Does anybody else find the traction control to be too harsh?
 

I got my 2016 BRZ 2 weeks ago. My previous car was an 08 Honda Civic Si. After driving the BRZ for 2 weeks I've found that I absolutely loath the traction control. In my civic, if the traction control kicked in, it would slightly pull back the throttle just enough to stop wheel spin, but I could continue to accelerate. In the BRZ it completely shuts off throttle and even applies brakes to the rear. Stops me dead in my tracks. Now I'm not trying to do burnouts with TC on. I know how to turn it off. It happens at times where I'm just crusing and have to get on the throttle hard for some reason, and at the first bit of slip, it kicks in way too hard. It even does this in VSC sport mode. I don't mind driving around with TC off, but sometimes I forget. Anybody else feel the same as me about TC?

Pic of my new car.
http://i.imgur.com/qt15Vmt.jpg

I always use sport mode to avoid that. Keeps the stability control on but the traction control off.

I have never had TC activate on me while cruising or even flooring it. I'm assuming the reason why it turns on for you is a mix of tires and the road. I have pretty sticky tires and the roads here are pretty decent so plenty of grip to floor it and not spin the tires. I only have had it activate in corners, though I do agree that it is a little bit too easy to activate.

You have an automatic right?

Yes.

Especially from standstill it's close to being dangerous if you are used to driving with everything turned off. VSC sport isn't any better.

Turn it off, or don't expect the car to move when you need to (and drive accordingly).

When accelerating in a straight line the reaction from TC is the same in VSC Sport.

I'll give an example. I was pulling out of a parking lot the other day, and right as I entered the highway, a truck in the lot before my lot entered the highway as well. I didn't want to be in this guys way, so I got on the gas a little to make sure I accelerated at his pace or better, but there was a little bit of loose gravel on the ground and my tires barely spun. My car stopped moving until the TC light stopped blinking and by this point my engined RPM dropped, so when I got back on the throttle I didn't have much power. The aforementioned truck got right up on my tail and was not happy that I wasn't moving.

No. 6MT.

Glad I'm not alone. I thought something was wrong because I've never had a cars TC react so violently before this one.

I've had no issues with traction control, even when driving aggressively.

-alex

You guys must be driving pretty aggressively on the streets to have it kicking in all the time. It isn't that sensitive and if you are coming to a complete stop because it kicked in the you are doing something wrong.

I drive a little aggressive sometimes. I admit it. I'm not coming to a complete stop, but the car is slowing down A LOT. TC is completely cutting off throttle. It feels like you press your pedal to the floor and the car starts to go for 1sec and suddenly looses power, but your body is still prepared to be moving forward so it feels extremely dramatic. My body literally lunges forward toward the steering wheel.

I have an auto. For daily driving, i leave the nannies on and have never had an issue with TC kicking in at the wrong time. i drive into work pretty early (around 5:15am) so the streets are quite empty and often times slightly moist with dew, and i take some of the corners quickly. same sequence of corners, day after day, for 23 years now, so it allows me to experiment quite repeatably.
i've had TC kick in for a split second a few times, but only enough to slow the car down a bit in the corner. i have toyo proxes T1 sport tires, which aren't the stickiest. i do notice that the TC doesn't always kick in, even though i feel the rear slipping a bit. it does seem to allow some controlled slippage.

the only times it's kicked in when going straight was spinning the tires on gravel and in the rain (on purpose to see what would happen).

as someone else mentioned, you might just be driving a bit aggressively for the stock tires and road conditions.

are you on stock tires? get rid of them and most if not all the problems will be solved.

I never said it was kicking in at the wrong time. You and others have said this. I know exactly why it's kicking in. Loose gravel, wet roads, hard shifting into 2nd. It only kicks in when my tires spin. My complaint is that it does too much. It slows my car down too much. Other cars that I've driven (Civic Si, Focus ST, VW GTI) have much more subtle TC. They stop the wheels from spinning, but the car isn't slowed WAY down like my car is doing. Maybe something is wrong with my car. IDK. I've only had it for 2 weeks.

I am still on stock tires, but I don't see how changing them will effect the TC. If I spin the tires on any tire the TC will still engage. The only thing new tires will help is making it harder to spin them. All tires are spinable though.