Subaru USA vs Toyota USA warranty and service experiences
 

I am very interested in getting one of he FT86 twins. I test drove an FR-S a few days ago and in reading up on the cars since then I have been somewhat alarmed by the reliability issues, particularly the CEL/idle and general engine problems. I was expecting simplicity and Japanese reliability and now find it has been so bad that it drove some people here to give up their cars and pursue buybacks, lemon law cases, or exchanging their purchased car for a brand new sample. Piling on was a friend who bumped into someone with one who said he liked driving his FR-S but he was sorry he bought it, because it is in the shop so much he never gets to drive it.

Despite this I will likely press forward and get one in the fall when 2014s are out. The 5/60 powertrain warranty gives me some peace of mind and I have other cars to drive if I have trouble. My question regards who is likely to take better care of me if I get an FT86 that is, for lack of a better word, a lemon. It seems Toyota has gotten a lot of praise on here, have not seen as much on Subaru. I know parts have been an issue with Subaru on some of their models in the past, hopefully that is not the case with the BRZ.

I would love to hear of your experiences and whether you give your company a thumbs up or thumbs down.

I bet you're hearing more about Toyota because there are simply more Scions than Subaru on the streets. A lot of those issues should be resolved by now. Most of the issues you hear about are from the first 86's or some from last year. I've heard that these cars built from mid-December till now should not have the same idle/CEL issues because the TSB's have already been performed. At this point I would probably wait for a 14MY, if I were you, only if you don't have an 86 readily available at a dealer near you. If you can wait, I would.

I am kind of surprised more people aren't buying the Subaru. There is plenty of BRZ inventory around here and I can get a discount on the Subaru vs MSRP on the Scion, meaning Nav + HIDs only cost $400 more. I need to drive the BRZ though and see if I feel a difference in the handling though. I would not change a thing about the FR-S handling.

i havent had any problems with my brz.. sorry if that doesnt help but just wanna give you some assurance that they don't all have problems. Also most of the complaints ive heard are people being extremely dramatic. Just my opinion tho.

Scion has absolutely terrible customer service. I'm not going to get into it, but I had such a poor experience with my previous Scion that I will never buy one again. In contrast, my experience dealing with Subaru of America on the mostly common issues I've had with my BRZ has been much more pleasant.

That moustache...

Stahp !

bought my fr-s in October, 7000 miles with no issues yet and im modded.

BRZ LTD no problems 3K

I'm going to have my subaru dealership at 7500 check out some shifter-feel issues I'm having. Some FR-S's I've seen have had great, slicky textury shifts all the way to 18,000 miles where they're at now. My BRZ however has very notchy, clicky shifts that everybody talks about- I'd rather have the fun slick box.

I don't know what the issue could be, perhaps I'll have to get some new shift linkage bushings? Trans fluid oil?

I have owned a lot of Subarus and had very few problems with them, my BRZ is at about 6200 miles and I haven't had any issues except the GPS fix. I know a lot of owners and personally do not know any who have had their cars in the shop for any period of time.

As for the trans thy are identical as is the trans fluid. My BRZ shifts great. Flud migh be a good place to start.

I will say warranty work for modded vehicles, Scion will likely work better with you. Subaru has been burned for years with the WRX and STi, definitely tougher to get things covered.

3100 miles on my FRS and no problems with it.

My FR-S has been to the Toyota dealership under 2 Toyota Service Bulletins. Once for the tail light condensation issue and the other for the body panel misalignment issue. I printed out the TSBs for both and presented them to the service writer who handled them right away. Tail light condensation issue was resolved in 3 days (1 for the appointment to confirm the issue, 1 for shipping the lights to the dealer, and 1 to get them installed). However, what really surprised me was that Scion was able to fix the body panel issue. In the TSB it states that Scion is aware of the issue, but no fix was noted. I opened a case with Scion, and while it did take about a month for them to get back to me, they did fix the fender, which was something I didn't expect. Personally, over the past 6 years as a Scion owner, I have had no problems dealing with Toyota/Scion.

To me, it depends on the dealer. I know my Toyota dealer well, having bought and serviced many cars there for years, hence my choosing the Scion. Subaru dealer is much farther away and I have no experience with anyone there.

But I am very happy with the basic FR-S, I don't like HIDs or NAV and I'm not too thrilled with climate control, etc. Old-fashioned and simple works fine for me. I find spoilers don't do much but make it difficult to clean around. Given a choice, I would have liked fog lights however.

Never drove a BRZ so not sure of the diffrence there but the FR-S rides and handles perfectly for me. Not too worried about repairs - I have several cars and will always have something to drive.