Quote:
Originally Posted by SlowButFun
Nearly everyone DESPISES me here because I'm honest to a fault, but I refuse to lie and not call a spade a spade: The FR-S is an AWFUL daily driver, and that punishment doesn't yield enough power & reward even on the very few track days the car will see (by the very few who will track it).
This is TRUTH as much as it hurts the non-objective - please read the articles cited/watch the video AND REALIZE THESE AREN'T MY WORDS, COMMENTS, REVIEWS, PERFORMANCE/COMPARISON TESTS, ETC., THOUGH I AGREE WITH ALMOST EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS:
"A Mustang GT can make the FR-S a small speck in the mirror and keep it there, whether the road is straight or twisty. A Mustang V6 Premium is priced right on top of the FR-S and will whip it, good. Any multitude of ratty used performance cars are truly vehicular methamphetamine capable of deeply embarrassing the guy bringing his $30,000 Scion to track day."
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...14-scion-fr-s/
Can't hang with ANY Mustang.
Maybe it can hang with a Scion TC? In some ways, barely:
"That brings us full circle to the tCs fiercest competitor: its stable mate the FR-S. No matter how you slice it, the tC isn’t as good-looking. It may seat four with relative ease, but the interior isn’t as nice as the FR-S either. It delivers good fuel economy and is plenty of fun on the road, but the appeal of the tC is more pragmatic than emotional. Still, when the numbers are added up the tC delivers 75% of the FR-S’ looks, 85% of the handling and 90% of the performance for 78% of the price. Being the deal hound I am, that makes the tC the better Scion."
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/8-...ison-fr-s.html
And don't dare challenge a Renault Megane, either:
But at least it's a reasonably comfortable, refined driving car. Wait, oops:
"No car is the best car for every situation. The Scion was borderline awful on I75 the previous day, assaulting my ears with tire roar and the rest of me with incessant jiggling. “Steel drum,” I note. My ass grows sore within an hour. The seatbelt cuts into my neck each time I forget to fasten the retaining strap to the left of the headrest. Due to the small windows and lack of a sunroof option, the dark, plasticky interior has the ambiance of a cave, albeit one with red stitching. The needle of the analog speedometer starts off at four o’clock, and even at highway speeds is still pointing towards my left knee. It’s nearly useless, so luckily there’s a digital speedometer in the tach face. One wonders why they didn’t follow Mazda’s example with the RX-8 and drop the analog dial altogether. These endlessly straight highways are not the ideal habitat for an FR-S. Anyone who’ll regularly be driving them is well advised to buy something cushier. Aside from minimal sound insulation and an unyielding suspension, the FR-S includes little beyond the most basic features. There aren’t even audio controls on the steering wheel. Then again, the problem with the audio system’s buttons isn’t that they’re hard to reach. They’re close at hand, but feel cheap and defy logic."
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...06-mazda-rx-8/
But at least it's reliable. Oops. Nope:
"When the car’s owner put the pictures up, noting that he had been in the car when the motor blew and that nothing unusual was happening at the time, he started hearing from other Toyobaru owners and tuners that they’d seen similar issues, often starting with a valvetrain failure. In the case of this particular car, the piston was “in a thousand pieces”, so it’s hard to tell if a valve dropped into it or not.
The engine’s being dissected as we speak for root-cause analysis, but I wasn’t cheered by the number of people who immediately stepped forward to talk about similar issues. As we stood by the smoking car after the failure, the owner started running down all the different ways in which these cars are known to blow up on-track. Apparently, the injector seals wear out, at which point the cylinder “leans” and the motor blows. Or they can have oil pressure issues. And so on.
This is a big deal because much of the GT86’s appeal is based on the idea that you can enjoy it on-track for a long time with low to no running cost."
http://jackbaruth.com/?p=942 |
Jack Baruth has hated this car since day one. He has posted multiple articles about how much he loves the Camry SE on the track and he constantly trashes on the twins. The dude is a contrarian for the sake of it. He is absolutely one of the most biased reviewers on the twins.
Anyway, I posted this over at TTAC a week or so ago on an article about the FR-S sales. [That site, in general, hasn't given the car a fair shake. Their one "editor" listed it as one of the worst cars you can buy... yet, he traded in his NA Miata for a Mazda 3 because the Miata was so bad at insulating him from the Toronto winters and had zero space.... hmmm, what car gives you the handling goodness of a Miata but a usable trunk and doesn't freeze you out in the winter? Mazda 3 is obviously the answer!]
"Lets do a little summary.
2012: On sale for half the year, the BRZ and FR-S combined to outsell the WRX by a significant margin, outsell the GTI, 2x the 370Z sales, and 2x the Miata sales.
2013: With a full year of sales, the BRZ and FR-S combined to move 10k more units than the WRX, 2x the GTI, and 3x both the 370Z and the Miata.
2014: The all new WRX on sale for 9 months of the year moves 4k more units than the BRZ and FR-S. The all new GTI on sale for 6 months trails the BRZ and FR-S by 4k units. The Miata moves roughly 1/4th as many units as the BRZ and FR-S.
Considering the practicality that you give up and the fact that the WRX and GTI got some major reworking, why are we flipping out at the volume level of the BRZ and FR-S? The sales trend seems to be following the normal sports car trend of hot at the beginning and a steep drop off a few years later. The Miata did the same thing when the NC came out but no one is out here writing the eulogy for the ND — which just so happens to get less powerful and even smaller — things could get ugly for it despite the drop in curb weight. You have to consider that with small sports coupes, a lot of people get them early and the the niche is mostly satisfied. When they start appearing on the used market with low miles and little wear and tear, going new is tough to justify. Again, the Miata exactly shows this scenario. I remember car shopping for S2000s and Miatas in 2010 and finding 3 year old NC Miatas for 1/2 off the original MSRP was easy. Why would I consider buying new?
Anyway, I took delivery of my FR-S in august. It is the most enjoyable car I’ve ever owned and is among the most enjoyable cars I’ve ever driven*. It fits me like a glove, has just enough space for my daughter in the back when I’m flying solo on the parenting duties. The seats are great, the steering wheel feels great, the shifter is smooth and precise. I test drove the 2015 WRX and 2015 GTI and they were fine automobiles. There aren’t going to be many people that I say that the WRX or GTI was a bad choice compared to the FR-S/BRZ. Those cars truly are amazing at being jacks of all trades. They are totally different animals, though. They feel tall and you feel like you are sitting on top of the chassis. The FR-S/BRZ make you feel like part of the chassis. If you don’t have great, twisty roads, this feeling is largely unnoticed/unvalued. The Miata is the other car that feels like that (in the affordable range, anyway). If you want a slightly more practical Miata, it is hard to beat the FR-S or BRZ.
Another thing to consider is plant capacity. I’ve seen pictures of the XV Crosstrek and the BRZ/FR-S coming down the line nose to tail. I believe that the WRX comes down the same line as well. If you are the product planner on that line that is running capacity, at the beginning of 2014, do you shift more of the volume to the brand new WRX and hot selling XV while cutting the BRZ/FR-S/86 volume or do you hold the volume steady from your 2013 numbers? It makes financial sense for capacity constrained Subaru to build the most of what they can sell for the most money. Flooding the market with BRZs and FR-Ss when the market is generally satisfied makes little sense when there are buyers chomping at the bit to get a new WRX since the previous model was using old, thirsty engines. There aren’t entire lines or plants dedicated to building this car (nor is there a market to support that short of the domestic pony cars). This is why you see it built with 1 engine, 2 transmission choices, and trim lines that amount to base, premium (base + nav,HID), and limited (premium + leather,push button start, heated seats) instead of 4 different engines, 2 transmissions, convertible or hardtop, and trim packages out the nose.
*I’ve driven a V10 M5, CTS-V, 997 911, IS-F and there is a large element of fear, especially concerning one’s ability behind the wheel, with cars with that much forward thrust. On the street, those cars are so capable of going so far outside of the normal street driving envelope that I can’t ignore that fear. I feel like the FR-S strikes an amazing balance of being able to drive spiritedly without being a complete menace to those around me."