Scion Ride and Drive- Good Info Inside, straight from Scion District Managers!
 

Hello Everyone!

As I have mentioned before I am an Internet Manager for a local Toyota dealer in Virginia Beach and today I had the pleasure of participating in Scion's Ride and Drive of the new FR-S. They had two of what they consider main competitors, the 2012 Honda Civic SI Coupe, and the 2013 Hyundai Genesis Turbo.

I have videos I am going to post as soon as I get home from work. They let me strap my GoPro to the car for some entertainment in the Sales Meeting Saturday morning. I just want to say WOW! This car is absoutely amazing. Being that the cars have to last for two weeks, they did make it to where we could not go into VSC Sport Mode nor everthing cut off mode. So with stability and traction control ON, this car still made me grin from ear to ear.

The Civic SI was honestly a disappointment for me. I didn't plan on liking it more than the FRS, but I did have good expectations for it being that I owned a 2008 Civic SI. Simply put RWD>FWD and good thing Honda is redoing it this year.

The Genesis was an absolute catastrophe. The turbo didn't really spool or kick in until about 3500 RPMS so it was virtually useless in the tight autocross course they had set up. You can really feel the extra 800 lbs the Genesis holds over the FR-S as well. Going through the Slolam, the car almost felt like the steering wheel would lock if I was going too fast, and I couldn't turn it to save my life.

Being that I had the opportunity to drive both manual and automatic versions of the cars that came available with both transmissions, I was very impressed by the FR-S automatic. Even with all computer things cut on, the transmission was awesome. I was able to put it in manual mode to prevent the engine from shifting and keep my revs up and managed to make the ass kick out on me quite a few times.

All in all, I know this is not a great review. I will post my videos in a while, I just wanted to share my experience with the community. Here are a few things I also found out:



TRD Accessories will be available in 3-6 months. Accessories include:

• Air Filter
• Front Big Brake Kit
• Cold Air Intake
• 18 in alloy wheels
• Exhaust
• Lowering Springs
• Oil Filler Cap
• Front Performance Brake Pads
• Strut Tie Brace
• Sway Bars

The 5-Axis Kit will also be available soon. With the 5 piece kit and 19in wheels, I believe she said the cost is right at $3100 without tires.

5-Axis IS going to offer a Staggered Set-up for these cars.

Regional manager stated Scion is only building approximately 2000 2013MY FR-S.

BeSpoke is NOT Navigation. It is a social networking with routing. If you do not know the difference between Routing and Navigation, routing will tell you directions, similar to Mapquest, but will not guide you if you go off course, it is your responsibility to do this. Navigation will reroute you if you go off course, BeSpoke will not!

The manual transmission has 3cone synchros for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear, they mentioned notchiness may be a complaint, but it is designed so the car is smoother at higher RPMs, when downshifting around a track. :)

Also, I do not know if you noticed, but on your dashboard, inbetween the defrosters, there is a small obstruction, it is actually a mark for the center of the car. Toyota designed this for the enthusiast so they can tell where the center of the car is, in relevance to the track.

They also informed us this may be the last year of Hot Lava for Scion......

Hope this little bit of information helps some people out!

Videos:

Sorry for the wind noise in most. You need to skip forward to about halfway through on each one to see the actual driving start. I had to start the camera the second I got the car and staged with the others, so there is a delay in most.

Vehicles:
2013 Scion FR-S
2012 Scion tC
2013 Hyundai Genesis Turbo (with 274hp)
2012 Honda Civic SI Coupe

Course 1 "Agility Oriented"

Automatic tC with TRD Sways, wheels, spoiler:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_09IwvtHaE&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_09IwvtHaE&feature=plcp[/ame]

2013 Genesis Turbo
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWIbushYsr8&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWIbushYsr8&feature=plcp[/ame]

Whiteout FR-S
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQTQEPsMZgM&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQTQEPsMZgM&feature=plcp[/ame]

2012 Civic SI Coupe
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z7OI5dgZvU&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z7OI5dgZvU&feature=plcp[/ame]

Course 2: "Performance Oriented"

2012 Civic SI:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh3Wazhe9ZA&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh3Wazhe9ZA&feature=plcp[/ame]

2013 Genesis Turbo:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJm9Yx9Veg&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJm9Yx9Veg&feature=plcp[/ame]

Ultramarine Automatic FR-S:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjc2umF9Egk&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjc2umF9Egk&feature=plcp[/ame]

Firestorm 6MT FR-S:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM3-zFKjZYI&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM3-zFKjZYI&feature=plcp[/ame]

2nd Run 6MT FR-S, got a little carried away and hit one turn a little too fast towards the end.:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F-l6aLqu-A&feature=relmfu"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F-l6aLqu-A&feature=relmfu[/ame]

I was there today too..I'm guessing the red FR-S in the parking lot was yours?

Can't wait for the vids! Dammit they need something like that in NorCal :(

Heres a pic of the black one that was on display

Yes Sir!

What group were you in? I was red.....

Yeah, I've got a small vid of that I was going to post up too lol

Blue..and i think your review of the cars was spot on. That hyundai was a pig.


Im excited for all the TRD stuff. I just wish they would have offered a navigation unit. I wasn't too impressed the bespoke or the updated bespoke for that matter.

Can't believe it's going to take that long to get us an exhaust system for this car. That's just weak.
All of those should've been available from day ONE :(

I've heard the TRD Exhaust and I'm not impressed with it. I'm gonna go with the Nameless. They build a great product and quality is very high, plus I love the Boxer grumble and it is definetly noticable with it haha.

??
 

Regional manager stated Scion is only building approximately 2000 2013MY FR-S.


So then when does it switch to 2014? That's a really small number of cars to make. I thought Toyota said they would make 20,000 in the first year. Was 2,000 a typo?

I need to put in my order for a Hot Lava FRS then don't I!!

If that was true, they'd have nothing to sell by the end of July at the rate they are going. Unless they were going to release the 2014's in 2012.

For those who want a Nav...the head unit is a standard double din and I priced Kenwoods and Pioneers just yesterday at my local audio shop we use at my dealership...you can get a nav unit for the price of the Bespoke that gets installed. I personally am getting a Kenwood unit that worked with Garmin to provide an Iphone app which allows you to use the Nav off an Iphone directly on the 6.95" screen...not a bad deal. Cost me less than the Bespoke...and still has some apps available.