I'm more of the mind that it looks like a fun daily driver. I like the looks of it and seems rather sporty. The aftermarket for it will need to mature before I get my hands in on it. All the little scion new cars that dropped all had super expensive aftermarket for about 3 years before it started leveling out. Mostly due to the knockoffs taking the money from the big tuner companies. I just don't like the idea of paying a few grand for an exhaust that just got out of R&D when I can get a great exhaust for my evo for a fraction of the price that's been through the paces already.

 

yeah, and like 100 bicycles, and like 200 tricycles, and like 300 shirts, and like 2 million tooth picks, and...........

I hope you see how retarded that argument is.

 

OK, just spent about 1.5hrs and 50 odd miles in an FRS 6sp. I did downtown Corpus and good pull on the freeway. The car's power feels like a NC miata and handles like one too. The seats are really nice and remind me of the the Recaro's in my Boss 302. The shifter was a little notchy but will probably break in. At certain rpm the engine sounds boxer(wrx), i'd want it to sound like that all of the time. A grown man is not fitting in the back with out hitting his head on the back window. The trunk is tiny, like a full size suitcase might not fit. The guages and wheel position are great, very close to the RX8 which has my favorite setup. The car seems to handle pretty nuetral and the rack ratio feels good if not a little squirty on the freeway. The radio was easy to use in traffic. No real blind spots while backing up. Its basically a fastback NC. Two thumbs up.

 

My "review" of one would be like a mirror image of yours. Absolutely +1 on all counts.

 

Damn both of you. I finally convinced myself to wait another year or two before buying a car, and now you make me want one all over again.

 

Sounds like my next car.

 

I still have to test drive one, but the reviews are great for it. Not to mention it isn't too expensive. The only thing holding me back from buying it, is the cost of modifying it... **** for that car would be expensive no doubt. (stuck thinking in the Miata mindset).

Also if the new Rx7 comes out in 2017... and if it's good... that just might take the cake for me.

 

If your on a Miata budget get some 17x9 Rotas, RS3, eibach springs and camber bolts, DIY intake, test pipes. Sounds like a fun car to me.

 

STi version would almost certainly be a much better starting point for mods. That's a good way to prevent impulse buy for now.

 

Funny story:

I just went to Subaru's website, and noticed that they have a tool that lets you compare the BRZ to any other car. So I plugged in the NC and hit "compare"

It read like a sales pitch for Mazda. Cheaper, lighter, smaller on the outside yet with more driver headroom and legroom, etc etc.

I'm sure the BRZ is a great car, I'm just struggling to understand why I'd want to buy one. If I were going to spend exactly $26,000 on a car, and I needed something with "four" seats, I'd buy an '02/'03 Porsche 911.

 

Who will be the first to make a fixed slimback HT for the NC, so we don't have to worry about what to do

If only the MRZ would be as simple to turbo as the BP... A built N/A 2.5 is a bit involved.

 

I saw a BRZ with a Crawford turbo kit at Buttonwillow this weekend, I was not impressed. I should have got pictures. But I didnt.

 

what didn't impress you? just curious

 

Location of the turbo was the biggest turn off for me. Probably an inch away from the front of the engine with all its plastic covers and belts and what not. I liked the bottom mount setup you posted pictures of a while back.

 

Several points to consider would be resale, looks, and financing. Used FR-S are selling for more than new, fixed pricing from Scion combined with demand. Lets face it, the NC doesn't do much for people in the looks department. Help me find 100% financing with a good rate for that 911, I'm also a male nurse who just graduated and make 5k a month but have never financed an auto.

 

Well, for looks and re-sale, I think the 911 is an undeniable winner. Based on the pricing history of the 993, it would appear that the 996 is very near the bottom of the depreciation curve already. I expect them to lose relatively little value in the short-term, and in the longer-term (say, 10 years from now) there's no question that the resale value of the 20 year old 911 will greatly exceed that of the 10 year old Toyaru WRX BRZ STI OMG WTF BBQ.



This is a short-term phenomenon which is often seen during the first year or two following the release of a vehicle which is highly sought-after and limited in supply.

Give it another year or two, and the relative valuation of used BR-Ss will correct itself to approximately the same (proportionately) as the Subabishi WRX Evo.



There's a strong argument to be made against financing any car for any reason, much less buying a $26,000 car in the first place if you just graduated and have little to no savings, regardless of income. Hell, I earn a lot more than that and have a fair bit of money in the bank, and I paid $800 for my current daily-driver.

 

C'mon Joe, everyone knows comparing new to used is pointless.
If people never bought new cars, there wouldn't be used cars lol.
That said, I completely agree with the rest of your rant, and have never financed a vehicle ever in my entire life. Or bought a new one. Or ever paid more than 15k for one.

 

There is also a strong argument to buying a new(er) car that you won't have to fix and keeping it for 10 years until you do build up savings. $26k is not a totally unreasonable price to pay for a new car these days.

But, like you, I'm, shall we say, fiscally conservative. If you know what to look for, buying a used vehicle that still has plenty of years and miles left can save you lots of money. This is with the caveat that you may (almost certainly) be paying more in maintenance over the life of the vehicle, for things (exhaust, for example) that a newer car may not need in the first 5-6 years.

 

Me and Joe are in CA.

The other day I worked on a corolla from Michigan for a friend, and I almost shat myself when I looked at the underbelly/etc. Now I know what you guys mean when you talk about rust/rot/etc.

Over here you can pick up a 197x car and it will still have a clean/perfect underbelly, suspension, exhaust, etc.

 

This is true.

While I cannot understand why, there does seem to be a large segment of the population which attached a certain intangible value to the purchasing of a new car, even if they would not otherwise invest themselves emotionally in the car. So, a person might fixate on the idea of purchasing "a new car" generally, even if the car they wind up buying is a Hyundai Sonata or a Ford Fusion.

So while I do not understand this phenomenon, I must acknowledge that without it, I would not have a supply of cheap, used cars to select from.


That said, the set of all car buyers is large enough that any small subset of that group can easily elect to alter its purchasing behavior, either by electing to buy 5-10 year old cars or to buy the absolute cheapest new cars available, without significantly upsetting the "new cars become used cars" dynamic, or significantly impacting the profitability of automakers, who earn greater margin on "high end" vehicles with leather interiors as opposed to boring little shitboxes with rubber floor mats.



While I have heard this argument many times, I can't quite accept this line of reasoning. I understand that auto-repair shops charge money for car repair, but I have never seen any data to support the conclusion that the total cost of ownership for a typical used car of a reasonable age exceeds that of a new car over any reasonable time-frame.

Heck, I'm just thinking about my own 22 year old car. While I have put some money into it, most of that was discretionary spending. New top, new ECU, some paint, new headrest speakers, etc. The sum total of actual "repairs" which have been done to the car (that a normal person would have gone to a shop for) over the past 2.5 years is as follows:

1: Replace one front upper control arm (bad ball-joint).
2: Replace brake pads.
3: Replace tires.

Convince me that a repair shop would have charged more for all of that than 2.5 years' worth of new car payments and new car comprehensive insurance payments.


And don't even get me started on leasing...





And that's another thing that bothers me.

I'll be honest, I've not paid much attention at all to new-car pricing over the past 10-15 years. About a year ago, I happened to do some comparative analysis for the purpose of an argument that I was having, and I was absolutely floored to learn that $26k is, in fact, considered to be a totally reasonable price to pay for a totally average new car these days. And I'm talking about Toyotas and Hyundais and Chryslers here, not exactly high-end stuff.

How the hell did this happen?

I mean, I understand that it happened gradually, like a frog in a pot of water. But how the hell is it "reasonable" for the median price of a new car to be the same as the median annual income of a US citizen?

As an outsider, this just floors me.