Back to a FRS from M3

[shu5892001]

Originally Posted by HunterGreene

Short, fun story. A friend of mine owns a smilar M3 to you, and let me drive it for a half hour a few years ago. I won't lie, the thing pulls like a mofo and I was smiling the entire time. But I knew getting out of the car that I wouldn't be buying one like it, namely because the car otherwise felt kind of numb in the steering feel.

Yea the steering was mediocre at best, but I think still a lot better than the F80, since E90 still had the hydraulic unit.

My main beef was the shifter, it was long and numb and had a lot of play once in gear, also heel toe was not as easy. Even after owing it for almost 2 years, I can still heel toe better during the test drive of the 2015 FR-S.

Another thing is, it is a blast at track, people say it's heavy and stuff, but to be honest, it is still pretty fast and balanced if driven hard. I had 265 + 285 PSS and I am an average driver, but I was able to take on lot of cars on cayuga.

But on the street it's another thing, I barely rev out to 3k, revving redlining in 2nd gear will already get me in trouble on local roads and redlining in 3rd gear will get me in jail. The FR-S is a lot more engaging to drive, I can redline and heal toe in traffic without getting into trouble and it's a much more fun.

[SLVRSRFR]

We're cut from the same fabric, except a little different.

I was all "JDM" back in the day, having owned many modified 240SX's, RX-7's, etc. Somehow I eventually got into German cars, and owned a Jetta VR6, followed by a Porsche 944, followed by an Audi Coupe Quattro. Once I got sick of old cars always breaking down on me, I had 2 335i's back to back; an '07 and then an '08. Had my fun with them for about 4 years in total between both cars; the power you can unlock from that TT inline 6 is incredible, and I like you had the "sleeper" 4-door that nobody expected. I was an active member of the local BMW owner's club and went to lots of events with them.

However, again much like you, I got close to 150k on the '08 and thousands of dollars of upcoming maintenance was starting to pile up. As much as I loved the car, it just didn't make sense to keep driving it. As fantastic of an engine as it is, it has a lot of well-known, common, expensive problems that pop up, and during my ownership of both cars, I experienced pretty much every one of them at least once.

It was tough for me to find something to replace it with that I wasn't going to hate. Eventually the BRZ crossed my radar, and I'd never really considered it before. It hit all the buttons I was looking for; better fuel economy, lower cost of maintenance, warranty, RWD, amazing handling, and great aftermarket support.

I have now happily owned my BRZ for 8 months and, honestly, despite how many options I gave up from the BMW (sunroof, seat memory etc.), the only thing I really miss is the power, but even that is only a "once in a while" thing. Other than that, I absolutely love this car and honestly wish I'd made the change sooner.

Long story short, welcome back!

Seems like there's a lot of ex-BMW owners on here, and we all have almost the same story LOL.