Subaru Announces The Tuned BRZ TS With No More Power - Has The Toyota Alliance Hurt Or Helped The BRZ?

Subaru hurt the BRZ. Subaru had no experience with RWD when it designed this vehicle and it shows. Toyota had very little to do with the design, which was idiocy on their part because they have RWD experience. Toyota simply slapped a Scion badge onto a poorly designed Subaru.

I don't understand what you are trying to get at. As a rear wheel drive coupe, this car does the job at that price.

Its NVH is ridiculous.

It's underpowered.

Its handling is terrible. If your idea of handling is drifting sideways through corners then it's brilliant, but drifting is not the fastest way to get around corners. It's overpriced.

All said, you can buy better performance for the price.

Subaru sold just over 4K units of the BRZ last year which is down more than 50% from 2013 and this model year is off to a poor start.

Toyota sold 7.5K units of their badge engineered Subaru last year and this year sales are flat.

People have caught on that it's crap and have stayed away. Even at the height of the hype of the return of the Hachi-Roku sales were far off the pace that Toyoburu projected.

@fiftysix I'm taking @TheSteve's advice to get a side job in case I'm raped on my retirement because I don't want him to think of me as unintelligent or lazy.

@MDarringer -

Save for Mazda MX-5 (which, as you know, is a Roadster), name another REAR WHEEL DRIVE car with the extremely low center of gravity and well balanced handling ... that sells for around $27,000?

Yes, the Camaro and Mustang have more power. But they are pigs compared to this lithe, fun car.

And they typically don't sell for under $30,000.

The GT86 usually stickers for $30K and getting a base one is nearly impossible, but because they languish on the dealers' lots you can probably get thousands off.

A base Mustang V6 can still be had for $25K and it will go through corners better than the GT86 and will easily lap faster....as will a base Camaro...as will a Focus ST...as will a Fiesta ST...As will a GTI...as will a Cooper S....as will...

"Lithe" is code speak for "underpowered" and "ill-handling"

Sticker for the 86 is $26,255 plus freight in a stick ....and can be found literally everywhere.

"...and can be found literally everywhere" because sales are in the toilet.

Darringer of course is not shy with his opinions. I can tell you at my track where I auto cross and do time attack BRZ and 86's do quite well because most people switch out the "Prius Tires" for decent summer rubber. The net result is lots and lots of grip so you don't need to slow down in turns. These cars are momentum cars. Therefore due to many turn our track has the BRZ/86 can be quite competitive with V6 Stangs and Camaro's. True both will smoke the BRZ/86 on a straight away but generally get caught up to in the turns. Still I don't get Toyota or Subaru. How much would it hurt to increase horsepower and torque by 20 each. After market tuners like open flash tuners(Vishnu) can get 20 HP and extra torque while minimizing the famous torque dip between 3 and 4 thousand RPM. To enhance it further you can get an intake and unequal length headers. This is a no brainer. Why can't the factory do it. Baffling!

You clearly have never driven an IRS Mustang at a track. A Mustang can carry more corner speed than the "momentum cars" (slow-ass garbage) and then run away and hide on the straights for a lot less money.

The reason the factory won't do what import tuner meth addicts do is that those mods quite likely compromise emissions and durability. The fact that the BRZ was designed NOT to allow for a turbo engine was sheer idiocy on the part of Subaru.

@MDarringer

"A base Mustang V6 can still be had for $25K."

Quite likely, given that the car has been DISCONTINUED by Ford.

It's discontinued for 2018, but is still available for 2017. We dramatically increased our allotment of V6 models when it was announced the V6 was getting dropped because for us, the V6 handily outsells the Ecoboost. The V6 is an easy sell at list price. The V8 is pretty easy to sell too, but the Ecoboost requires significant discounts.

Darringer-There are 6 months left in 2017. Next year the only non V8 Mustang is the Ecoboost four. Why Ford does not due the Ecoboost V6 from the Ford Fusion Sport is beyond me. it makes about 325 HP and 350 LBs of torque and is plenty quick. Ford could easily tune it to make a little better noise and it would be a high 4 second range car to 60.Since the V8 is going to get about 455 there should be plenty of room for the V6. As for Subaru the 2017 model actually does sound better and is slightly more spritely due to revised gearing. The only reason the BRZ/86 oversteers is because of it's stock tires. Simply changing out the tires to summer or even all season performance tires would up it's grip to Porsche levels. If Subaru and Toyota want this car to really be a player without turbocharging it they need to do 2 things.1st-Lighten the car by 100 LBS. That would reduce it's weight to around 2650. 2nd Up the horsepower from 205 to 220 and more importantly up the torque from 156 to 170 at 300 RPM lower in the rev band. Doing those 2 things would dramatically improve straight line from a middling 6.5 0-60 time to the low to mid 5 second range. Then it would be more direct competition for base turbo Mustang's and Camaro's. Without having to turbocharge it Subaru and Toyota could keep the cost below 30 grand. Easy-peasy.