Talk me out of regretting my FRS purchase

[Summerwolf]

I'm going to guess that you're in a high APR for your loan and buried in the car. Without some good, long term, on time payments AS WELL as keeping up with any other obligations your credit won't improve. You won't be able to get another loan or trade out for quite some time.


Learn to love the car and make your payments.

[Ashikabi]

Tldr: don't be a wuss. This car is fun as hell. I drove 4 winters in iowa in a lowered civic on shitty "all season"(cheapest money can buy) tires without incident. Pretty sure the FRS will be ok. Just put snow tires on it and enjoy it. Don't have much of a choice any more anyways. Puerile make a big deal out of AWD but it isn't THAT great. Just kinda helpful. I see big 4X4 trucks in the ditch all the time. Didn't save them.

[Summerwolf]

I will say this.... my two foresters have been the best vehicles in winter that I have ever owned.


My current forester with snow tires will go through anything. AWD does help, but you still have to know how to drive in winter weather.

[theparagon]

Relevant videos:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1KGBfp7ZaY"]Winter Driving Like A Pro - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T08v00MGOWg"]Ice Racing Challenge - The Scion FR-S Tuner Challenge - YouTube[/ame]

It's fine in ice and snow.

[Lync]

As many people have already stated, this car is fine in the snow with winter tires. BUT to reiterate, I COULDN'T WAIT to drive during the blizzard that hit Northern VA recently. The best part was plowing through a foot of snow and getting tons of stares cause I'm in a fucking sports car with a foot of snow in the middle of a blizzard. Also stopping to help AWD/FWD vehicles get unstuck

[Frost]

Originally Posted by STZ

Yes, but AWD definitely helps you go in the snow. It also isn't prone to oversteering in corners in the snow.

You're not wrong about the stopping though. That's purely on having good snow tires.

Helps you get going faster. Traction in the end comes down to tires. How you use the available traction depends on your drive train.

I've never owned an AWD car and I've driven in plenty of winters. The only times I got stuck was due to stupidity and there were only ever two incidents: one where an 18 wheeler (his stupidity) ran through a stop sign and I stopped in 4" of snow and had a very hard time going again. The other time I made a 3 point turn on a country road without realizing there was a drop off immediately where the road ends and my front two wheels (FWD of course) feel off the road. Managed to push the car back onto the road thanks to some kindly strangers.

Oddly enough the stranger mentioned, "this is why RWD is best!". I laughed pretty hard at that. I'm sure he mentioned it as a joke.

I'll be painfully blunt: if you think the FRS is bad in the snow and think a WRX is the only way to go, then you have to look at yourself in the mirror and evaluate your driving skills and needs. Remember, NEEDS is not WANTS.

[Frost]

Hate to beat on this topic but this is SUPER relevant

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKBdOE2z4O4"]RWD in a Snowstorm - Are we Crazy? - FR-S Long Term #3 - Everyday Driver - YouTube[/ame]

[FRSteve91]

I'd really like to thank you guys for all the input. I'm easily the most indecisive person I know, and I've had buyers remorse about sub $20 purchases (yes, it's that bad).

I took someone's advice and took my car 20 minutes away to a nearby mountain, and I've officially lost all "regret" I had. I love the car, I'm just one those people who sits there and thinks "oh, I could've got this, oh, I could've gotten that". But the truth is, when I sit in the drivers seat of my car, all that goes right out the window. I've driven a fair amount of "fast" cars (I actually work at a dealership (I'm not going to be too specific) and have the luxury of "test driving" any car on the lot), and none of them appease me like the FRS does. I DID do a good amount of research before I bought it (about a weeks worth, it wasn't an impulse decision), and test drove it for over an hour and a half (seperate times).

I sortve made myself sound like an idiot financially in the original post, but I was at work and couldn't really take my time. But long story short, my ex gf and I took out some credit cards to make purchases using "6-9 month 0% financing". I lost my job at the time (this was a little over a year ago) and couldn't make the payments. Instead of reporting those late payments to the CB, the creditors lowered my max. My credit score WAS 550 about a month ago, due to utilizing too much of my credit, and the age of my credit. Since I took my car loan out, my credit has gone up to 610 (still poor, but it's rising). I got a 12% interest rate (I know, I know), but I plan on refinancing after a year of making payments. My options were buy a $3000 money pit of a beater that I'll hate driving everyday, or sacrifice a year of making payment at a high interest rate on a car I'll love, which will help prove my new "credit worthiness" to lenders in a few years when I start looking at buying a house.


But yeah, I basically just needed other people to tell me I'm an idiot for having buyers remorse. We've had a very light winter here in MA (there's currently zero snow on the ground and it was about 50 degrees today), but the little snow we did get was a blast.

[FRSteve91]

One more thing: gas mileage is great in this car. I currently average 27 mpg on 93 with a good amount of spirited driving (including my mountain fun today)

[Ratez]

It looks like you need to get a grip on your financial situation. Do you regret the car or do you regret landing yourself in bigger debt? You would always find things you don't like when its based on impulse.

Do not let impulse take control.

[choiboie]

I've had a 6spd for 3 months now bought used back in Nov. This is a great car no regrets here. Need some minor repairs coming up other than some burning oil cars a dream lol..
My brother drives a mk7 with stage 1 Apr tune. He drove my car for the first time today as we switched for the day. First thing he said to me when he got back was how fun the 86 is to drive.
Mk7 is doing close to 310 , 340tq
Even after driving the mk7 I still missed my 86 😃

Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk

[FRSteve91]

Originally Posted by Ratez

It looks like you need to get a grip on your financial situation. Do you regret the car or do you regret landing yourself in bigger debt? You would always find things you don't like when its based on impulse.

Do not let impulse take control.

I'm guessing you didn't see my most recent post, but it wasn't impulse at all. I just have OCD and over think things. I'm really not "more in debt". That's not what's effecting my credit. Other than my loan, I'm $1800 in "credit card debt" that I'm caught up with, and will be paid off fully next month with my taxes. I made it seem like I was drowning in debt in my initial post.

[JimR]

I am very anti-debt, thus had more of a problem establishing credit in my 20s than fixing it. All I did:

• Bought and paid off a used car through credit union loan ahead of schedule, then did it again five years later.
• Got a credit union credit card and only use it for small things like gas and rental cars, paying it off every month.
• Not skipping bills or defaulting on anything.

When I bought my FR-S, the finance officer was stunned that a guy in his 30s had 800+ credit. I was, too. I'm not a Dave Ramsey poop-in-bucket-to-save-money warrior. The bar is pretty low to build good credit if you live within your means and keep your head down.

Pay off the car and enjoy the ride.

[AznBRZer]

12% APR? Holy crap, yeah, you made a big mistake buying this car. That's like what, about $1800 in interest alone in the first year of ownership if you financed for 5 years? Talk about pissing away money. If I was in your shoes, I would've just picked up an RSX or Celica GTS and called it a day. Sure your score will be higher next year, but it isn't going to be that much higher and you're still going to be stuck with a high interest rate.

I hope you budgeted for snow tires.