Serious Question: Save for possible future BRZ tS, or throw money at current BRZ?
 

Serious question guys, maybe some of you are thinking the same thing too...

The big news out of the BRZ STI press announcement was that Subaru of America (SOA) is gearing up its STI branding to include more STI parts in the US and possible "Tuned by STI" (tS) edition models. This has me reconsidering my plans for my current BRZ...

I originally planned to at least keep this car 10 years or possibly forever. Subaru has never really offered legitimate "special edition" cars in the U.S. like they have in Japan, but if they DO decide to offer a special order type limited edition STI tuned car (I don't care about a turbo "STI" model with more power) I'm actually thinking I might want to trade in my current car for one.

I don't put many miles on my cars and I keep them in damn good shape (1.5 years and 10k miles on my BRZ, still has the new car smell) so my trade in value will be good but I would have to put it back to stock (not hard, haven't done much so far, and I kept all the stock parts because reasons). PLUS I can easily save $10k a year at this point if I don't spend it all on mods/etc. so if a special edition came out in a year or so I could afford it no problem but wouldn't be able to mod it much due to payments (nor would I want to, I would treat it more like a collectors car than a car to tweak to my liking).

I do have a list of bits that I do plan on adding to my current car, and it is a GBS BRZ (2013 color on, going to be a unicorn color in the future) so I do like it a lot...

So what should I do:

Start saving now for a POSSIBLE future car, or spend spend spend on my current car???

I would say wait and see what exactly would come on the special editions before you make any plans. If anything, you could probably find the STI parts online and just put them on your car without having to pay a lot more and lose value by trading your car in. Modify your car to how you like it and not wait for a manufacturer to do a mix of mods you like and don't like.

If you really take a good look at the parts on the Ts, the biggest performance increase contributor are those Michelin Pilot Super Sports it comes with. So from a bang for the buck perspective, its not gonna be worth it. Now if it's a super limited edition, then you may buy it as a possible collectors item and keep it super pristine, but doing that pretty much makes buying all the extra go fast bits a moot point now doesn't it.

Even if your car is in excellent condition, you won't get back enough on a trade to make up the depreciation loss. Keep your car and mod dude, that's what these cars were meant for :burnrubber:

Sad but so true.

While I agree with jetsevo4, the only thing I would add is that you could also do what ryoma said, just wait and see what happens. Don't forget about your plans to mod this car, just save for that new one. Keep planning and building your wishlist of parts and then when it comes out and you don't like what it comes with, or it has some new styling tweak that doesn't fit your taste, use that money you saved and start clearing out your wishlist! Saving money is never a bad idea.

Actually, the brakes, the seats, the suspension bits are all completely upgraded, plus a few other things...
Oh I know about depreciation, but I also bought the car for as cheap as I could and I live in California, so its about as "ideal" of a situation as I can have for resale value.


BTW, I have a feeling that the whole STI-brand-in-the-US has to do A LOT with the VERY low value of the Yen right now. The prices for a LOT of parts on Japanparts have dropped 30% or more and its part of whats tempting me to spend a big chunk of change soon on my current car!

Interestingly enough, when the tS came out in Japan it was about $40k US... Now its down to $30k US!!! :clap:

It really depends on what you want. I want a car that I can mod to be what I want, maintain forever, and basically drive the crap out of. I plan to keep the car pretty much forever. Any special edition doesn't make sense to me since I put on miles, track days and live in the north east. If you want a car to take out on nice weekends and be a treat, while keeping it relatively stock and taking meticulous care of the car, I'd save for a special edition. I just cant resist driving and tinkering with my brz every chance I get.

Everything short of the big brake set is available alacarte. Keep yours car.

Start saving. @ $10K per year, you should be able to pay cash for two of them by the time it comes out.

Modding a car is never a good financial move.
Buying a car brand new is rarely a good financial move.

Mod your car now, enjoy, and buy a used tS 1 year after it's been on the market. ;-)

the tS is a car that is greater than the sum of its parts.
For collectability buying a tS > modding a BRZ with all the tS stuff.

And you can't get the Recaros in the US. Somewhere on the forum someone said its because of the airbags, and shipping explosives.

Yeah, but if you re-read my post, the point is the MPSS are the largest performance improvement by far.

The stock car's brakes with a pad/fluid/line/rotor swap are just fine. Upgraded calipers might give more consistent braking, but I've seen quite a few people track (and even race) on the stock iron calipers and put their money into consumables. A BBK is definitely not near the top of the list for performance upgrades on this car, and for the street is largely cosmetic.

The Ts seats are lighter but don't contribute to performance in the way the upgraded tires do. Suspension bits as well.

Like I said, the Ts upgrades are nice and shiny. It's largely the Pilot Super Sports that actually make the car faster. Don't get confused by all the bling. Unless that's what you really want. If so, then go for it. That stuff is fun too.

Well all the special editions are just things that manufacturers release from time to time to spice up the market a bit ... If you can get a good trade-in value then yeah get it, otherwise maybe its easier to just mod your car and install the things that you really want.