[PabloN]

It took 5 months but last night out argento FR-S (MT) came in. I was so excited I got up at 1 am and wrote down first impressions (below). I haven't posted pictures before and an not sure I got it right. Also, apologies for any incoherent thoughts or statements already made too many times in previous posts...

Exterior: I don’t get why people think the FR-S /GT86 is boring. I don’t know any other way to say it: this car has a presence. It’s a sort of feeling you get when you’re up close and personal with it. To me it’s an example of the best Toyota designs, a subtle sophistication that doesn’t rely on kid-racer gimmicks.
Interior: The most natural-feeling car I’ve ever been in. Everything makes sense (OK, maybe not the stock radio).
The first drive home: Other posts have already said this, but my overwhelming impression was of a playful spirit. You can just feel it begging to have some fun. Of course this can lead into dangerous territory on public roads, and I’m not particularly competitive so autocross seems out of the question. I’ll probably take some advanced driving courses next year where they let you use your own car.
Quibble: This also has been posted many times already, but the clutch travels a long way before it finally starts to engage. All my cars have had manual transmissions and all were different, it’s just a matter of getting used to each one.
Surprise: I think the biggest surprise to me was how transparent this car feels. With other cars I’ve owned you are always aware of the car itself because of its limits. Want to shift gears on the VW microbus? You know the general area where third gear is but it always takes a little time to hunt it down. Want to take a corner a little faster in the Saab 99? Feel that body roll and be thankful it’s been rollover-tested off Swedish ski jumps a hundred times. Want to accelerate in my wife’s hybrid Camry? Listen to the computer algorithm searching for the best gear ratio. But, paradoxically, the FR-S takes the car out of the equation. You want to shift—done. Steer—done. Accelerate or brake—done. I know other sports cars do the same things, but somehow in the back of my mind I’m thinking that, as a total experience, the FR-S does the whole thing a little better.
Summary: Absolutely no regrets getting this car despite the five-month wait (and the CEL incident just before the dealer was about to give me the car with two miles on the clock). Pauly Toyota, did a fantastic job wrestling with the Toyota/Scion allocation system, and it was well worth it. And hats off to Toyota and Subaru for giving their engineers the freedom to do what engineers do best.