s that has an incline of about 45 degrees. no curve from 0 degrees to 45 degrees. it goes directly from flat to steep. I mean I could park right on the street, but then it would be under a Palm tree which drops its 100+ lbs leaves every once in a blue moon. Guess I'll have to make that decision myself though.

You all have been a great help.

You're not going to scrape on any kind of normal road bumps at stock ride height. If there's something unusually awful, slow down? Mine's been dropped about an inch, I live in a town with pretty bad roads, and I still don't rub except on really bad driveways and one or two horribly-disfigured drainage dips around town.

Make some ramps for your driveway, or re-pave it?

curbs are your only real enemy unless you lower the car.

I drive in NYC and surrounding every day. Have not bottomed out or scratched my front bumper. It does look like shit from all the rock chips though. You'd need to live on some real shit roads for the clearance to be an issue.

Planning to own it 15 years is too optimistic. Most cars start break down piece by piece around 12 years. That is my experience anyway.

I'm on stock height right now. I've been able to clear MOST dips but not ALL. Those parking stops? Forget it... They will ALMOST always win.

Drive ways? There are some I'll scrape and some I don't.

I'm optimistic because my mom owned a 1993 Jeep Cherokee until 2011 when she bought her 2010 Toyota Highlander. My dad still owns a 1993 Saturn wagon that still works great today. only things that went out that had to be replaced were the transmission and something else that was not more than $1500

If you had the chance for your first car to not be a bad running, boring car, wouldn't you want to try and keep your first car for as long as possible? That's my philosophy.

I scrape entering driveways... and be careful of those parking stall blocks... go too forward and you lose your bumper... But overall I stopped caring after the first scrape....

I live in Northern Alberta. We have extremely cold winters that cause massive frost heaves and pot holes everywhere. I am lowered on Eibach sportlines and very rarely touch. I wouldn't worry to much about it. Thought it was going to be bad once I lowered it but it turns out it's not as bad as I expected. If you put a lip on you'll run into issues in some areas, but it's nothing that should determine whether or not you should buy one.

Has anyone measured what the STOCK front lip ground clearance is? Someone is offering to house my car for free but his driveway has an INSANE gradient.

I daily my frs, and i'm quite low. I do scrape, but its nothing that concerns me when its just the underside of the bumper/lipkit. now i dont reccomend going as low as i am unless you are experienced with driving really low vehicles, and the key to getting in and out of places with steep inclines is the angle at which you go in at, the more horizontal you can get to the drive way or incline before you actually have to start turning in, the better.

The roads where i live are quite bad in some places, Especially New Orleans and Lafayette, LA. i don't think you'll have as many problems as you think. I personally cant get in everywhere or turn in every driveway, but i know my limitations and i have never had an issue scraping with stock ride height. even if its a horrible incline, if you pay attention or go in at an angle, you should be fine.

pic for reference on my ground clearance
http://s25.postimg.org/xl5fkyywv/IMG_5168.jpg

Lowered on eibach sportlines and I've not yet scraped a single time in over 8 months

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I think the car might be too low for a different reason. Suppose you are in an SUV in a parking lot and there are cars on both sides. When you want to back off, you turn around and look through the back window, and check the side mirror etc. It might be hard for u to spot a BRZ coming. Then you back out of the parking spot and you are very surprised there was such a low and small car behind u.

This happened to me already, of course, I was the other driver. Pretty sad.

No, the problem is SUV drivers driving retarded land-boats and not looking where they're going. As usual. "Oh, I should look in a mirror before I back up?" "Those painted lines on the road mean things?" "What do you mean it's unsafe to be doing 85 in a 65 while swerving across the freeway without signaling on balding, three-year-old all-seasons?" For christ's sake the new ones are festooned with fucking cameras covering every angle and they still manage to hit things in parking lots. You can't cure stupid.

It's hard to spot most vehicles coming in parking lots when you have an oil-tanker-sized SUV to either side of you. That's why you inch out incredibly slowly when you can't see anything, and keep an eye on what's directly behind you as you do so. If I can back out of parking spaces like that without incident in a BRZ (a car where the b/c pillars block literally your entire view out the corners) then SUV drivers sure as shit could do the same thing in their cars, if they could be bothered to pay attention to what they were doing.

I'm picking on SUV drivers here because you brought them up. The truth is, most people driving most kinds of cars don't pay enough attention to what they're doing in parking lots. They pull out of spots really quickly and they cruise down the parking lot lanes way, way too fast. When you're cruising down the lot and there's a Suburban hanging out of its parking space, guess what? You should slow the fuck down because you have no idea what's on the far side of that SUV, and something very well could come flying out of that spot right into the front of your car as you pass by. Everyone should do things slowly where visibility is restricted.

Pretty much like everyone here, I don't scrape much on stock height. I've manage to scrape once and it kills me a bit but it's under the bumper so at least it's not visible. That one time I scraped was because a very steep exit going out to a road that was steeper than normal. I did go sideways and it still scraped. I now avoid parking lots that looks questionable. So if you're going to go lower you might not be able to make it into some parking lots and barely make it and might scrape a bit on stock height.

Its fine for me just about everywhere but I have to be really careful which parking lots I can get in and out off...

I dont own this car yet but downloaded the service manual and it states minimum ground clearance stock is 4.9 inches... have read another member on here stating so as well in another thread.

http://i39.tinypic.com/v7zev6.png

Not Too Low
 

My BRZs been lowered approximately 1.5" for more than a year and haven't scraped on anything yet. I even have the Driveway Labs Rear Diffuser. Seriously, I don't see any clearance issues stock unless you simply can't drive or run your bumpers into curbs parking. As others have said 'ya can't fix stupid'.

The skid plate is actually lower than the front bumper.

I sit pretty low and I RARELY scrape my bumper, it's almost always the metal sound of the skidplate.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5482/1...e1e6da8580.jpg

I've scraped my Brz just once. It was an extremely inclined entrance into a parking lot in Seattle. I tried to hit it right because I could tell it was steep, but it was just too much. Nothing major, just a minor scrape underneath the lip. Other than that, I've been on many steep Seattle hills without issue.

I'm looking at your car pics and.....that's almost exactly what I was planning to do with my car, from the Satin White Pearl to the Valenti (red and white) taillights, to the red tire rims. Except I'm planning for a darker red on the rims and recoloring the Subaru plaques in a 2 tone black and white.

Why I didn't buy a BRZ...My driveway!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...pseb8cdb5f.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...ps3ff42553.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...ps6d5748e2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...ps1819e1e6.jpg