[OfficeWorker]

My overall feeling is that if you buy the car, you will probably love it, and you will probably find yourself driving it more than you expect because of how enjoyable the experience is.

I've only had my BRZ for about two months and 3,500 miles, so I am a newer owner in this world. I found myself in a practicality debate. The BRZ is my only car, it was not a practical choice at all for me, it's not the cheapest car to insure/feed/maintain (e.g., premium gas, higher insurance rates than econoboxes), and I do not regret it one bit. The 2017- is worth considering IMO for the revamped style and interior. If you think you ever will use CarPlay, or if you like using infotainment systems, the 2017 infotainment system is absolutely abysmal (the 2018 is revamped)...but the car, as a whole, is just spectacular. I personally feel that a new car is usually the best way to go.

Is the clutch hard to learn? Is it forgiving?
IMO, it is pretty easy to drive this car in stick - especially compared to AWD manual cars I have driven. This car seems to like shifting when colder less than other manual cars I have driven. The weight of the clutch compared to other cars I have driven seems to be somewhat in the middle of things - not insanely heavy and not insanely light. The amount of 'travel' where the clutch and flywheel initially and fully "meet" is not terribly short either (forgive my lack of correct technical terminology here.) I had not driven manual for about a decade so I went to test drive the BRZ on a day/time when there was minimal traffic on the road. I did not stall the BRZ when test driving it for the first time. I stalled the crap out of the STI.

Should I consider another brand?
I would recommend also test driving the WRX and WRX STI - especially because these two cars have the potential to be your daily drivers 100% of the time, where as with BRZ you will likely have to commit to owning two cars (e.g., you should like the BRZ enough over the WRX to make this financial/logistical commitment.) I drove both. They are neat cars. They are a crap ton faster than the BRZ in a straight line. I liked the driving experience (and the interior) of the BRZ so much more I was OK sacrificing the practicality of AWD, usable back seats, two rear doors, and a larger trunk. It may also be worth pricing up insurance between the said models of BRZ + Outback vs WRX vs WRX-STI? (also, it may be worth pricing the 86 as the BRZ vs. 86 as I learned that insurance prices between the two can differ dramatically.)

Are there any special maintenance or preventative maintenance things to watch out for?
Paint - it's delicate. If you are anal about paint, factoring in the price of one or more of several methods of paint correction and protection may be worthwhile, especially since some of these you ideally want to perform/have performed when the car is as new as possible before it incurs the normal impact damage that comes from driving. Depending on how much you do yourself, and what specifically you do, this can get lengthy and/or expensive. If you keep your 2011, and you purchase one of the BRZ's with the LED headlights, you might find it harder to drive a car with halogens at night and especially at night when raining - at least I do. If your 2011 does not have HIDs, you might find yourself buying the projectors/HID kit...

Thoughts on changing the summer performance tires to an all-season tire?
I'm arguably in the minority in that I like quality ultra-high performance all-seasons for general street usage. I changed the OEM summer touring tires to the Pilot Sport A/S 3+ after a thousand miles as I felt the OEM tires lacked in dry, and in cold + wet, I felt they bordered on hazardous. I like the A/S 3+ a lot, and they are arguably one of the better UHP AS' - they do well in minor/moderate snow, which might or might not be sufficient for your area. For days when it is bitterly cold (without snow), they still maintain good performance, and I wanted a tire that I can drive hard during the 5+ months when the winters aren't so severe that they necessitate a true winter tire, but are too cold for summer tires.) While the A/S 3+ is a tremendous improvement over the bottlenecking that all-seasons have developed a reputation for, they certainly still entail tradeoffs over well-rated summer performance tires (the OEM Primacy does not fit that criteria IMO.) A lot of people on this forum strongly prefer dedicated max/extreme performance summer tires/wheels matched with dedicated winter tires/wheels. (Note that the BRZ tS has dramatically better summer tires than the other BRZ models, which use the summer-only touring tire.)