2013 AutoGuide.com Car of the Year: the Scion FR-S

[Dtronic]

LOL

BRZ owners don't have car of the year!

P.S. auto>manual

[Justin.b]

I have to think they were just going for controversy with the BRZ statement. If the award goes to the car, and both cars are the same, it makes sense that the award should be shared unless they found some shocking differences that made one version better / worse.

-Justin

[vh_supra26]

Originally Posted by Burrcold

The awards should be jointly received.

+1

[jarviz]

hahaha sorry brz, not this time... j/k

Originally Posted by vh_supra26

Off topic, but if Subaru had backed out what motor do you guys think Toyota would have used instead?

supra engine

[rice_classic]

Originally Posted by vh_supra26

Off topic, but if Subaru had backed out what motor do you guys think Toyota would have used instead?

They still would have used the Subaru Boxer engine as Subaru had already committed to providing it [the FA20] but I think if Subaru had backed out the joint program to develop the car then the suspension design, brakes and other chassis components (designed by Subaru) would be different and the car would have been built in another factory. The big question is... If Subaru had back out would Toyota have done the rest of the car in-house or partnered with a 3rd manufacturer?

And as a general statement;

Why are people acting like Subaru had much of a choice in the matter? Subaru had already committed the engine but said NO to the build, it wasn't until later they were "convinced" to change their minds. Subaru themselves (think it was the CEO) who said if it weren't for Toyota, Subaru most likely wouldn't exist today. Toyota is a major shareholder in Fuji Heavy Industries.

I don't agree that Subaru "made this car possible", as Subaru (FHI) is sort of a business asset of Toyota and if this business asset wasn't available to them I think Toyota still had the means to see it through albeit it the end result may have been different (AKA; different suspension/chassis and maybe even no boxer). It's just that the designers wanted a boxer engine and the existing partnership between FHI/Subaru and Toyota already existed, so exploiting that was a no-brainer. From what I've read Subaru wasn't necessarily excited about this and some arm twisting had to be done.

From Road and Track:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/columns/...-but-different

Toyota's brass decided to employ the help of Subaru, already an established maker of sporty compacts. Simply put, Toyota put its wild card into play, that wild card being its part ownership of Fuji Heavy Industries, Subaru's parent company," he said.

Apparently, Subaru had little choice but to agree to Toyota's proposal of building this vehicle, but the smaller automaker would also be allowed to market the car under its own badge.

From WIKIPEDIA:

Originally, Subaru had rejected the plans of a rear wheel drive sports coupe, due to the rear wheel drive set up, and did not want to be part of the project, predominantly selling all wheel drive vehicles. However, Subaru did plan to provide the engine. Eventually the project came to a 6 month halt and was suspended before being revived again. Toyota eventually invited journalist and Subaru engineers to a vehicle test of its first 2008 prototype to show what it was capable of, which is believed to be one reason that Subaru changed their minds, being impressed with what they saw. This prototype led to the development of the FT-86 which was revealed in 2009.

Reference article for WIKI: http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2...-bad-idea.html



So yeah, I 100% agree with the comments by AutoGuide on why the FRS and not the BRZ deserves the car of the year.

[SpeedR]

Pretending that this was two equals working together is just not accurate.
Y Subaru did not get much say in the twins.
You don’t say no to a company 10 times your size that owns a significant amount of your stock and helps you keep some of your most important factories open.