Finally placed my order for 2015 Limited, after many test drives
 

'15 WRX comparison/review would be cool. Thinking of getting wife one at year end. As a winter companion to my BRZ.

Why didn't you go with another Mazda?

I test-drove the new version of my car.. Mazda3 Hatch. Unfortunately, manual version only comes with 2.0 .. 155 hp. It too is too *grown up*. The engine is barely audible. The steering is numb. Not a single thing about being in that car or driving that car made me smile.
It has its purpose and it IS a very nice car, but comparing it to Protege5 was like comparing a go-kart to an Accord.
It probably would have been more interesting with a 2.5, but a brilliant move by Mazda.. 2.5 is only available in the states with 6sp auto. The car moves singnificantly better with 2.5, but I am not willing to give up manual for it.

2015 WRX was the only car which made it VERY hard for me to make a decision! Massive improvement over 14. Interior is much improved and exterior actually looks pretty good in person too.
The turbo spools up much sooner and comes on much more progressively, but don't be fooled.. there's still plenty of turbo lag and if you're not paying attention and let the RPMs drop way low, you can floor it and the car will barely move.
The steering is a bit softer than in BRZ and on-center feel is just shy of BRZ, but all in all it's precise and direct. Shifter is very mechanical and notchy (as it should be!), but throws are significantly longer than in BRZ.
Handling.. the thing is dead-planted! In a bumpy curve where BRZ would come loose and move around (pleasantly predictably), WRX will swallow the bumps like there was nothing there.. almost zero body roll too. It's "too good", if there is such a thing.
The only real *dislike* is the seat. Not nearly as good as BRZ's. Bolsters are there, but they're too wide apart and the biggest issue is the flat, short bottom.. there's is no thigh support. Quite a few people are complaining about this on WRX forums.
Over all, this is an outstanding car.
The reason I chose BRZ over WRX: the smile factor in WRX comes from "hyperdrive".. getting into boost and being pushed into the seat. They throw in speeding tickets for free! BRZ is a laugh at any speed. It makes me smile, without breaking the law.

Everyone's different, of course.. I'm sure loads of folks will jump ship and trade BRZ for WRX, as it may potentially outcorner BRZ (seriously.. it turns ridiculously well) and of course has loads of torque and power if you keep the RPMs up. For me, BRZ is just more fun.

Up here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Subaru won't let anyone test drive cars before a down payment is made. It's makes shopping for cars some what silly and difficult. I guess its just the Subie dealers out here.

Congrats on the new vehicle!
Please post some images once your new toy arrives.

Cheers

Wow that's terrible. This is common practice with motorcycle dealers, but shelling out 30k on a car you can't even test? I guess you can do the deposit thing and if you hate it you only lose what? $200?
Still.. I like that all car dealers in the states allow test drives (at least all the ones I've visited).

What color?

Congrats, and I'm sure it was and will be well worth the wait and effort for you.

#1: Lightning red. #2: WR blue .. depending on what's available in that particular shipment.

P.S. where's the "thanks" button? Do I not have it yet cause I'm a nOOb?

You need 10 comments, I believe, so you're almost there.

I asked to test drive a 2015 WRX at a local dealer and was turned down. However, there's another dealership a bit further away that let a buddy of mine test drive a 2014 WRX without putting down a deposit...but I refuse to go back there even to test drive a car because of poor treatment from their service department.

Congrats on the purchase, I'm sure you're gonna love it.

Unreal! Well.. I can definitely recommend my dealer (Flemington Subaru). This is the 2nd Suby I'm getting from them (first was a 2005 Outback.. looong time ago).

Zero pressure.. all nice people and they hand you the key, WRX or not. They never go on test-drives with me. "Here's the key.. have fun!".

I owned a 2013 BRZ and opted to buy a new 2015 WRX.

Long story short the only thing the BRZ has over the WRX is stiffer handling. That car never EVER swayed and the WRX, since it sits higher tends to sway in the corners a bit more. Nothing bad mind you, but that's really the only difference I would complain about.

Have fun with the new BRZ its a blast. Only reason I sold it was bad winters...needed AWD....turbo wasn't a bad addition either ;)

What made your car blow up so early? I have a 03 accord, 117k. I beat on it as a teen (i.e. neutral drops and such) and its still alive today. I actually beat on it every day to save miles on my BRZ lol

Anyway, hope you have better luck with you new car!

Although a hassle I can understand that.

I put a 2,000 down payment on my BRZ before it even hit the US. The dealer I went to told me on STI they require the same thing. They said they have horror stories of "kids" coming to test drive WRX and STIs and nearly crashing.

Mine was delivered and I test drove it and bought it.

:iono: :burnrubber:

You're going to absolutely have fun with this car, without a doubt. Enjoy it!

wow. when I went to my local subie dealership they just handed me the keys to a brz and an sti and said have fun. no license or nothing. I'm in the middle of buying a 14 white brz and they didn't even ask for a deposit to hold it. I can understand some dealers might be hesitant though with wrx and stis if they have a lot bad joy riders. that's why I always make an appointment to let them know I'm serious.

Yeah, I was shocked too. They told me to go test drive the FR-S, if i want to know what's it like.

I'm not sure, but i think deposit is a minimun of 500$.

Nice! True Sports Cars have two doors!


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Totally agree. Hated my turbo for a DD.. by the time you're having fun at a high rpm, you're breaking a few traffic laws already. My BRZ is enjoyable at any speed (around any corner)! :thumbsup:

OP, congrats on making an informed decision, you really sound like the ideal BRZ owner. You will love the car, I miss mine everyday but the 15 WRX is pretty fun and I thought your comparison of the two cars was spot on. The BRZ is simply a more fun and sporty car to drive. The new WRX is not quite as fun, but more practical if you have a family and live in a place that snows 8 months out of the year :)

How do people have much of an idea of how cars drive based on a dealer test drive? I've found it neigh impossible to compare cars just driving it around on the streets for a couple of miles. Are there dealers that let you get to play with throwing the car around? I never really understand the "take the car for a test drive" because I feel like how the car drives at the track at the limit completely doesn't reflect what it drives like on streets. About the only thing I can see from a test drive are the ergonomics.

Logistically speaking how would you accomplish that? How would it be insured? Liability if you kill yourself on the test drive? What about break-in? What about putting signifigant wear/tear on consumables like tires/brake pads? Would you buy a car 4 other people took for test 'races' at a track

....as fun as what you propose it, I don't see it being remotely realistic.

My dealer let me take it to some backroads that were very tight and twisty. You don't need to redline a car to see how it drives.

Makes total sense! If practicality was high up on my list, I'd go with WRX. I am lucky enough to have 2 vehicles in the family (well.. 2 cars and a whole lot of bikes :D ). We also own a Hyundai Tucson AWD. The opposite of fun, but as practical as they come. I can leave BRZ in the garage all Winter, if necessary :D

:iono: I wasn't particularly hard on it. I mean.. sure I'd take it close to red line often and corner somewhat hard, but besides that.. Mobil 1 syn since 3k miles and all the other regular maintenance.

It didn't *blow up* per say, but needed at least 1k worth of work, which would be in addition to timing belt ~$600 and my suspension was used up... so a bunch more money. Trade-in was just over 2k, so I decided it wasn't worth fixing the motor.
What actually broke was either the lifter or valve spring (according to tech).. sounded like a bucket of bolts was dumped into engine and RPMs started bouncing up and down.

test drives are by their very nature limiting and there isn't much you can do about the fact that after driving the car the car for a week that you will learn so much more. you do get a better idea though when you drives similar cars back to back. its like putting two shades of the same color next to each other. you get a much better comparison and certain things that will pop up after buying it will be more noticeable that way. also driving many different roads. most people just drive down the road and turn right back. you can drive it a little farther than that.

Onramps

You skipped out on a lot of good cars to test drive...

Focus ST
Fiesta ST
MINI
Genesis Coupe
Fiat Abarth
Mazda MX-5 Club
370z
2015 Mustang Ecoboost (not out yet)


I test drove more cars than you did, even with the new options out there the BRZ would still win out :P But its always fun to test drive.

Good list! And I assure you I considered each one of those and ruled them out without testing.
In general, not a fan of American cars, having owned so many in the past.. all falling apart (no offense to anyone, I hope.. just speaking from my experience).
But bias aside, I'll state other reasons why I ruled out all of the above:
Focus ST: not a fan of turbo cars in general and this one happens to put out loads of power all going to front wheels and uses electronic wizardry to make it handle well. While there's a good chance I'd never know the difference, I just prefer to have proper sports car setup.. that is RWD with mechanical LSD.
Fiesta: Pretty much same explanation.. and having watched numerous reviews, seems the ride is more harsh than BRZ and ergonomics are not as good. May still take one for a spin just for laughs.
Mini: have talked to several long term owners. All agree that it's not a great car if you want to keep one for many years. Once it's out of warranty, if anything breaks it seems to cost 3 times as much as any Japanese car to fix.
Genesis Coupe: heavy and pricey. I would rather have light, underpowered car than a pig with power.
Fiat: Another one with questionable reliability and a turbo.
MX5 Club sport: really like this car and strongly considered it, but while I don't really *need* anything all that practical, I see BRZ as a 2 seater with a huge trunk, whereas MX5 is a really fun toy. Heck.. I can theoretically use BRZ to take my race bike to the track (ramp, etc will easily fit in the trunk!)
370z: reviews were enough to turn me off. While I wouldn't mind testing it for myself, it appears this car is a handful when you start to get to the limits (not in a good way).. kind of the opposite of what a good sports car should do.
2015 Stang: again.. very heavy. I think V6 actually makes more sense. HP/torque is nearly identical. Ecoboost weighs just slightly less, but I'd rather have the smooth torque curve of the NA motor.

Obviously those are just my ramblings. I'm sure many (if not all) of those cars are very good and no doubt loads of people love them. I think the only one on the list which would make me question which car I like driving better is the MX5, but BRZ does win out on practicality there.. and I like the look better too.

My test drives were BRZ (Limited) vs. FRS vs. turbo Gen Coupe. Couldn't tell any difference between the twins other than the fact that I like the interior of the Limited a lot more. In the Gen coupe, the additional power was noticeable, but there was no comparison in the handling: the steering was much tighter in the twins. I also preferred the shifter in the twins: the Gen coupe shifted like a pickup vs. the short throws and precise gears in the twins.

The one advantage in the Gen was the fact that you could use either regular gas or premium, as long as you didn't mind losing some power with regular gas. But, in the end, I decided that if you don't want to buy premium gas, you should just forget about a sports car and buy a Prius.

The trick is when you walk in, find the youngest looking salesman and he'll let you do whatever ;) I test drove an FR-S, the guy I was with literally told me to drive it like I stole it. I didn't want to be the guy to wreck one so I took it easy, near the end of the test drive though I finally understood what all the hype was about.

Just preordered my series blue, more than excited to finally get this thing. How fast do you think the 1000 of them sell out?

2010-2012 or 2013+ Gen? The newer turbos got TONS more power.

I wanted a 1st gen Gen Coupe V6, but couldn't find the one I wanted. I had to buy a car within a week (old car had a new broken part every week and I was starting a new job in a different state)

Drove the BRZ limited and was sold. I still love it every single day. It's remarkably easy to drive like an idiot and not crash.

I love sliding the rear at 15 MPH. Makes me NOT want to buy wider rear wheels. How often can you say that? :D

I nixed VW's from my list due to reliability, same as you did with the MINI's. The Veloster was on my list for a short bit, until I saw how ugly it was in person and the reviews about how crappy it was to drive. The Civic Si was never on my list cause its been ruined for a long time now by the new beancounters at Honduh that replaced the Engineers that actually cared about their cars...

The Focus was my VERY close number 2. Its not built like American cars normally are, and its fantastic to drive especially with the seats. The Fiesta probably would have won out over the Focus if was available at the time, I saw them in action at an Autocross a couple weeks ago and they are freakin amazing :eyebulge:

And ya, Miatas... Just too impractical for an "only" car. But eventually I want to own one just for shits and giggles.

Why did you not test drive the Genesis Coupe? I'm asking mainly because I wanted to see what you thoughts were about the Genesis Coupe and the BRZ, along with the 2014 Civic Si. I'm a huge Honda fan and I was going to get a Civic Si but they were way too common and it's front wheel drive so I didn't bother. So yeah lol you should tell us or me about your 2014 Civic Si experience and what made you choose the BRZ.

I was originally going to buy the Genesis Coupe but the 3.8 Track model was very expensive and I couldn't find a good deal on it. But I test drove the Grand Touring model (They didnt have a track model) and I just liked the BRZ better if anyone wants to know why I'd be glad to give some input as well.

You forgot the most important reason why you bought the car, IT'S DEAD SEXY!!!

My coworker has the Focus ST. He is super jealous of my BRZ, but he needed the extra room in the rear since he's planning on having kids soon. I'm only 24, so weeeeee! We still haven't driven each other's cars yet, maybe I'll see if we can do that next week :D I know his car is a lot faster.

My brother has a 2013 Civic SI. The thing handles on rails. I was very surprised how much grip it had. Also feels like it has more oomph in everyday driving. Still, I like my BRZ much more.

My brother kept saying.. "Why RWD?".. After driving FWD my whole life, slamming the gas and kicking the tail out is probably one of the best feelings in the world. I always think of the GT86 video on top gear. Petrol heads always prefer the tail to be wagging

There's really subtle things I like as well. Like turning onto a road briskly, I get that "er er er er!" tire screech. Never got that in FWD.

And the wide hips. Love staring down the car from the side.

Genesis Coupe is as heavy as a Mustang... too heavy for a sports car. Besides that, if reviews complain about too much turbo lag and I greatly dislike how that feels, I know it's not for me. The V6 is probably very fun, but that gets pricey and you still end up with a very heavy car.

Civic Si: I love the drivetrain in this car. Of course it's not the same as RWD, but it does have mechanical LSD and while horse power is nearly identical to BRZ, there's quite a bit more torque (170) .. very noticeable. It actually pulls very well off the line and doesn't feel like you have to rev it out to move.
Steering is significantly lighter, but it's not sloppy. For a front wheel drive, it does a great job of accelerating through curves without pushing wide (thank you, LSD!)
Shifter is excellent.. my next favorite after BRZ. Longer throws, but mechanical enough, very precise and perfectly positioned. Clutch is excellent too.
The interior is pretty cool.. infinitely more toys than in BRZ. Standard back-up cam, standard side cameras.. all sorts of read-outs. Definitely feels like it's aimed at the sideways-hat-wearing individuals (no offense).
The deal killer: the most uncomfortable seats of all the cars I've test-driven :(
Once again this is a personal thing, but.. there's WAY too much lumber support and it's not adjustable. So to me, it feels like someone's jamming a knee into my lower back the entire time. The longer I sit in it, the worse it becomes. Loads of complaints about this on Si forums, but of course there are plenty of people saying they like the seats. Besides discomfort, you also sit way up high. Weirdly high. Not a bad thing, but certainly makes it feel like less of a sporty car.
I liked the car so much, I even researched getting seats reshaped, which is shockingly expensive. ~$1500 for the driver + passenger.
Wife loved the drivetrain too, but disliked pretty much everything else about it (the interior, the seat discomfort, the seat height, the rear spoiler which obstructed her rear view..)
I think I failed to mentioned that she'll be driving the BRZ too, so this wasn't just my decision. Overall, she preferred the BRZ over all other choices.. strictly because of how it drives.

It's definitely not a pretty car (ok ok.. it's damn ugly), but I thought if I loved how it drove, I wouldn't care about the looks. After all, it IS quite practical and quite cheap.
My opinion: reviews are actually kind about its driving prowess. Massive turbo lag and should that turbo come on while you're in a curve, terrible understeer. That was enough for me to stop paying attention to how it does everything else .. "what's the quickest route back to the dealership?"