Do you remember the first time you picked up a digital camera? You filled up that memory card with reckless abandon, loaded your favorites onto a desktop computer and pushed them until the highlights blinded, the saturation hummed, and stills of the mundane exploded beyond the bounds of the medium. Maybe you’ve shot and edited more mature, more sophisticated shots on more expensive equipment since, or maybe you’ve abandoned the camera in favor of your phone, but you still remember how it first felt to make something.
Driving is much the same. It used to be your ticket to anywhere-but-here, as you turned the key on a cheap or borrowed metallic steed and counted dotted lines under streetlights. McDonald’s might as well have been Mexico, not that you would take off with a be-back note and a suitcase packed, but you could. Knowing so was enough. Through rain and fog, country still and freeway buzz, you’d come to learn the footwork of dancing with your machine. A sweep of the foot, a flick through the gears, turning understeer and oversteer from theory to practice. It didn’t matter what you drove or where you were going, even if the answers to those were nothing much and nowhere in particular.
Now you traipse the pockmarked, gridlocked highways twice a day, not because you want to but because you have to. Bleary-eyed from doomscroll-delayed slumber or beaten down by the tepid monotony of workplace politics, you routinely strap yourself into your seat, embarking on conveyance for the sake of a destination rather than a journey. Purposeful, safe, and frequently passionless, your brain’s slowly come to sever commuting from driving. Maybe digital realms and heel-toe daydreams are your most frequent facsimiles of four-wheeled fun. Maybe you’ve even resigned yourself to seeing rather than doing as to not let that love affair grow cold through computer-generated synthesis and real-world responsibilities. Well, I’m pleased to announce that after trying just about everything under the sun, there is a reasonably priced cure for that. The Subaru BRZ exists to remind you that driving can still be fun, and the Murasaki Edition is the best to do it yet.
[Full disclosure: Subaru Canada let me borrow this BRZ Murasaki Edition for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it with a full tank of premium fuel, and reviewed it.]
The Basics
Engine: 2.4-liter 16-valve quad-cam naturally aspirated flat-four.
Transmission: Six-speed manual.
Drive: Rear-wheel-drive with Torsen helical limited-slip differential.
Output: 228 horsepower at 7,000 RPM, 184 lb.-ft. at 3,700 RPM.
Fuel Economy: 20 MPG city, 27 MPG highway, 22 MPG combined (12 L/100km city, 8.8 L/100km highway, 10.5 L/100km combined)
Weight: 2,851 pounds (1,293 kilograms)
Base Price: $34,380 ($34,790 in Canada).
As-Tested Price: $41,590 Canadian.
Lucky Us
When Subaru announced it was making a purple BRZ, I was excited. After all, purple cars are rare, and the more manufacturers brighten up the largely greyscale roads, the better. Unfortunately, Galaxy Purple is more allegedly purple in the same way Bud Light is allegedly beer, or Drake is allegedly a rapper. There’s a hint in there on occasion, but most of the time, you’d never know.
This gives more gravity as to how Subaru Canada decided to make its take on the BRZ Series. Purple a bit more special. Instead of running with the mid-range premium trim, its hand went straight to the top shelf for the elixir that is the BRZ tS. It gets sophisticated Hitachi dampers and gold four-piston Brembos, the perfect building block for something rare. To that package, it’s added STI flexible V-bars that tie the strut towers to the firewall with the goal of staying compliant under vertical load and adding stiffening under horizontal load, improving rigidity under hard cornering whilst maintaining chassis flexibility over bumps. The end result is called the Murasaki Edition, Japanese for “purple.”
If you don’t live in Canada, you can add the V-brace to a BRZ tS, but you won’t get the barely-purple paint or the console badge, and you certainly won’t get the limited-edition trading card that comes with the Murasaki Edition. Encased in acrylic and propped up by its own matching stand, it’s a nice touch that reminds you of your car while you’re at your desk, slogging through another Teams meeting that could’ve been done remotely.
Tastes Like The Real Thing
So, how well does the BRZ get those adolescent sports car butterflies going? Quite well, it turns out. Alright, the steering isn’t anything like most sports cars of old, in that you don’t get rich-as-red velvet road texture telegraphed to your fingertips, but it melds red-dot accuracy with cinematic fluidity in a way that lets you place the car where you want while still receiving feedback once the front tires get close to the brink of push. At the same time, the Hitachi dampers are an absolute cheat code, with the front units in particular melding air-cushion ride quality over expansion joints with the body control of a zinc countertop. People with Snell-rated lab coats call this a digressive damping curve, but you can call it a fast road setup.
Take the hairpin, pirouette on contact patches, center of mass tight to your hips like prom night, this is a capital-S sports car. Not some watered-down sports coupe that’s obviously based on an executive sedan, not an economy car with five figures worth of go-fast bits on it, the real deal. A curb weight under 3,000 pounds, a row-your-own transmission, drive to the back, and a footprint just small enough that you wear it.
Punch the skinny pedal on exit, and you’re reminded of a truth in natural aspiration, oversquare engines, and high power peaks: There’s a reward near the top of the tach, go get it. Indeed, even though the tachometer squishes everything below 4,000 RPM right down in track mode, that’s never really an issue. Is it quick? If this were the early 2000s, it would be a belter. With 228 horsepower on tap, close ratios, and only 2,851 pounds to push around, figure a zero-to-60 mph time just under six seconds. In the real world with traffic cops and speed cameras, that’s still enough, yeah?
For 2025, Subaru’s revised the powertrain mapping for better drivability, and you know what? It mostly works, so long as you’re deliberate with shifting through the slick, well-defined gates. The revs are slow to fall on the overrun if you’ve lifted without drivetrain load, but ensure you’re all the way off the skinny pedal before you downshift and you rarely feel rev hang. As a consolation prize for the occasional wait for the revs to drop on the way up, the powertrain calibration tweaks for 2025 make it even easier to heel-toe the BRZ
Oh, and when you’re done having your fun and need to settle down, you’ll find that the second-generation BRZ is far more refined than the original. It’s quieter at a cruise, the interior’s more richly appointed, and the swiveling LED headlights do a proper job of illuminating the night. The torque dip has been greatly diminished over the first-generation car so that the lowest point of the dip is still higher than the old car’s torque peak, resulting in gratification without having to wind the engine out all the time. I even managed a real-world 26 MPG, or 8.9 L/100km, which isn’t bad considering the extra juice under the hood.
Such Holidays In The Sun Don’t Come Without Sacrifices
Other than the closest offering in America to the Murasaki being the non-purple $39,530 BRZ tS, what’s the rub? Well, to offer a proper tin-top sports car for normal car money, you’re going to have to live with some tradeoffs. Let’s start with the rear seat. It’s spacious enough for short journeys, but after spending an hour in the back of another current-shape BRZ, I learned the hard way that it’s indeed possible to get glute cramps from sitting down. Speaking of road trips, you have to choose between whether you want cup holders or an armrest at any given time, which can be a bit annoying if you’re the sort to drink your coffee in the car.
The stereo seems to have eleventeen different equalizer and signal processing functions, all of which make it sound like you’re trying to show Spongebob Squarepants what you’re listening to. You occasionally hear people complain about speakers sounding muddy, but these ones sound soggy. Oh, and Apple CarPlay is wired-only, which wouldn’t be a problem if the USB port weren’t in the console and there was somewhere else to stash your phone other than the cup holders.
Then there’s over-the-shoulder visibility. Actually, there isn’t. Even with clever mirror positioning, the sizeable pillars and roof rails mean that when pulling out of an oblique junction, standard procedure involves trusting the blind spot monitoring and praying. However, beyond these little quibbles, there’s a benefit in how Subaru and Toyota designed the BRZ, too. The fold-down rear seat means the cargo area is far more usable than you might expect, physical controls exist for just about everything, the steering wheel is just about perfect, and the seats are all-day comfortable. The BRZ is a far more practical only-car than a Mazda MX-5, and that’s enough to really get the imagination going.
Superman That
For the money and when considering relative practicality, the BRZ’s sense of agility is just epic, a lithe, classically trained backroad dancer improved by an excellent set of dampers. Whether the Canadian-only Murasaki Edition or the BRZ tS, you’re looking at the best tin-topped sports car under $75,000. You can buy quicker machines, ones that generate more stick in the corners, ones with more luxury and more space, but I’ve yet to drive one in this price bracket that feels so instinctive, so willing, so much like you’d imagine a sports car would be.
If you’ve always wanted to own a sports car but need the safety and convenience of a warranty and a fixed roof and easy financing, this is your sign to find joy in commuting. On-ramps become the Karussell, or Aintree, or Portier. You’ll find that your local drive-thru has apexes, that off-ramps have braking zones, and that a perfect heel-toe downshift is more gratifying than any dual-clutch wizardry. It won’t be as easy as inching along on semi-autonomous mode, but indulging your imagination requires more effort than mindlessly flicking through Instagram reels. Put a little bit into it, and before you know it, you’ll be having fun. Your last recess ended when you were a child. When was the last time you played every day?
Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal
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Oh I see, Thomas got Jason’s special candy, Jason’s all grouchy and, well what’s going on with Thomas is self evident.
Surely there’s enough for everybody, Right? Watch out for the blue ones BTW.
“slogging through another Teams meeting that could’ve been done remotely” uh…
It seems like the market only has room for one car like this right now, and I’m glad both that it exists, and that Toyota at least partially makes it!
Also, am I reading it right that the CAD base price is only $410 more than the USD price? When current exchange suggests that it should be $13000 more? That makes it feel like an amazing deal up here! If that’s a common thing on car pricing these days, it almost makes me think I should go into business exporting Canadian-market cars to the States and pocketing the difference! (Though I’m sure the fact that I’m buying as new and selling as used, plus export/import hassles, plus taxes would destroy virtually all profit, in the real world)
Thomas! More, more, more like this! Great work, again.
My first digital camera was a Kodak that took less than 1mp photos and cost more than my first two cars combined.
That said, I had a 2013 FR-S that was written-off in 2017 and I’ve missed it ever since, even with a modded NB2 Miata available.
I will probably be shuffling some cars to bring one of these back into my life soon. Even with the previous less powerful version, I never really felt like it was underpowered around here. More than enough getup to take advantage of fun opportunities when they presented themselves.
The first time I picked up a digital camera it was the size of a Stephen King paperback and took 3.5 floppies. 6 pics to a disk.
Yeah idk about early 20 years olds an 40k sports cars but other than that it looks nice and sounds fun. Lol @ prom night
Canada does a way better on naming these things than the US. The series.color names are so dumb. I have a ‘17 and I’d much rather call it an Inazuma edition that a series.yellow. Other than that I love the car, except for the torque dip, that’s more annoying than I’d hoped, haha. I’m sure the new one is refined/better but I’m too cheap to get one. Maybe if the engine pops someday I’ll swap one of the 2.4L.
Unless you’re some overly-privileged rich kid nepo baby with mommy and daddy to pay for it and/or got hooked up with a cushy job courtesy of such, you’re not “affording” this at quarter-life. Most people at mid-life won’t even be able to afford this.
That said, may as well make it an EV. Of all modern cars, the Subaru BRZ is among the most efficient platforms available. That inefficient boxer engine is what kills its fuel economy, and the rest of the car will outlast said engine. If you remove the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential, fuel tank, and exhaust, you should be able to fit a 40 kWh pack and Tesla Model 3 drive system without increasing the overall mass of the vehicle. With a few aero tweaks from there, you could be getting 200+ miles range highway, 140+ miles range city, and maybe 50 miles range in a track setting. And using a stock Tesla Model 3 drive system with a single speed ratio set up for a 150-ish mph top speed, you’d be looking at a 2,800 lb car that does 0-60 mph ~4 seconds.
But instead, we get a crappy, boring, ill-tempered 4-cylinder designed to kill itself not long after the warrantee is up. At the very least, give us a reliable, long-lived V6 from a Camry.
If you’re a 25 year old engineer every bank in your town will finance this and you can easily afford it (and if you daily it for 10 years it’s not a terrible financial decision).
Adding hundreds to thousands of pounds of batteries to this car would ruin it as would the lack of manual transmission (reference article on how Porsche is adding bace ICE drivetrains as that is what the sports car market demands)
Unless a 25 year old engineer comes from a family that paid for their college(or they’re in that upper 1% academically that had a full ride), they’re going to be paying student loans off and unable to afford this. When I was a 25-year-old engineer, I lived in the ghetto to pay student loans off. I could “afford” a new car only with financing and if I gave up an aggressive payment plan to end the debt. Given all of the layoffs I had, I’d have lost said car anyway. My whip of choice was $1,200, used for long trips when I wasn’t using a bicycle in its place to save money.
As for making the BRZ/FRS an EV, it doesn’t need a manual if you do that, and you can keep the car light.
There’s a 350 lb engine to remove, 100 lb transmission, 40 lb drive shaft, 50 lb differential, 80 lb fuel tank loaded with fuel, 35 lb exhaust… About 650 lbs of stuff to remove.
In its place, you can fit a 195 lb Tesla Model 3 rear drive unit, 35 lb onboard charger, 50 lbs of various ancillaries needed(DC-DC, AC, water pumps, ect), 20 lbs of wiring, leaving 350 lbs for a battery housing and pack. With modern batteries, this is enough weight in the budget to fit a 40 kWh pack. It will end up at close to stock ICE mass.
The Cd value of the most slippery BRZ/FRS offered was 0.27, and as an EV without a need for a grille, this could be easily lowered. It wouldn’t be difficult to have the energy consumption reduced to below 200 Wh/mile @ 70 mph while still looking like a normal BRZ. Maybe even as low as 150 Wh/mile if there’s some aggressive changes to aid aero and stock looks are forfeited, which could either allow more range, or more weight reduction.
Maybe not this marked up special edition but a $36k limited trim BRZ is well within reach for many new grad engineers. Graduated in ’22, with some scholarships and working 3 internships I had no student loans. Benefits of being at an in-state public school, state funded scholarship only required >1100 SAT and being in top 30%. Engineering internships also pay pretty well, last I checked my company was paying >$30/hr
I’d say ~20% of my classmates were able to graduate without taking out student loans, another 20% able to pay them off by working on campus/internships.
Im not the biggest BRZ fan but its manual trans is really good and a big part of what makes it fun to drive, EV would probably still be fun but not as engaging
What’s the point of a special edition in a special paint color when you can’t easily tell it from a base-lease-special black one?
Because at age 20 you’ve got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, amiright?
I’ve had an 2012 86 for seven or eight years now. The new one has a smaller boot/trunk opening and I can’t get an MTB in it. Fucks sake Toyota.
Outside of the US? The first 86s we got here were model year 2013.
I’m in the UK. The 2012 cars all got recalled for new valve springs, and after mine was bodged twice by Toyota it dumped all it’s oil out through a hole in the RH cam cover.
So you didn’t really miss out.
I’ve had thought: what actual year was model year 2013 on sale? The US seems to have this thing of selling next year’s cars this year, in defiance of how time works, because marketing.
I bought my 2013 in June or July of 2012.
And the engine blew up before 40k miles.
I had a ’14 BRZ that someone popped a turbo into, and I got it cheap. That was a damn fun car, and would likely still have if the GR-C hadn’t happened.
Matter of fact, I’d likely have this if the GR-C hadn’t happened.
I really couldn’t care less about the BRZ/GR86 at this point. The drivetrain was underwhelming back when they came out compared to my bugeye WRX, and while 228 hp is finally on-par with the stock bugeye power, Subaru’s NA four-bangers aren’t anything special. (The H6 engines on the other hand…) Back when I was the target demographic for these, I liked my WRX way better. Now that I have a Mach-E GT with a frankly stupid amount of power ready and willing to pulverize the tires into submission, driving anything that doesn’t have that instant passing power is a real drag.
I guess it gets a golf clap for simply existing when affordable sports cars have all pretty much evaporated from the market.
Subaru completely lost me in their CVT era, and it bums me out sometimes. I absolutely adored my bugeye and 2007 flat-six Outback.
I don’t think the 86 is under powered. I don’t understand why it has to use a crap Subaru flat motor to get there.
I have a 2009 Outback that’s been sitting unused in the garage for over a year. I’m tempted to do a super gramps build with it. I think it’s aged out of emissions testing here.
I can say to my surprise that the GR86 is quicker in a straight line than the current WRX, so there’s that.
In a straight line my BRZ is slow, but a pull from 30 around a windy backroad is perfection. Every time I think about selling it, I end up hitting it a little hard on the commute and fall back in love. I owned an ’05 Legacy GT before this, which was faster straight line, but pushed and wallowed through corners.
I have to say, Thomas, you always write great articles but this one was exceptionally well written! Into the glovebox!
I have always respected the toyobaru twins, but at my current stage of life they just don’t have the practicality. You are right that the only new car that competes is the Miata. I would say the 6th gen Camaro in the 4 cylinder 1le trim would have given a similar visceral sports car experience in the same price range, but they were also not practical, were a bit bigger and heavier, and well, they don’t make them anymore….
long live the toyobaru and Miata!
Ah yes the quarter life crisis. I’m coming up on that, as I’m 37.
*does math*
Ah shit.
Beautiful color, but it’s a Subaru.
Subaru did sell essentially the same car in the USA. They called it series.purple and they made 500 of ’em.
SUBARU ANNOUNCES 2025 BRZ SERIES.PURPLE SPECIAL EDITION – Subaru U.S. Media Center
I thought it was familiar and that I had seen BRZ out that actually looked dark purple
Is that the same color? Because it actually looks purple in the Subaru US pics. This one is just … black.
I found the press release for the Murasaki Edition. It has the same photo that the USA press release for the series.purple has. The Canadian press release says that the color is Galaxy Purple, which is the same color (or colour if you’re in Canada).
SUBARU CANADA UNVEILS 2025 BRZ 紫 MURASAKI EDITION
Your write-up is pretty spot on.
Here comes the broken record:
I daily a ’25 Hakone, so essentially the same as this but green with bronze wheels and minor tweaks between Toyota/Subaru.
The car is fantastic. I really don’t get anyone “hating” on the engine. It has great torque where you need it, does not *sound* like a boxer, and spins 7500rpm before you get a shift light, bang the next gear, and it pins you. It’s not a dragster, but it is fast and sounds great.
I have the factory sport exhaust option so dual 3″ tips and it pops, spits, burbles and shoots fire out the back on downshifts. It makes all the right sounds an NA engine should make.
The only thing even comparable is a Miata and if you need to put an extra kid in the car once in awhile, it is not the answer. The 86/BRZ are truly the last of dying breed.
That green and bronze color scheme really is excellent.
they call that purple? have my eyes gone on color-strike?
Why does it feel that this engine is far thirstier than it needs to be?
For a 2.5 NA-four, it’s far less power yet similar fuel consumption to Subaru’s own 2.0Turbo in the WRX. And similar power (more hp, less tq) than the Honda 1.5T in the Si but the Honda’s fuel economy is far better.
I average just over a real world 30 in a mixed cycle. Towing a utility trailer through back roads brought me down to 24. At around 75, the real time readout spends a lot of time hovering between 35-40 mpg. Gearing is low, but the lack of torque means it needs it, though it would do better with a taller 6th (~23mph/1000 rpm, same as 5th in my ’83 GL!), but putting on taller snow tires that increases gearing by about 7% the lack of torque is noticeable. I’d gladly trade 15 hp for an extra 25 lbs ft (especially as that would likely mean a lower redline, meaning a lot more usable power across the rev range and allowing taller gearing). I love the looks, interior (with a touchscreen that’s almost not needed while driving), ride, handling, and chassis communication, but the engine is the weak point. I almost don’t know why they bothered with an LSD.
There’s a whole host of reasons, mainly to do with gearing. The BRZ seems to have a sweet spot for good highway mileage around 70mph. Above 80 the car is turning over 3500 rpm which compared to any turbocharged car is quite high.
Other factors: high compression, short stroke (for high revs), very short connecting rods (boxer engine), mechanical water pump
It’s really quite good on gas compared to the 26mpg highway rating for the Honda S2000.
The S2000 is over 25 years old now.
That’s even further embarassing the BRZ.
That, plus premium gas is what pushed me away from one. For whatever reason I just assumed these took regular, but 26mpg of premium for a low displacement NA is just bad.
My big Caddy wagon with a 300hp 3.6 V6 gets the exact same hwy economy using regular gas, and costs the same to run in town.
I get that it’s a bit apples to oranges, but it’s still a bit of a black eye for a budget sports car.
I enjoyed about every moment in the cockpit of my FR-S to the point hat the 30% premium for fuel seemed like a bargain.
I’d be less thrilled paying for premium to drive a GV70 (and I REALLY like the GV70).
Those intro paragraphs speak to me. Those things are exactly why I daily a Miata. I tried to do the adult thing and drive a pickup and then a Civic Si, but they didn’t scratch that itch. So back to the Miata I went. A BRZ/86 was on the short list as well.
It needs a different/better engine. I’m not saying it needs more power, it needs something that revs and sounds good and we know Toyota makes those.
When people are rooting for a turbo-I3 (i.e., the Yaris/Corolla GR engine) over your current engine, you have a problem.
That would be a great choice.
Current daily is a ’24 GRC, previous was a ’16 BRZ. Love(d) both cars, but wouldn’t want the turbo 3cyl in the BRZ anymore than I’d want the 2l h4 in the corrolla.
Why wouldn’t you want the 3 in the BRZ?
Response mostly, the fat(relatively) nonlinear mid range punch is fun in the context of an awd wannabe wrc homologation car but would be weird/frustrating in the context of a light, rwd sports car. It would certainly be faster, but it wouldn’t be more fun. Similarly, the linear(relatively) high rpm pull is engaging in a tailhappy RWD sports car but would be really flat and boring in a grippy awd car that tends toward understeer.
What people? I like my ‘23 BRZ engine just fine. And I got into it from a Cayman S.
It is an enticing car, but not the Subaru mill. Wish the distinguishing characteristic of the twins was in the engine compartment.
Duh
That’s one of the places where the RX8 really shined. I’ve been dailying a 2011 RX-8 since new, and not long after I got it my father-in-law purchased a first-gen FRS. The FRS was fun, and being a little smaller ad lighter, a little quicker to turn. But the engine felt and sounded downright agricultural compared to the turbine-smooth rotary in my RX8.
The FA24 isn’t great, but I can’t think of anything much worse than a rotary.
You’re missing out. Exceptionally smooth, loves to rev, you can easily keep it at 6-9k, sounds fantastic. It is a nearly perfect engine for a sports car.
But not for long!
Those engines are pretty much the opposite of what I like—heavy for what they are (LS swaps in RX7s yield minimal difference in weight), gas hogs, oil hogs, heat issues, terrible longevity, fussy, no torque, and if I valued smooth, I’d buy an EV (and do without all the other negatives). I don’t love the sound, either, but they do sound better than the FA24, though that’s a low bar. Essentially, they’re the things I don’t like about the FA24, but much, much worse.
When I used to got to Limerock a lot for club races, there was a class that was full of RX-8s. They sounded terrible. It was the only time I wanted strong ear protection at that track.
I had an FC RX7 and the Wankel engine was amazing. The revs, the noise, the flames.
My 2012 86 feels like a faster version of that car. I don’t miss the 17mpg and constant worry of tip seal failure. The meh sounding engine is a worthwhile compromise. I’d rather have reliability than character from an engine.
Did you get in on the class-action settlements?
I think you missed the mark on the interior critic. This is the best looking dash I’ve seen in almost a decade.
Screen down where it should be. BUTTONS. No touch screen bullshit. This is a masterpiece of heavy duty tactile bliss and should be celebrated. Not “oh my, I have to plug my phone in so it will connect every time and charge quickly, what will I do without some half assed place to put it so it can fly around while I drive”. The BEST place, outside of a magnetic or claw holder for a phone, is in your cup holder. Otherwise they go all over as phone designs and sizes are not uniform and therefor not snug fitting.
The manual and not a CVT is great as well. I’d say the biggest downside, for me, is that it looks like a 2012 infiniti from the front. But I could get over it.
It’s a big reason I like the car. Unless you’re using navigation and need to make a running change, there’s pretty much no need to use the touchscreen in motion. You can drive with it off (it will still play music and respond to steering wheel controls). I built a cassette-like felt-lined slot for my phone into the blank trim piece under the HVAC switches. I ran the USB cable from a center console port, made a small hole for it to loop under the CC so it’s hidden, then it comes up through the back of the slot. The phone doesn’t go anywhere. The design itself is nice. Sure, some of the materials are on the cheap end, but it’s a standalone platform sports car for Civic money. If it was really bothersome, for a few grand, someone could have somebody slap some leather or vinyl over the plastics (and maybe get some damn color inside, though it’s nice to see this addition at least has some white).
I mean, wireless CarPlay / Android Auto also solves that issue: you don’t need to take your phone out of your pocket for maps and tunes to be right there for you in an interface that stays the same from car to car.
This wired-only implementation with the plug in the glovebox outright sucks. That is very much a “half assed place to put it”.
That’s a fair point. I take my phone and wallet out when I drive, which is the opposite it sounds like of your approach. I can see why you would prefer wireless.
That said, there’s a million cars happy to cater to your approach, I’m happy to have one go the other way once and a while.
Fair enough, but any car with wireless CarPlay also supports wired, so if Subaru added wireless support and kept the plug in the glovebox, we’d both be happy here. 😀
There are plenty of wireless CarPlay adaptors out there though.
There are also plugs in the cup holder, which is at least better than the glovebox.
I drove a first year base model FRS for 9 years until a new job and company car had it sitting far too often (first world problems, I know, but I expected to have that car forever). I very much look forward to picking up an updated base model GR86 at some point in the future to drive for another 9 years.
I dig the nicer interiors of the higher specs, and obviously the limited editions are great. But from my perspective a base model BRZ or GR86 is too good of a value proposition.
I really think that value prop is something most reviewers missed widely when focusing on the torque dip and lack of a turbo (not the case here though). The base car is cheap for what it is and includes all the good bits. The LSD and manual aren’t buried in 2.5k+ option package. I bought mine because it was damn near 10k less than what I could get a miata with an LSD and HID lights for at the time.