The Toyobaru

While I was finding price for new cv shafts ($1400, ouch) I went over to check out the Scion FR-S aka Subaru BRZ aka Toyota GT86. It being the second day available to general public it was fairly busy. Took the automatic out first since the standard was on the road. Finally being able to sit in one, the first good thing is the seat is a nice fairly snug fit. Not anything close to astronaut cockpit fit of Dave’s M Coupe, although that means it’s pretty easy to get in and out of. Not luxe like leather, but the cloth is grippy. Didn’t notice any weirdly placed seams that bug my butt like the Yaris. Recline, fore-aft, seat height and headrest height adjustment, all manual. Telescoping & tilt adjust wheel. Can gets good driver position as opposed to Yaris monkey arm ergonomics where I can’t get quite comfy.

Visibility is pretty good for a modern car. The hood line is pretty low affording a pretty good view of the road. I don’t feel like I should be hanging an arm on door sill, baseball cap backwards all gangsta in my ill ride like I do in many modern vehicles. The side and rear sill heights are high as a consequence of modern design requirements, but not the worst I’ve experienced. The C-Pillar is huge making a blind spot that just about all current vehicles suffer from. Rear view for parking maneuvers is more difficult than I’m used to because of this and the wider rear wheel flares than any vehicle I possess.
The shifter of the auto is styled like the manual visually and falls nicely in hand. I’m not quite sure if the handbrake is in ideal position, but it probably won’t be an issue. The paddle shifter is left side down, right side up shift. They are connected to the base of the wheel and turn with the wheel, which quickly annoyed the heck out of me, had a hard time finding them when I needed them in a turn. The performance of the auto was actually pretty impressive. This was no slushbox that I was used to. In manual mode the response is snappy, shifts quick and it even rev match blips downshifts making you sound like a pro with no effort!
At idle I could hear the suby boxer engine note, but at anything higher it goes away. I could swear the standard shift one sounds a bit more rowdy too.
Switching over to the standard transmission, the clutch pedal feel was light but direct. Of course this was after i drove there in the ae86 with the Hyper Single agro clutch. Shift throw is nice and short, felt a little notchy but the car is brand new. The stick is 6 speed so has a little ring interlock to pull up on to shift into reverse, which is to the left & forward on the stick. Some getting used to. The ring worked smoothly as opposed to the Subaru ST-i I drove before which was very hard to engage. Gearing feels pretty short and revy, not too far removed from the AE86. It gets up to speed pretty fast, faster than I’m used to. I am after all used to 100hp. We’re talking twice that here, and people criticize that for being too low…. Driving the standard brought a smile to my face. The automatic may be faster and more fuel efficient, but it just can’t beat the fun.

For a stock configuration the engine note winding up got the corners of my mouth turning up. I guess there’s something to be said for the weird piping and diaphragm that’s supposed to go from the airbox to the driver compartment to pipe in some engine music.
This car seems to hook up pretty well, although couldn’t get very much into it on a test drive on public streets. Suspension feels firm without being brutal. Easily daily liveable without being boring.
When we got back I spent some time going over the other aspects of the car. The rear seats are something of a joke. With an average front seat position you need midget legs to be able to almost comfortably sit in the rear. I think they’re there for tax and insurance rate purposes. There are child seat anchors, a infant could fit nicely back there. The rear seatback folds down (not split, no loss there) flat to the level of the trunk, nice. The claim is you can fit a set of race tires in the car for the drive to the track. You could almost fit a bike back there except for the height of the trunk. A hatchback would solve that. The trunk latch has an electronic release and a lock button in the trunk that allows you to disable the  driver compartment release button. Good for valet.

Environmental controls are easy operating large round dials. Sound system is Pioneer with front panel access Usb and aux jack. I didnt turn it on actually. Interior finish materials are a bit low grade feeling, on par with the Yaris. Closing the trunk doesn’t greet you with a solid thunk. You can chock that up to cutting weight and/or cutting cost depending on what viewpoint you want to take. The bonnet lid has no trim panels or deadening materials. The claim is with the fr-s they used less sound deadening materials overall helping keep the weight down. Supposedly with the body material & construction design they could get away with it.
Oh yeah, in the bottom of the trunk you’ll find an actual spare tire and jack! It’s a compact spare, but a spare nonetheless. No can of instaflate tire repair and/or run flat tires, yay!
Poking around in the engine compartment, it looks like a lot of servicing is actually fairly accessible. Engine accessory parts like the alternator, AC, pump, starter, clutch master & slaves, oil filter are up top.

How the F do you get in there to get sparkplugs out?

The only immediately noticeable pia is the spark plugs. I can’t see how you can easily change them, even if you had a trained capuchin monkey.

Tires are 215/45 R 17’s, decently wide for a car of this weight and power. You can probably squeeze something wider in, go for that “hellaflush” sillyness. I notice that the fender lips come already folded in at the top so you won’t need to break out the baseball bat so soon.

So what do I think of this car? It certainly is fun to drive, if I were given a more extensive chance to drive it I’m sure that would still be the case. It doesn’t look it’ll be quite as versatile as the AE86 with the rear seats suitable for legless torsos only and no hatch option to allow you to easily haul a transmission someone gave you for free in it. To be fair, the FR-S is designed from the outset with sport in mind. No complaints with the ergonomics, all pretty standard Toyota so I was quickly at home. I like the car. Would I buy one? Unfortunately the state of the economy caused the USA price to creep up. At $25K it is right at the border, if it were any cheaper I would be lining up to buy one. If I didn’t have a current driveable car and were looking for a new car I would be signing on the dotted line right now, the closest competition being the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, and perhaps Mazda MX-5. Could you see me in any of those?