You did what??? My BRZ journey..
 

About 13 months ago I was in a situation where I either needed to put a considerable sum of money into an ailing 7 year old Mazda 3, or get something new.. I chose new.. I had heard about the FR-S and BRZ and was intrigued.. To the point that I put a deposit down on a BRZ.. However, I was pretty far down the list and July/August looked to be about the earliest date to get one.. Ugh.. I ended up driving lots of cars, Focus, Mustang, Camaro, Speed3, GTI, Fusion, Veloster, Genesis Coupe, etc.. In the end, I needed a car, so I went with a 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T. The car was fun to drive and had gobs of torque and horsepower (remember, I was coming from a Mazda 3). I liked the car.. For the money it had lots of amenities, power, etc.

Shortly after owning he Gencoupe, I was able to take an FR-S on a very brief test drive.. I liked the car, but really was not able "to drive" it. It was right around rush hour, and the drive was brief.. The interior features and amenities were just okay, but the handling and gearbox were both head and shoulders better than my Gencoupe. I was really not able to take the car through twists, nor was I able to really engage the engine much in the 5-6K range...

Fast forward about 9 months later... My son was at a 3 hour birthday party and I had time to kill... There was a Subaru dealer less than a mile down the road, and I noticed several BRZ's on the lot.. I stopped in, and told the salesman that I was just looking and not serious.. Well the salesman was awesome.. He is truly a car guy like me, and told me that it was no problem, and we took a manual blue pearl BRZ Limited out. He took me to a huge empty parking lot and let me really drive the car. He took me through some twisty roads and I was really able to drive the car as it was designed to be driven. I fell in love on that test drive.. Hard... I finally got what this car is truly about.. The interior was much nicer than I remembered the FR-S being, and the car had nice amenities.

That said, I knew getting the car was going to be a long shot. While I had almost paid off my Gencoupe, I still liked the car and was not going to take a bath on it.. Sure enough their appraisal came back on my car and it was really low. We were nealry $2K off... Ugh. Told the salesman, thanks, but I just did not think we were even close. I was ready to leave. The general manager came over and told me he wanted me to go out with him so he could drive my Gencoupe. Now I kept the car in immaculate condition. He took it out and liked the car. We talked a lot about cars, and really clicked. We had both owned many of the same cars and were RX-7 enthusiasts.. We went back inside and he told me he wanted to do some more research... About 20 minutes later he came back with a list of all the 2012 and 2013 used low mileage Gencoupe's for sale within 3 states of Minnesota and showed me how long they were siting on the lot and how much they were priced at. I told him, that I understood the car depreciated considerably, but that I just could not accept the price he was quoting me. He came up some.. I still said no. He came up some more and we were still about $800 off.. I think we both hit the breaking point.. He was going to let me leave, but I know how to play the game too, and I started to leave. He stopped me and told me he really wanted me to have the car and as long as I promised to buy it in the next two days (end of month quota), he would give me what I wanted concerning price.. I was actually taken off guard. I am pretty sure he will take a loss on my car. At any rate, I slept on the deal and discussed it with my wife (she was not excited about me trading in a barely 1 year old car that was nearly paid off)... I bought the car today and have not second guessed the decision for a second.. I 100% love this car..

The Gencoupe is a good car, but the BRZ is a great car. The handling, the lightness of the car, the manual gearbox, the seats and low profile of the car, the balance. It is truly a drivers car. The Gencoupe has it's strengths too. The horsepower and torque.. The more forgiving ride... More legroom for backseat passengers...

Here are some pics of both cars (sorry for the iPhone pics)
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps3e15f9c8.jpg


http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps494976a8.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps85479db8.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...t/02EB7F64.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...t/317F9F80.jpg

Awesome story, well done on not backing down to the manager.

My god the gen coupe is a hideous beast from the front...the back I really like. Sounds like you made the right choice.

Oddly enough, if it were a 10-12 gen coupe, I like those much better, just a little lacking in power.

Congrats on the new ride man. I respect someone who appreciates what the car is for. A lot people see on paper "only 200 miles?!", and then they shutup when you let them sit in the car for a drive around the twisties. Gen Coupe has a ton of bottom end torque but it's huge and heavy.

Can't wait to see what you do to mod it.

Fixed it.

@OP, welcome to the family!! :-)

This is definitely a feel-good read, as I have been to and fro between a Gencoupe and a BRZ for the past couple of months. I didn't test drive the Hyundai so I'll never know firsthand what I missed (or did not miss). The fact that it's more powerful and had more creature comforts was definitely enticing, but in the end it still didn't get my vote.

Yes, well I am sure the dealer did just fine :) I paid about $500 under MSRP on the BRZ, so there was definitely some profit there for the dealer. I honestly never thought the dealer would come close to what I was looking for on my trade.

That picture was an odd angle. Like the BRZ/FR-S, the Gencoupe looks better in person, but they are a little more polarizing than the twins.

They are just very different cars IMHO. Each has their pros and cons, but the twins are definitely more of a drivers car. That said, I already miss the torque of the Genesis Coupe :) If Subaru releases an STI version of the BRZ with about 40-50 more hp and 40-50 more ft lbs or torque, sign me up :)

Not to be negative, because the twins do so many things so right that other cars don't, but the lack of torque for me is the biggest weakness with the twins. You have to work much harder for power than many other cars in the class, but it is also fun getting there for me.

I will say this. I don't think I have had this much fun driving a car I have owned since my RX-7's (I owned three of them, and I still regret selling my 1995 model while was in the military in the late 90's).

I was so close to pulling the trigger on a 2012 2.0T R-Spec about 15 months ago, trsut me, I love those cars. When they had the 2013s on the lot, I couldn't believe how awful they made the front end. I have seen 20+ in person and hated all of them. I just cant believe how awful they made the car look. Nothing against yours, just the 13+ in general is awful looking (in my opinion).

You made the right choice. I hope to join the club someday as well.

Something else I thought was interesting. The Subaru dealer had two low mileage FR-S's for sale on the lot. When I asked the salesman about them, he told me both were traded in for BRZ Limited models. I thought that was interesting, especially since I was still considering a BRZ Premium and an FR-S after I drove the Limited. That really made me think long and hard about the Limited. It also helped that the only Premium models the dealer had also had a bunch of options that priced them higher. One was $26,800 and the other was $27,400, and the third was an automatic and was just shy of $28K. At that point the Limited was not much more.

The dealer did have lots of choice. I think they had 5 Limited's and 3 Premiums. They also had access to another Subaru lot about 10 miles away that had 5 more BRZ's that they could have gotten for me.

Haha, yeah, the design is very polarizing. You either like it or you don't. I was not in love with it, and find the twins to be more attractive. For good or bad (I think mostly bad) Hyundai wanted to give the Gencoupe a more aggressive and distinctive look, and also carry over their fludic design they are using on their new cars.

I applaud Subaru/Toyota for not going overboard on the twins. I really think they will age very well. The Gencoupe, IMHO, will not age well.

This is like a secret Genesis Coupe vs. BRZ comparison thread.

When I first learned about this car, there were threads galore from Hyundai owners saying how Toyobaru didn't invent anything new that it already existed in the Gen Coupe...They all go shut down by anyone with half an ounce of "driver" in them but it's nice to see a "real life" comparison.

LOL, believe me, the difference between these cars is massive. 6th gear in the Gencoupe is like a mile away (you literally are almost touching the person in the passenger seat because the throw is so far to the right and down). The biggest complaint I have always had about the Gencoupe was the vague shifter. Gears were too far apart, and you sometimes had to fight to go from 2nd to 3rd gear. It was the worst manual I have ever owned (and I have owned lots of them). The gearbox in the twins is one of the best I have ever driven. Mazda and Honda make some excellent ones too, but no complaints from me.

The other massive difference between the cars is the weight. The Gencoupe feels like a much heavier car, well, because it is. It really lacks the handling and feel that the BRX gives you. And it is not that the handling of the Gencoupe is bad (because it really is not compared to something like a Mustang or Camaro, or GTI), but the BRZ is just that good :)

Damn, I want to go drive the BRZ now :)

The GC's fake hood vents would be reason enough to trade it in. Also, did you like its performance gauges located on the center stack - far and below the driver's field of view? Totally logical position for them....

Still a better love story than twilight.