Shopping cars today, test drove an fr-s..my thoughts and I'd like more opinions plz.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by chaoskaze

Ps: if you just drive around town most of the time, don't get the twin. 😁 That's what they are most terrible @.

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Nah Chaos I have to disagree with you here. No you do not get the fun factor as a nice country road but around town it works just as well as any other car. City driving is city driving be it in a FRS, a pickup truck or a luxury sedan.

[MuseChaser]

To the Original Poster..

You, my friend, sound like an IDEAL candidate for a used BMW 3-series car. They can be had for relatively little coin; you could probably find a good one w/ less than 100K on it, maybe six or seven years old, for under $10k. They handle impeccably, are extremely comfortable on even the longest drives, will go forever if you maintain them (I got almost 250,000 out of mine before the Central New York salt ate it), have a back seat that will hold two more adults quite comfortably, and the back seat folds down (like the FR-S, but split) and you can put a ton of stuff in it. I just sold mine and bought an FR-S; the FR-S is a BLAST to drive, feels just as fast if not faster, and handles like a sports car that puts the "sports" higher in the priority list than the "car" part. The BWM is a "sports sedan," so it puts comfort and refinement a little higher up and "sports" a little lower, but you can still push the heck out of it and it stays balanced beautifully. Find one to test drive and see how you like it. I had mine for 12 years and almost cried when I left it with the new owner. Fortunately, the Fr-S is really helping ease the pain!

Good luck..

Barry

[chaoskaze]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Nah Chaos I have to disagree with you here. No you do not get the fun factor as a nice country road but around town it works just as well as any other car. City driving is city driving be it in a FRS, a pickup truck or a luxury sedan.

But he lives in Cali! Unlike you on fancy canadian prefect roads surface over there........ Cali road is the bomb........................almost wanna kill myself everytime i drove there with my car.
* Funny thing about cali is that all the mountain/canyon roads are better then city roads...... when it's suppose to be oppsite.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by chaoskaze

But he lives in Cali! Unlike you on fancy canadian prefect roads surface over there........ Cali road is the bomb........................

OK I will give ya that one! I have to drive through Detroit frequently so point taken.

[jvincent]

Originally Posted by chaoskaze

But he lives in Cali! Unlike you on fancy canadian prefect roads surface over there.......

Never been on our roads have you.

The Californians get potholes because they don't fix their roads and they just deteriorate.

We get shiny new potholes every year because asphalt is no match for snow/ice/water .

To the OP, get the colour you like. No point in driving something that's a compromise. As far as driving around town, the twins are fun at any speed.

[Justin.b]

IMHO, if you're planning on making driving a hobby you should learn to drive a manual transmission. The best way to learn is to buy a car with one. Go to an industrial park on a Saturday and you'll have it down. It's not difficult.

I had been trying to get my wife to learn for years. Then when we bought a manual, she was driving it to work within a week (she's not very patient, and I'm not very patient so we had to go with smaller evening 'lessons' instead of one crash session on a Saturday).

-Justin

[chaoskaze]

Originally Posted by jvincent

Never been on our roads have you.

The Californians get potholes because they don't fix their roads and they just deteriorate.

We get shiny new potholes every year because asphalt is no match for snow/ice/water .

To the OP, get the colour you like. No point in driving something that's a compromise. As far as driving around town, the twins are fun at any speed.

Not Ottowa. But I used to live in BC & been around BC & Alberta for 12 years of my live.

First thing I noticed when I move south is the drop in road quality..... not joking. & on top of that they never fix their roads!!! (Takes them a minimum of 1 year to fix anything........and when they put new tarmac on the road it's so thin, the road would be bad again in 3 monthes!!! I'm not joking you will be laughing if you see it.)

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Justin.b

IMHO, if you're planning on making driving a hobby you should learn to drive a manual transmission. The best way to learn is to buy a car with one. Go to an industrial park on a Saturday and you'll have it down. It's not difficult.

I had been trying to get my wife to learn for years. Then when we bought a manual, she was driving it to work within a week (she'd not very patient, and I'm not very patient so we had to go with smaller evening 'lessons' instead of one crash session on a Saturday).

-Justin

Takes a brave, brave man to teach his wife to drive.

[jvincent]

Bah! My wife learned to drive manual when she was 7 months pregnant with our eldest.

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[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by jvincent

Bah! My wife learned to drive manual when she was 7 months pregnant with our eldest.

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Mine too (well with our eldest not yours).

And that was an old baffed out, clash box Datsun 4 speed not a nice new, modern tranny and clutch.

[Justin.b]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Takes a brave, brave man to teach his wife to drive.

I had originally tried to teach her in my 240sx with a 6 puck unsprung clutch disc. That wasn't going very well and would always end with a frustrated Chinese fire drill after stalling at a red light.

Of course, this took longer than it should have because of the 4pt harnesses which she apparently couldn't remove under duress. Things went much smoother when we bought the xB.

-Justin

[VTEC]

Originally Posted by DarkSunrise

A couple of thoughts in response to your post:

- Power - This car makes just 200 hp and only at 7000 RPM. That means if you're not downshifting into the 5000-7400 RPM band, it will feel slower than you expect. This is unlike turbo cars which make a LOT more torque at lower RPM (i.e., not necessary to downshift to make good power). If you test drive OEM turbo cars like the Fiesta ST, Focus ST, GTI and Mustang Eco, this will be abundantly clear. This isn't to say the FR-S is not adequately quick, it just requires someone who is willing to downshift and enjoys exploring the upper end of the tachometer. If you dislike needing to downshift and winding the engine out, you may want to pass on the Twins.

^ This. In order to enjoy the twins you need to be hitting 7400 rpm.

Also, I'd encourage you to get the manual even if it is your only car. An experienced manual driver can do 0-60 in 6.2 seconds which is on par with other sports cars in its price range like the Fiesta ST and Civic SI. An automatic does 7.7 seconds which is on par with a 4 cylinder Camry. Maybe that is ok with you since you are also considering a Camry and the FR-S is no drag racer manual or not. But it is damn fun to chirp tires in 2nd gear with a manual lol

Finally, you're in California so you are probably limited to 91 octane fuel which means the car is running on reduced power. Some people put in octane booster to get the fuel up to the recommended 93 octane but I doubt the dealership did that for the car you test drove.

If you thought the Camaro felt like a boat, I don't think you'll like the Camry much better in that sense. A manual TC is not a bad ride. Roomy interior and panoramic sunfoof. Plus it's a bit faster and much better handling than a Camry but it's obviously no FR-S. Civic SI is also a decent ride. Faster than TC and on par with the FR-S. Handling is also better than TC but worse than FR-S

In terms of most practical to most sporty it would be TC, SI, FR-S. If you really want to learn to drive and enjoy driving I would pick one of these 3 cars in a manual. The new Camry's look nice but I don't think they will do anything to encourage your passion for driving.

[fumanchu1]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Nah Chaos I have to disagree with you here. No you do not get the fun factor as a nice country road but around town it works just as well as any other car. City driving is city driving be it in a FRS, a pickup truck or a luxury sedan.

I agree with you Chestnut Ned (That's my new name for you for today), It is a fine car for driving around the city, even my modded one(who is let's be honest a bit stiff with the KW v3) is better/more fun than driving around in let's say my 2004 Sentra or my brother's crappy Hyundai and Ford

[fumanchu1]

Originally Posted by Justin.b

I had originally tried to teach her in my 240sx with a 6 puck unsprung clutch disc. That wasn't going very well and would always end with a frustrated Chinese fire drill after stalling at a red light.

Of course, this took longer than it should have because of the 4pt harnesses which she apparently couldn't remove under duress. Things went much smoother when we bought the xB.

-Justin

Wait you tried to teach someone on a 6puck clutch!?!? I'm surprised she's still with you and has not decided to never drive standard again. Some people like the punishment I guess