Following up on my previous post....
After many months of procrastination back and forth between the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ I chose the Subaru. My decision to go with Subaru mostly involved a poor experience with South East Toyota distribution and their local dealers, e.g. loading up their vehicles with unwanted & expensive accessories like e.g. paint protection, ToyoGuard service contracts, etc.
Contrary to South East Toyota, Subaru of America's national customer service was way more accommodating. They helped me locate the exact vehicle I wanted (2017 Premium, Dark Gray Metallic, w/ a minimum of extra or unnecessary options). My experience with the local Subaru dealership was equally fantastic, straight up negotiation, and they delivered the vehicle to me exactly as I requested -- right off the truck with only 4 factory miles on the odometer.
If you live in the south Florida region I can't recommend the Subaru of Pembroke Pines dealership more highly, their salesperson (Dirk Perdrix) was a pleasure to work with every step through the purchase experience
My only (aesthetic) gripe with the BRZ vs. the 86 is the rear spoiler. I would have preferred a "spoiler delete" option, I'm not a fan of the wing, as the body design is perfect (to me) without it. However, the spoiler was a small compromise compared with the base BRZ being a] $800 less (MSRP) than the Toyota 86, b] a more honest and accommodating (than Toyota) Subaru distributor/dealership experience, and c] no "Granlux" on the dashboard or door panels (-:.
I'm attaching two photos-- 1] the vehicle as delivered to the dealer right off the truck still with factory wrapping paper; and 2] a few hours later all cleaned up and delivered to me.
