President of SOA says BRZ needs more performance
 

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQMFkRP66-g"]Subaru: The Unlikely Success Story - Autoline This Week 1921 - YouTube[/ame]



BRZ talk starts around 25:42






In an interview with Autoline TV on 09 Jul 2015 Tom Doll, President and COO Subaru of America, when asked about keeping the BRZ in the lineup says:


"I think there's a place for the BRZ in our product lineup; we may have to do some things to it to enhance the driving performance a little more; take it up a little bit. Because I think that's one of the learnings we've seen out of that vehicle, if it had a little bit more performance to it, it could really take up the sales level even more."




Maybe good news for the next gen BRZ or could be just SOA talking about handling performance upgrades like the Ts which will probably find it's way to North America as an STi model in a couple of years. Hard to tell but nice to see that they recognize some potential customers want more performance.

What I got from what he said.
-Depends on the relationship with Toyota.

I got the same impression. Watching that part multiple times it seems like he personally thinks they could sell more BRZs with a higher performance version but a lot depends "on what the relationship with Toyota and what happens with the next generation of vehicle."


Almost like Toyota is vetoing more performance for this gen but maybe flexible on next gen. Just my opinion though.

This is old news.
He doesn't really say much of anything and what he does say is in typical car exec interview doublespeak. You can interpret what he says in about 4 different manners depending upon what your prior bias was.
Overall I would not hang my hat on this interview as an official report that there will be big changes.

http://www.autoline.tv/show/1921

My bad I corrected my original post. This interview actually just happened last week.

My interpretation was he doesn't want the BRZ as it exists now.

He also talks about wanting to keep the full lineup AWD. Combine that with the "more power" comment and I get the impression Subaru wants to move away from Toyota with the BRZ and build something totally different.

OHHHHH. I haven't seen that one then. Youtube is blocked at work. Bet I was still pretty close with the doublespeak though.

Yeah you can see it in his facial expressions when he talks about being committed to AWD and the interviewers keep bringing up the BRZ. But this project doesn't happen without Toyota so there's frustration there.





Total doublespeak. "More performance" and "enhance driving performance" doesn't necessarily mean more power. It could be reduced weight, suspension upgrades, you name it.

Subie News Release June 2017.
We are pleased to announce that for the 2017 MY we have improved performance handling by making the steering wheel 1/8th of an inch fatter and adding 3 extra threads to the stock camber bolts.

That will increase weight so they'll have to remove the door handles or something to make up for it.

I hear the new thing is pulling off your wipers so all is good.

I don't know...from looking at his facial expressions when he was asked about BRZ's future, it looked like he was thinking that the BRZ may be dead. Also, earlier in the interview when he was rattling off Subaru vehicles, he did not name the BRZ. Time will tell.

Don't forget taking off your steering wheel while cruising down a street!

True. That's why it's great to have video. Sometimes it's not about what's being said but how it's being said and he definitely doesn't look comfortable talking about the BRZ (at least not in it's current form or direction). It's especially noticeable when he starts talking about "some of the learnings" they've had with BRZ and needing more performance to increase sales.


(I still love my car though....)