How I got my BRZ
 

Hi everyone, new guy here. :) im in northern New jersey.

Funny story how I got my BRZ, looking back a 5 months I would have never guessed that I would be owning one. Back in November i turned 16 and finally got my permit. Yes You read that right I'm 16 and just got my permit and don't even have my license yet, I turn 17 next November (you cant get your license until 17 here) :sigh: Now before any of you jump to conclusions and start harassing me and throw all your hate at me hear me out. Im not some spoiled kid that had mommy and daddy buy his car for him and gets whatever he wants. It's the complete opposite. I'm really lucky to be owning a car as great as the 86.

I've been into cars for longer then I can remember and have been saving money for my first car since I was 12. I didn't know what I wanted but i wanted to start saving. It started with dimes and quarters i found laying around and over time turned into bigger bills from birthday money, to small jobs and left over lunch money. We have a 2004 Subaru Forester here as one of our cars at home and over the years the name Subaru grew on me. Once i turned about 14 or 15 I had my mind made up. The STI! What a beast of a car :happyanim: 305hp stock, turbo charged, AWD who wouldn't want one.

After doing research and sitting on forums I slowly started getting the ropes and learning more about the car. I also realized how expensive the car is.... :bonk: After talking to my dad about it I learned that there are websites where you could buy salvage cars, only problem is that 90% the cars you see on there are ripped to shit and don't have any life left in them. So it would have to be the WRX. Still an awesome car just a bit less power but still looks like an STI :thumbsup:

That summer when I was 15 my mom and I went to Europe to Poland where she's originally from. There i learned how to drive a manual car and even better, i was introduced to drifting :wub: my cousin was slidding around in a black e36 (bmw) and i got hooked :burnrubber: He was cool enough to even try to teach me a bit on how to slide around. I obviously wasn't too good at it but I understood the concept. With a little bit of practice on Forza, i knew I'd get it down :lol: So the WRX idea slowly went out the window. At the end of that summer one of my friends picked up an s13 (Nissan 240) and that idea slowly started to pick at me and pushed the WRX option further and further away.

Summer ended and my birthday was getting closer and closer. I was finally getting my permit. The conversation came up again with my dad on what car I was getting. With the time i spent saving up and spending on nonsense like skateboarding, biking and hockey equipment, i was left with about $6k. My dad was cool enough to say that he would help me pay for half the car but whatever parts i buy for it after was out of my pocket. So i was stuck, older WRX or a 240sx. I want a subaru (love that boxer rumble <3) but i want something rwd.

Then one day it hit me. The BRZ! It was out of my budget range so off to the salvage auctions it was. My dads friend has a dealers license and his own garage/company so he was going to buy the car and do the repairs for us. After 3 months of checking the listing every day, i finally found a BRZ in very good shape. A 2013 Limited WRB BRZ 6MT with 10,000 miles on it. Runs without a problem and the only damages were the front right fender, a little bit of the rear right quarter panel needed attention, a headlight and an airbag. Two months of checking it every day it was finally was auctioned off in March and we got it and i now had myself a new BRZ :D
It will be sitting in my dads garage as his weekend car until i get my license in november. Seems like forever but its nothing compared to what i have aready waited haha

Thanks for reading :thumbup:

cool story kid!
welcome to forum and drive safe and enjoy the car

Thanks ive been on this forum for months now just decided to actually make an account since i finally have a BRZ

Needs more emoticons...

This kid has two first names. $8k is a damn good price for a running and driving BRZ.

As you've probably figured out by now the BRZ will hold a hockey bag :thumbup:

Unless maybe you are a goalie.

Congrats and be careful, this car WILL bite you in the ass if you screw up.

Congrats on the car bud! Enjoy responsibly.

Congrats, and remember to be safe out there.

make sure he doesn't get too attached.

Yeaa that's what's awesome about salvage cars you could get a nice car for cheap you just gotta be patient. Only thing that sucks is you get a salvage title for the car so its hard to sell later.

Yes i noticed thank God haha plus those back seats fold down too so more room for other stuff :party0030:

Hey, a fellow David here.

Thanks for sharing your story, enjoyed reading it. Your attitude towards the cars makes me hopeful of the young(est) generation. But seriously, be really careful with the car; I know everyone will tell you the same, but it's no joke. You're lucky that you got such a great car for a good price :)

Thank you everyone for the kind words, definetly will be more then careful with my baby and will be resposible. Looking to keep it stock for the first 2 or 3 months get used to it before i start moding anything.

Good idea, just get her fixed up, enjoy it as is and do your homework on mods (if you need any at all). Although I want Enkei RPF1's and sticky rubber, everyone's telling me to toy with the car with it's Primacys...

Thanks for noticing, i myself dont have any hope for my generation... lol. Because of them my insurance is gonna be so damn high -_- but yeaa I'll be paying most of that myself I dont like having to rely on my parents for money i like doing things on my own and paying for my own stuff guess that's just me.

Yeaa like i said I've been on this forum for months before i actually decided to make an acount so I've done a decent amount of homework for most mods i was considered (if i do actually need them as you said). Wheels are definetly first and next is coilovers and maybe some aero for looks. What comes after that all depends on how the cars treats me haha

it also bites it's own ass on the wrong occasion!

lol It's been a long time since high school for me but I'm not sure this car would be great for that other stuff...

Awesome story. When I was 16, I got my Mom's 9 year old hand me down Plymouth Horizon. It was on it's last leg and was in the shop more than it was on the road. Probably didn't help that I drove it like a typical 16 year old. Just trashed the hell out of it.

When the Plymouth finally died (block cracked doing 70mph, which was the car's top speed), my Dad's friend who owned a used car lot said, "I have the car for your son". We went to see it one Saturday morning. I was convinced it was going to be some POS beater car. We got to the lot and it was a 3 year old Mazda RX-7 with under 20,000 miles on it. It looked showroom new. Not a scratch on it. My Dad's friend was anxious to get rid of it because he claimed, "It's a 5-speed and it's small, so no one wants it". He sold it to us for what he had in it.

Two years later I earned a scholarship to college thereby freeing up a big chunk of my college fund. My Dad told me I could wait until after I was out out college and he'd give me all the money, or he'd buy me a new car now. Stupid me...I opted for the car. A 1990 VW Corrado. Nothing was wrong with the RX-7 and I loved that car. All 100hp rear drive of it. But the Corrado had 158hp, fuel injection (yeah, no more manual choke!), and an electric spoiler...it was so cool!

A BRZ would have been near supercar performance back in those days.

Sure it is, it can fit four wheels in the back after all! :bellyroll::bellyroll::bellyroll::bellyroll:

lol true.. so maybe uncomfortably....

Congrats man! That's a neat story and I admire your dedication to saving for the car you want. Sounds like you snagged a good one and you know the right people to get it back into shape. Enjoy and welcome to the forum!

BTW post pics of the car and the rebuild process :thumbup:

Nice car, nice price.

I grew up in north Jersey, Union to be specific. Got my first car at 16, as you did. Worked my fingers to the bone as a mechanic to afford it. Of course it was a V-8 muscle car, cause that's all young people drove in 1971. Jeez that was a long time ago.

good luck and have fun with the 86

Pete

Did your parents give you daily lunch money in hundreds?

haha yeah good job! also 16 and getting an 86 but my parents are paying for mine! good job with the saving up!

that was how i was too.. in many regards, i've since come to respect the fact that i didn't/couldn't get my then dream car, because it wouldn't have lasted very long under the circumstances!

i probably could have paid msrp for a limited with all the money i pissed away during that 12-16 age bracket he said he saved his money... but i had a pseudo company mowing lawns with my brother. these days it seems it's a lot harder for kids to find paid work, as the -18 labor and insurance laws have made it really tough on employers to make it worth the hassle..

Great story. I was working 6 days a week when I was 15 up until I got my license at 17. My only motivation was so I could buy the car I wanted. That was many many years ago. But it made the car mean a lot more when you know we worked your ass off to save up for it.

Congrats on the purchase and thanks for bringing the BRZ back to life.

Thats awesome haha i was actually gonna drive my moms 2005 mazda 3 MT that she literally beats to shit, if it took me longer to find my BRZ. And duude i looooooooooooove rx7's <3 i wanna get one somewhere down the road and maybe swap a v8 into it :evil: lucky you haha

Thank you :)

Great story. Kudos to you for searching for a bargain. My advice is that, as soon as you can, get some professional driving/track lessons. Perhaps you could do it with your father and share the experience. These cars are a blast to drive, but it is better to understand the limits and how to handle them on a closed course vs a busy road :)

Haha I remember when I was 17 with the FRS. Have fun, drive safe, and don't forget to save up for snow tires!

Why couldn't the 16 year aspiring superstar drifter wannabe buy the FR-S? Why?

Makes me wish I hadn't spent all my money on Jordan's in high school. Maybe I could've had a decent car a lot sooner rather than driving a POS Saturn around lol. Hey it was worth the wait though ;)

Thanks!

Unfortunately my dad live in Pennsylvania (about two hours from me) so i wont get to be there to watch/help with the repairs i cant make the trip up there every weekend because i dont have my license yet and theres no point of him driving 4 hours to get me and 4 hours to get me home :( i did ask him to take a lot of pictures the day it arrived so i promise I'll put up a bunch of before and after pictures once its done.

Not a huge fan of muscle cars but swapping v8's into other cars is a different story. Thats always awesome.
Thank you for the reply!

WHY CAN'T ALL 16 YEAR OLDS BE LIKE THIS KID!?!

Good luck, have fun, you have a cool dad.

Welcome (officially) to the forum! Congratulations on finding a car for that price, but I would still be really hesitant to buy a crashed car. I was looking at is300s before the fr-s ....LOL. That turned into a headache.

I grew up in NNJ, too, but I got my car because of poor financial decisions :thumbsup: haha. As everyone said, be careful... a lot of people think they are good drivers, but they really aren't and inexperience doesn't help the cause. Drifting is cool and all, but I can't count on one hand how many people I know that have crashed trying to do so....not to mention a good amount of people on here crashed their car by doing so but refuse to admit it.

Yes the day i get my license and could legally drive at a track I'm making my way down and putting the car to work and figuring out what mods need to be done.