Test drove a new FR-S for the first time and.....

[MisterSheep]

Hello guys! just wanted to share my experience I had yesterday testing driving my first FRS

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL CAR REVIEWER (nor writer), I AM SHARING MY EXPERIENCE THAT I HAD FROM ONE CAR ENTHUSIEST TO ANOTHER.

First off I'd like to say whenever I get onto the lot of that Scion dealership (Toyota of Dublin) the sales guys almost swarm you when you get out of the car. I had a guy waiting for me when I got out of my car. But besides the point he was a real nice and cool guy. I asked him what FR-S's do you have on the lot. The first one we walk to is a 2015 Asphalt Grey FR-S with the 6-speed and the first thing he does is grabs the keys and says lets go for a test drive! I said sure!

Before the test drive:
These cars have a great exterior size, seemed to be just the right size. The asphalt grey color really seemed to have a nice metallic flakey paint job and I thought it was very pleasing to look at. Opening the door the first thing i noticed was how close the rear seat is to the drivers seat, it touches the back of the drivers seat (granted the drivers seat was most likely all the way back.) After getting in and sitting in the car I can say I actually really like the interior. Yes I know the "carbon fiber" dash looks tacky and whatnot but that can be easily changed/ or ignored. My favorite things about the interior were the speedometer, seats, and shifter. Sitting in the car is a beautiful place to be; the seats hug you nice and tight, the speedometer is very clear and the digital speed is a great feature.

The actual test drive:
Setting off in the fr-s, it has a noticeably stiff ride. Due to the fact it's a sports car and has a very low center of gravity. When you drive this car the first thing you notice is the driving position and I can say for myself it's one of the greatest driving position out of any car I've owned. It's very similar to my 1994 nissan 300zx. The clutch pedal is very well positioned and very easy to maneuver. It's not too stiff nor light, and the catch point wasn't noticeably tall nor right off the floor. Your hand also falls right onto the shifter, It's a great positioned gear shifter! I always felt the need and want to shift, even when I didn't have to. The throws are very short, the shortest i've driven on any stock car. It was very similar in feel to my 2003 Subaru WRX with an upgraded short throw cobb shifter and yet I still prefered the fr-s's shift feel over that. While I was driving, unfortunately I wasnt able to bring it onto any good driving roads for some spirited driving (it's only a test drive and the spirited back road driving is for when you're on your way home with your new frs!) We had 3 people in the car, my girlfriend in the passenger seat and the salesperson in the back.. stretched along the seats sideways. "I don't understand why they even bothered to make this car a 4 seater." Is what I would hear from him while he's crammed in the back. With 3 people being in the car I didnt feel this car as being "underpowered" to be honest it's more than enough for driving on the road.

Overview:
I'm a little larger than average, 6 foot 1 and 185 pounds and the fr-s is just the perfect size to drive comfortably. The back seat is almost useless, only small children or just remove it entirely. Beautiful seating position and even better driving feel! I personally dont think it's underpowered, if anything it felt just as fast, if not faster than my step-brother's new V6 camaro.

This car felt a lot alike my old 1994 nissan 300zx which has been my all time favorite car to drive until yesterday.

I didnt buy the 2015 asphalt fr-s for acouple reasons;
I don't like to buy brand new cars due to the depreciation right off the lot.
And I prefer white on cars.

With that being said, I am checking out a 2013 fr-s with 20k miles thats white and hope to be driving away with it!

Update: I bought it! I am now a proud owner of a 2013 Scion FR-S in whiteout. As I drive the car for the next few days I'll write more about what I think about the car.

UPDATE: I was able to drive this car on some of my favorite driving roads around where I live and the feeling of this car is only comparable to one thing, a go-kart. The steering is so precise, the car moves wherever you put it! This car just grips, and when you think any other car would start loosing traction this car CONTINUES to just GRIP! I'm just in love with the way this car drives. It's low, stiff, grips, easy to slide around corners. I litterally find myself sliding around every intersection. It's not my fault and I'm not doing it on purpose but man does this car like to get the rear end loose. The whole "it only has 200hp" is such bull. This car has great power for what it is! It's not going to win you any drags because that's not what it's for. It's for the corners, and the feeling you get when you can push this car through a corner is truely blissful. If all you care about are "stats" then buy a mustang. Seriously, you won't like this car. If you can't stop bragging about how amazing your car can do a 0-60 then this isn't the car for you PLAIN AND SIMPLE. This car is for a DRIVER. Not a douchebag who "lives their life a quarter mile at a time".

With that being said I want to talk more about the actual car aside from the driving. First thing, anything that can glow red.. DOES glow red. The needles on the gauge cluster, the lock/unlock and window buttons on both sides, the traction control/ sport mode buttons on the bottom of the shifter, match these with the black and red stitched interior and it makes for a really nice place to be while driving. This car does get people's attention quite a bit. I've walked out of stores to people taking pictures of the car on 3 seperate occasions and I have only owned the car for a little more than a weekend. My girlfriend's neighbors came out to look at the car his name is Tom and hes a grandfather and Ex-Marine maybe about in his mid 60's. He loved my last car, my 2003 subaru and thought it was badass yet when he was looking at this car he didn't seem all that impressed especially when he asked "how much horsepower does it have". Which brings me back to the point above where people care about a car's stats more than how it can perform. Besides that he said it's super beautiful and the paint looks very good. My girlfriend's dad bought a 2003 e46 m3 brand new when they came out and he loves that thing. He understands the whole driving experience and he loves the FRS, when I asked him do you want to drive the car I got this "uhhhhh naw, I dont want to drive it because if I do it'll make me want to buy one"

My gripes about the car are as follows;
When refilling the car with gas it does not get a very good seal and you kind of have to play with it in order to get the nozzle to fit perfectly. The headunit is meh, it's decent. Just don't even bother playing music via bluetooth because even at full volume you can barely hear it. When you have your phone hooked up via usb cord and is on bluetooth the ipod browsing gets messed up at times. You will select one song on the screen yet play a completely different song. The great parts about the touchscreen deck that comes with the FR-S, is that it comes with the car stock. And thats about it. I'm glad I can hook up my phone, and ipod, and attach anything via AUX but it doesn't perform the job that great. Some things on the car took me awhile to learn such as the power mirror adjustment lever. It's unclear on how it adjusts and not even the salesguy knew how it was done. And last but not least.. toyota, subaru.. why didn't you make the exhaust tips actually fit the rear diffuser's holes? It looks so odd and it makes me want to get an exhaust for this car more and more everytime i see this puny little pipes!

LONG STORY SHORT: If you find yourself smiling ear to ear while driving a car hard through corners on a long curvy canyon road, YOU'LL LOVE THIS CAR. It's such an amazing value for what you get.

Previous (performance) cars ive driven;
1994 300zx, 2003 WRX, 2006 STI, 2004 Evo 8, 2005 mustang gt, 2013 mustang 5.0, 2013 mustang v6, 2012 camaro v6, C6 Corvette, 2000 eclipse gt (actually a pretty quick car won't lie.) 1994 3000gt vr-4, LS3 pontiac gto, e90 335i, 2000 Subaru STI from japan (RHD)

[8R6]

damn. i bought my frs the day i test drove it. there was no turning back lol

[Clipdat]

I didn't even test drive mine (or any other twin) before buying it!

Originally Posted by 8R6

damn. i bought my frs the day i test drove it. there was no turning back lol

[MisterSheep]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

I didn't even test drive mine (or any other twin) before buying it!

I've been looking to get into a new car for awhile, after test driving the one made me want to get one in the color I like

[Clipdat]

Do it! And then come out to some of our bay area meets, we have a great community of drivers!

[MisterSheep]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Do it! And then come out to some of our bay area meets, we have a great community of drivers!

I went to the annual summer meet in livermore at lake del valle just with my girlfriend. It was great seeing all of the cars! Unfortunately I didnt get to meet a lot of people nor get to talk much, we left early due to the fact we had to visit some family. We drove the blue 1966 ford bronco to that meet if you were there and or saw that car.

[Choco]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

I didn't even test drive mine (or any other twin) before buying it!

Me too!

[HaloMonsoon]

Originally Posted by MisterSheep

I've been looking to get into a new car for awhile, after test driving the one made me want to get one in the color I like

That's what I did. Drove a used silver BRZ, picked up my white FR-S this past weekend. Do it!!

[_gt86_user]

I test drove the hell out of an Ultramarine the dealer was claiming new but the ODO had like 500miles already, then test drove an auto for fun and I was curious ended up leaving with a white 6spd with 5miles on it lol.

[enouf]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

I didn't even test drive mine (or any other twin) before buying it!

Me three! Did the test drive a month into my 3 month waiting period (12 mth queues then, crazy times). No regrets

[raven1231]

Originally Posted by _gt86_user

I test drove the hell out of an Ultramarine the dealer was claiming new but the ODO had like 500miles already, then test drove an auto for fun and I was curious ended up leaving with a white 6spd with 5miles on it lol.

likely their test car

[steeloyangster]

I'll back you up on the 300zx feel. I had a '90 300ZX NA 5MT off white and it was an absolute blast to drive. It was very hard to get it sideways or anything like that and it didn't feel as nimble as the FRS but goddamn do those cars feel similar as far as seating position is concerned. I bought it with a ton of miles on it and the T-Tops were starting to leak but I was really happy up until the day it stopped running (about 220k on the ODO.) I didn't want to continue sinking money into it so I sold it cheaply to a kid who had dreams of making it a high performance track car. I kept up with him for a while but he never ended up getting a new motor for it so I just assume it's become a yard ornament. You sure do have a helluva car list. I thought mine was kinda crazy.

2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse V6 GTS
1987 Mazda RX-7 Turbo II
1990 300ZX NA T-Tops
1990 AE92 Toyota Corolla with JDM front clip
1992 AE95 5-Door Wagon
2014 Scion FRS 6MT
2016 Subaru WRX Premium MT

Once you get that FRS then we'd have at least 3 cars in common!

[MisterSheep]

Went to the Palo Alto Toyota dealership yesterday and.....



































Walked away with a 2013 Scion FR-S 6 speed manual in Whiteout
I will post pictures and any updates on the car when I can!

[MokSpeed]

It's funny you mentioned the white car thing. I test drove a WRB BRZ and was basically completely sold, but I really wanted a white car since it was going to be my first new car purchase. I held off and waited until I found a Whiteout FR-S and ended up purchasing it!