[joben]

p.s. personally, I think criticisms are useful for prospective buyers as well as Subaru/Toyota.

 

[pngrant54]

I saw this video a few days ago. After he made this video he then made a track video at I believe Thunder-hill. Most of the complaints he made were honestly pretty trivial to me. As an owner of a Fiat 500 Abarth, road noise is part of the equation and does not concern me. The double console doors acting as an arm rest I could see being an annoyance for taller drivers. Being 5' 6 1/2 ", I don't think this will even come into play for me. In his later track video he touched on the enhanced engine noise but he said he had no issue with it. I concede the sound system is not great and not helped with road noise. I would guess road noise will vary with road condition. As for the rev hang that may be an issue. Being that this car has so much more torque I'm wondering if keeping it in second around town would help(another words not changing gears). I usually rest my left arm on the window sill of cars I drive. I think these complaints are going to be different from person to person. However, now that they have been mentioned, everyone now on this site is going to be acutely aware of these potential issues and actually seek them out. I'm not so sure that's such a good thing.

 

[PhoenixM3]

I'd offer that typical buyers of these cars probably know what they're getting into (or should). I'm a fan of small nimble cars and understand the trade offs. You have a point that some owners will nit pick after watching reviews.....

 

[pngrant54]

Yes and that's the point. Everyone is different and has different tastes. What might be bothersome to some people will be ignored by others. Even the rev hang issue will generate difference of opinion.

 

[Scott69]

Having just traded in my 2019 Si for the new BRZ (that just came in today!!!) I can attest that the rev hang isn't noticeable by comparison (and was easily tolerated on the Si anyway).

I have accidentally opened the center compartment a few dozen times in the few hours of driving so that is a thing. At this point I couldn't care less.

Road noise is noticeable I guess? You can hear a lot of mechanical noises, but this could be a plus. I remember leaving a wrench under the hood on my old Firebird and not noticing it until it fell out on the road.

Sound system is perfectly serviceable in the base model if you spend time playing with it (and I own a small recording studio so I'm picky with sound)

Cons are:
-Trunk space with seats folded did NOT fit a set of tires (at least not in a way I felt good about)
-Brakes feel a bit sketchy right now, like the pedal is too shallow and feedback isn't great, but many reviews have praised the braking.

 

[MisterGoober]

My biggest pet-peeve so far is that the radio controls are on the left of the steering wheel and the gauge-cluster controls are on the right. It's counter-intuitive because they're effectively swapped relative to the actual positions for LHD vehicles.

 

[PhatFreshPrince]

My biggest pet-peeve so far is that the radio controls are on the left of the steering wheel and the gauge-cluster controls are on the right. It's counter-intuitive because they're effectively swapped relative to the actual positions for LHD vehicles.

That is funny because my last car's steering wheel controls were set up how you want them, but I wanted the opposite setup like they are in the BRZ. My reasoning was that I change the radio controls a lot during a drive, and (literally) on the same hand I had to shift gears with my manual transmission. I like being able to change the song playing and shift gears at the same time. Also, if the radio controls were on the right side, then I could just use my right hand on the actual radio head unit 6 inches away. With the BRZ setup, I can easily use both hands to control the radio... the left on the steering wheel and the right on the head unit all while shifting gears as needed.

 

[Duchess]

Rev hang comes with manual transmissions. It's annoying, but it's also how they meet emissions requirements, so it's not GR/BRZ specific. From my Fords, it should not be a factor during aggressive driving, so if it is, then that would be a GR/BRZ specific thing. All my cars have been relatively loud (funny enough, the '08 Camry temp car is louder than the '16 Focus ST was with similar mileage, though mostly because of all the Camry's rattles and clunks), so I've never understood the good stereo thing—I can't hear the full range of sound, anyway, unless it's cranked high enough to drown everything out, in which case, eventual hearing damage will mean I wouldn't hear that range in the long term.

 

[Wayward67]

I wonder if the rev hang is significant compared to the prior generation which was relatively minor.
You can usually tune it out and i plan on doing that when I add aftermarket headers.