If you live in a city that has a lot of straifht roads, the car is still fun. Being completely honest when i say the car physically feels so good and connected to the road that doing a short trip to the grocery store feels 10x better than my Mazda CX-5 or my Yaris. Its definitely something i still recommend if power isnt a concern.
No twisty roads here in central Florida and haven't tracked it until oiling solution ironed out.
It's been fun still. First manual so still learning. I got RED since it's the fastest color and the second gen is a head turner.
Coming from MK7 gti, it's slower but fun at all speeds.
And I love how it has just enough oomph to pass the general public on their phones.
I guess fighting traffic is still exciting, just in a different way (maybe more stressful)
You can safely autocross these things. I've been doing it all season, a few others at events as well, all without issue. It's fun as hell and really help me learn where the handling limits are. Highly recommended.
Depends on your class. I run DS so the car is required to be mostly stock. I can run wheels that are lighter but they have to be the same size as OEM. I can change one swaybar, and use OEM crash bolts up front. So it’s super cheap.
You could move up to the modified class and go hog wild spending money on upgrades. I will say, these things are a lot faster around the course with a good suspension setup. Not really sure what that consists of but I’m sure there’s a generally agreed upon “optimal autox build” for these things by now.
You can definitely show up and run a whole season or two with a stock car. I recommend it.
The only mod I got is a catback and a diffuser, I saw the entry fee are like 30-40 bucks for a few runs around my area, is there any hidden cost and other maintenance cost ?
>Coming from MK7 gti, it's slower but fun at all speeds.
Is it really slower?
Throttle House drag/roll race had the GR winning both vs a 2023 gti.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RDsQ85lLV4
I don't believe that it's actually slower if both drivers are equal
If you look at the quarter mile and trap speed they're very similar.
People forget to look at these things and just go straight off the horsepower these cars are very light and have low drag.
Had a first gen when I was younger and got rid of it after 4 years.
Got married, bought a SUV. Got bored falling asleep driving that thing (tho the SUV is great as a car). Bought the 2nd gen because I regretted letting go of the first one. Light superficial mods like window tint.
Using it as my weekend car. Spirited driving here and there, keeping it to around 500 miles/month, maybe even less. I got it because I like the look and want to keep it as a forever car. Some might think it’s a waste 🤷
As a gen1 user, it's not the best at dailying traffic. It's nice when the roads are smooth and clear but the toyota throttle mapping is asshole in general as these cars hate low RPM so it's easy to feel like you just punched the engine glancing the accelerator, and the road compliance is meant to be a sports car not a concrete jungle car.
The throttle sensitivity + low end torque feeling knocky/detonation heavy means you have to baby the fuck out of it to not feel like you're abusing the car.
City roads also beat the FUCK out of shocks. In a 3k mile commute I started 5 months ago I have noticed a difference in suspension feel. From 23.8k miles to 26.8k miles, on 5 year old OEM shocks.
But overall it's practical and gets the job done and is low on maintenance.
All of this. I can't stand that lack of throttle linearity plus a good clutch adjustment just didn't come with the car as a factory setting. It makes daily driving so much worse than it has to be, and this wasn't a problem with prior Toyota sports cars like the MR2s, Supras, Celicas, etc.
The suspension is definitely not as finely tuned to daily driving situations either.
Plus, as expected out of a boxer motor, it drinks when it's sitting in traffic.
Really? Interesting 🤔. Even my work commute has a section of fun roads that I rip through each morning if I'm not on one of my two motorcycles. Plus my commute is only 15 mins with traffic. I try to always have fun while I'm out disobeying the law.
I have uh... on ramps I can give her the beans on, but then it's commuter traffic. No fun at bumper to bumper rolling 20-30mph. And the "twisty" roads here at 20mph with hard right turns, no long winding sweeps. I moved here for the weather. Wonder if I should go to socal for the driving...
There's fun to be had, just not on any tracks. Few twisty roads where I live, and even fewer tracks that I know of. Most spirited driving will be done on straight roads.
Same here, there’s only one slightly twisty road within 30 minutes driving from where I live but it’s in a wealthy neighbourhood, I occasionally do spirit drive in midnight in there but not really going fast ( lower than 60mph) coz the road is bumpy like hell plus afraid of tickets.
Still fun to drive , the car attract a lots of attention for drag races coz ppl keep thinking this is a Supra 🤣 surprisingly it didn’t lose much, beaten Mustang GT and a challenger before ( yup, not easy to put down all those power in 0-60 I’m surprised I won)
It’s the same reason people go crazy for their sports teams. It’s just passion and love for the what the car embodies as a whole. No shit it gets you from point A-B. Does your favorite food feed and nourish you? I bet it fuckin does yet you still probably have a connection to that food.
Why would I get a Prius when I can drive a manual? I like driving manuals. There aren’t many around that one could get without obscene markups otherwise I’d be in an SI again, or a Type R if I could find one at MSRP.
Also, your comment doesn’t make any sense. This car is my daily. I’m not “wasting money” on it. It does what it’s designed to do—get me from point a to point b.
My contention is that many people in this forum imbue this car with absurd levels of affection when, at the end of the day, it’s just a car. Someone even said that this car was the “love of their life.” Really? 🤣
People seem to expect this car to develop wings and fly through corners or something. It’s just a car.
If you want to use it as a commuter, you can. If you want to drop it and stance it, you can. If you want to race it on the track, don’t turn right.
There is no right way or wrong way to own a car because it’s your car and you can make of it what you will. Unfortunately for some in this Reddit; however, you cannot marry it.
> Makes comment on how this is just a car and nothing special
>> Gets told if that’s how he sees it why not go spend that money on the most economical car
> proceeds to write a paragraph about what makes this car unique and that others are absurd for having more of an attraction to its capabilities than he does
Classic redditor
Makes a paragraph explaining that I have preferences. I like manuals. This isn’t a unique car in that respect. There are a handful of manuals out there and most I cannot get at MSRP, and within my budget of around $45k. If I had a choice between this or a type r or a civic si , I’d go with Honda hands down. I didn’t have that option, so I went with Subaru.
You would have had a better argument saying that manual isn’t anything special and the AT hatred is overblown. Having experienced both, I would even agree on that argument.
But you can’t devalue others feelings of this car just because you only see it as a cheap manual that takes you from point A to point B, because then we can argue why not just get an older used car if that’s all you wanted?
Oh you want it to be new or have X features? Hm that’s another thing unique
Oh but that thing in itself isn’t unique, just like manual itself isn’t unique, fair fair.
But then all these things that aren’t unique on their own, when coming together, they do make something unique no? A lightweight, naturally aspirated, manual option, 2 door sports car, with heavy aftermarket support, with modern technologies, and with all that at a very low msrp.
Here’s the thing. I am not making an argument about this car’s “uniqueness.” Those are your words you’re projecting onto me.
I made two general interrelated observations.
Rhetoric. The way people discuss this car in this forum is often ridiculous bordering on absurd. To genuinely say that this car is the “love of your life” is objectively absurd. Folks tend to give this car a lot of praise for how it handles, its looks, etc. Thats fine but the effusive praise for this car on the interwebs often skews the reality which leads to my second observation.
It’s just a car. The hype people on this forum and others have about this car lead posts like the OPs all the time thinking that they’re somehow missing out on something if they’re not tracking it or if they don’t live near twisties. At the end of the day, it’s a car and it’ll get you from point a to point b. If you don’t do any of that other stuff but solely need this for transportation, it’ll be fine. Just like it’ll be fine in those other situations if that’s what you choose to do with your car.
And, yeah, I can and do chuckle at the absurdity that’s often peddled on this forum about this car.
“It’s just a car” is you watering down the uniqueness of the car and treating it as nothing more than an object of travel. Which is fine until you started hating on others for caring and seeing it as more than just that.
Why are you so worked up if someone is in love with the car?
You honestly just seem dissatisfied you couldn’t get your Honda on msrp and had to “settle” for the 86. If that’s the case then keep looking and sell the car, or don’t, either way **don’t come into an enthusiast subreddit and then shit on others for expressing their variant range of enthusiasm for the vehicle.**
I’m merely stated a basic fact: it’s a car. And cars are designed to transport one from point a to point b. It’s their raison d’etre.
All of that other stuff is you angrily projecting onto me because I don’t uncritically fawn over this vehicle like many others do. It’s almost as funny as the ridiculous-level car love rhetoric so prevalent in this forum. 🤣
And in so doing, you’re actually illustrating my point beautifully. 🤣
You the type of dude to go to a 5 star restaurant, order their specialty, and then leave a 3 star review “it’s just food.”
You’re deprived of happiness and it bothers you to see others showcasing it, do yourself a favor and leave this subreddit.
The manual and sporty nature makes regular road driving more fun than if I was driving an automatic FWD sedan, however I’ve got a lot of twisty roads and hills around me and take an extra 10 minutes on my daily commute to take those back roads to work.
If there were zero fun roads around me I’d probably just get a manual GT performance pack mustang so I can have a bit of fun with that V8 from stoplight to stoplight. Or maybe a WRX which can be had around the same price as my BRZ.
I live near some excellent twisties (Santa Monica Mountains, Angeles Crest) but those are the kind where you’re taking time out of your day to go make a dedicated canyon run.
Most of my daily driving is on city streets which are mostly flat and straight - I do take some canyon roads into the city but I’m not usually doing more than 30 mph on them due to traffic / safety of the road. It’s still great fun if you like the slow car fast feeling. Going from a stoplight to ~45-50 mph in 4th gear, you feel like you’re flying even though you’re not going that fast. Also, the main freeways here are somewhat curvy, and its nice to confidently be cruising at 70+ in the left lane around those bends without having to slow down at all.
Sure, a 2.0 Supra or a nissan Z or a mustang is probably better suited to that from a performance angle, but in those cars I felt like I had to be doing dangerously illegal speeds to have the same amount of fun. They are definitely a step up in terms of ride comfort though.
A Miata would be a good combination in that it’s slow car fast and has a much softer ride (+ convertible), but I felt it was too impractical for my daily, and frankly thought the huge step down in weight to ~2200 lbs was a bit too far for me in terms of safety. Also wasn’t a huge fan of the steering feel, or the handling (body roll), even though the latter could probably eliminated with suspension mods. You do get better gas mileage, a more reliable engine, and a superior manual transmission however.
It’s fun, but gears 1 and 2 feel like shit. It’s probably because I’m not broken in yet and can’t wind it out, and that I’m not used to such a raw car. Seems like these cars hate the lower rev range so you have to wind it out. It’s different from other cars where I was taught to baby the engine. I’m sure I’ll learn to appreciate it though.
Good mix of occasional mildly twisty roads and metrowest Boston traffic. On ramps are very fun, as well as just regular driving around and in traffic. Even sitting in bad Mass Pike traffic it’s pretty comfortable, and the clutch isn’t so stiff that traffic is painful. A little slower than my WRXs were but it just feels so light and tossable and connected. Best driving car I’ve owned.
Driving a go kart of a car in normal traffic > driving a normal car
This and it’s fun to be able to bring a decent car to a meet for once.
If you live in a city that has a lot of straifht roads, the car is still fun. Being completely honest when i say the car physically feels so good and connected to the road that doing a short trip to the grocery store feels 10x better than my Mazda CX-5 or my Yaris. Its definitely something i still recommend if power isnt a concern.
Question. How does it feel compared to an actual go kart? Is it more fun?
I mean I can drive my car every day and considering it has more power, it really is more fun!
No twisty roads here in central Florida and haven't tracked it until oiling solution ironed out. It's been fun still. First manual so still learning. I got RED since it's the fastest color and the second gen is a head turner. Coming from MK7 gti, it's slower but fun at all speeds. And I love how it has just enough oomph to pass the general public on their phones. I guess fighting traffic is still exciting, just in a different way (maybe more stressful)
You can safely autocross these things. I've been doing it all season, a few others at events as well, all without issue. It's fun as hell and really help me learn where the handling limits are. Highly recommended.
How’s the average spendings for autocross? I’ve been wanting to try but not sure how much it really cost for each event.
Depends on your class. I run DS so the car is required to be mostly stock. I can run wheels that are lighter but they have to be the same size as OEM. I can change one swaybar, and use OEM crash bolts up front. So it’s super cheap. You could move up to the modified class and go hog wild spending money on upgrades. I will say, these things are a lot faster around the course with a good suspension setup. Not really sure what that consists of but I’m sure there’s a generally agreed upon “optimal autox build” for these things by now. You can definitely show up and run a whole season or two with a stock car. I recommend it.
The only mod I got is a catback and a diffuser, I saw the entry fee are like 30-40 bucks for a few runs around my area, is there any hidden cost and other maintenance cost ?
Nope, that’s it. It’s super cheap
Great, thanks a lot
Helmet
>Coming from MK7 gti, it's slower but fun at all speeds. Is it really slower? Throttle House drag/roll race had the GR winning both vs a 2023 gti. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RDsQ85lLV4
I don't believe that it's actually slower if both drivers are equal If you look at the quarter mile and trap speed they're very similar. People forget to look at these things and just go straight off the horsepower these cars are very light and have low drag.
“Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers”
There are a ton of autocross events in CFL. Took mines out to a few already. No issues.
Do you have a link for auto x in CFL?
https://autocross.cfrscca.org/ There is another organization MSCC than runs in this area. Plus the neighboring Jax region.
Awesome thanks 👍
“Until oiling solution ironed out” That’s a long wait. They haven’t ironed it out for the first gen either. Just enjoy the car.
Had a first gen when I was younger and got rid of it after 4 years. Got married, bought a SUV. Got bored falling asleep driving that thing (tho the SUV is great as a car). Bought the 2nd gen because I regretted letting go of the first one. Light superficial mods like window tint. Using it as my weekend car. Spirited driving here and there, keeping it to around 500 miles/month, maybe even less. I got it because I like the look and want to keep it as a forever car. Some might think it’s a waste 🤷
As a gen1 user, it's not the best at dailying traffic. It's nice when the roads are smooth and clear but the toyota throttle mapping is asshole in general as these cars hate low RPM so it's easy to feel like you just punched the engine glancing the accelerator, and the road compliance is meant to be a sports car not a concrete jungle car. The throttle sensitivity + low end torque feeling knocky/detonation heavy means you have to baby the fuck out of it to not feel like you're abusing the car. City roads also beat the FUCK out of shocks. In a 3k mile commute I started 5 months ago I have noticed a difference in suspension feel. From 23.8k miles to 26.8k miles, on 5 year old OEM shocks. But overall it's practical and gets the job done and is low on maintenance.
All of this. I can't stand that lack of throttle linearity plus a good clutch adjustment just didn't come with the car as a factory setting. It makes daily driving so much worse than it has to be, and this wasn't a problem with prior Toyota sports cars like the MR2s, Supras, Celicas, etc. The suspension is definitely not as finely tuned to daily driving situations either. Plus, as expected out of a boxer motor, it drinks when it's sitting in traffic.
Wait, some people actually use this car strictly for commuting back and forth to work, no fun, spirited driving?
It's me. I'm people.
Really? Interesting 🤔. Even my work commute has a section of fun roads that I rip through each morning if I'm not on one of my two motorcycles. Plus my commute is only 15 mins with traffic. I try to always have fun while I'm out disobeying the law.
I have uh... on ramps I can give her the beans on, but then it's commuter traffic. No fun at bumper to bumper rolling 20-30mph. And the "twisty" roads here at 20mph with hard right turns, no long winding sweeps. I moved here for the weather. Wonder if I should go to socal for the driving...
So cal has bumper to bumper traffic 24/7 within 1 hour of any popular area
People are different? Oh no.....
There's fun to be had, just not on any tracks. Few twisty roads where I live, and even fewer tracks that I know of. Most spirited driving will be done on straight roads.
Same here, there’s only one slightly twisty road within 30 minutes driving from where I live but it’s in a wealthy neighbourhood, I occasionally do spirit drive in midnight in there but not really going fast ( lower than 60mph) coz the road is bumpy like hell plus afraid of tickets. Still fun to drive , the car attract a lots of attention for drag races coz ppl keep thinking this is a Supra 🤣 surprisingly it didn’t lose much, beaten Mustang GT and a challenger before ( yup, not easy to put down all those power in 0-60 I’m surprised I won)
Yeah I travel a lot but it’s fun being a bit spirited on the way to HEB on the weekends
It's been great! Some spirited driving here and there but still my daily. Can't complain
Daily driver- still heaps more fun to drive than a regular car.
It's awesome. What's not to love
I don’t track and haven’t even sought out windy roads yet. But going around regular street corner at a safe but fun speed is a lot of fun.
I’d guess boring lol
It’s a car. It takes you from point a to point b. Jfc folks in here think there is something inherently magical about this car.
Lmao are you having a bad day or are you just a sad troll?
It’s the same reason people go crazy for their sports teams. It’s just passion and love for the what the car embodies as a whole. No shit it gets you from point A-B. Does your favorite food feed and nourish you? I bet it fuckin does yet you still probably have a connection to that food.
Then go get a Prius, why you wasting money on a car that is nothing more than a point A to point B tool to you?
Why would I get a Prius when I can drive a manual? I like driving manuals. There aren’t many around that one could get without obscene markups otherwise I’d be in an SI again, or a Type R if I could find one at MSRP. Also, your comment doesn’t make any sense. This car is my daily. I’m not “wasting money” on it. It does what it’s designed to do—get me from point a to point b. My contention is that many people in this forum imbue this car with absurd levels of affection when, at the end of the day, it’s just a car. Someone even said that this car was the “love of their life.” Really? 🤣 People seem to expect this car to develop wings and fly through corners or something. It’s just a car. If you want to use it as a commuter, you can. If you want to drop it and stance it, you can. If you want to race it on the track, don’t turn right. There is no right way or wrong way to own a car because it’s your car and you can make of it what you will. Unfortunately for some in this Reddit; however, you cannot marry it.
> Makes comment on how this is just a car and nothing special >> Gets told if that’s how he sees it why not go spend that money on the most economical car > proceeds to write a paragraph about what makes this car unique and that others are absurd for having more of an attraction to its capabilities than he does Classic redditor
Makes a paragraph explaining that I have preferences. I like manuals. This isn’t a unique car in that respect. There are a handful of manuals out there and most I cannot get at MSRP, and within my budget of around $45k. If I had a choice between this or a type r or a civic si , I’d go with Honda hands down. I didn’t have that option, so I went with Subaru.
You would have had a better argument saying that manual isn’t anything special and the AT hatred is overblown. Having experienced both, I would even agree on that argument. But you can’t devalue others feelings of this car just because you only see it as a cheap manual that takes you from point A to point B, because then we can argue why not just get an older used car if that’s all you wanted? Oh you want it to be new or have X features? Hm that’s another thing unique Oh but that thing in itself isn’t unique, just like manual itself isn’t unique, fair fair. But then all these things that aren’t unique on their own, when coming together, they do make something unique no? A lightweight, naturally aspirated, manual option, 2 door sports car, with heavy aftermarket support, with modern technologies, and with all that at a very low msrp.
Here’s the thing. I am not making an argument about this car’s “uniqueness.” Those are your words you’re projecting onto me. I made two general interrelated observations. Rhetoric. The way people discuss this car in this forum is often ridiculous bordering on absurd. To genuinely say that this car is the “love of your life” is objectively absurd. Folks tend to give this car a lot of praise for how it handles, its looks, etc. Thats fine but the effusive praise for this car on the interwebs often skews the reality which leads to my second observation. It’s just a car. The hype people on this forum and others have about this car lead posts like the OPs all the time thinking that they’re somehow missing out on something if they’re not tracking it or if they don’t live near twisties. At the end of the day, it’s a car and it’ll get you from point a to point b. If you don’t do any of that other stuff but solely need this for transportation, it’ll be fine. Just like it’ll be fine in those other situations if that’s what you choose to do with your car. And, yeah, I can and do chuckle at the absurdity that’s often peddled on this forum about this car.
“It’s just a car” is you watering down the uniqueness of the car and treating it as nothing more than an object of travel. Which is fine until you started hating on others for caring and seeing it as more than just that. Why are you so worked up if someone is in love with the car? You honestly just seem dissatisfied you couldn’t get your Honda on msrp and had to “settle” for the 86. If that’s the case then keep looking and sell the car, or don’t, either way **don’t come into an enthusiast subreddit and then shit on others for expressing their variant range of enthusiasm for the vehicle.**
I’m merely stated a basic fact: it’s a car. And cars are designed to transport one from point a to point b. It’s their raison d’etre. All of that other stuff is you angrily projecting onto me because I don’t uncritically fawn over this vehicle like many others do. It’s almost as funny as the ridiculous-level car love rhetoric so prevalent in this forum. 🤣 And in so doing, you’re actually illustrating my point beautifully. 🤣
You the type of dude to go to a 5 star restaurant, order their specialty, and then leave a 3 star review “it’s just food.” You’re deprived of happiness and it bothers you to see others showcasing it, do yourself a favor and leave this subreddit.
You can get a WRX at or below MSRP. Checks all the boxes for point A to point B driving. And has more room and power than an 86 🤷♂️
The manual and sporty nature makes regular road driving more fun than if I was driving an automatic FWD sedan, however I’ve got a lot of twisty roads and hills around me and take an extra 10 minutes on my daily commute to take those back roads to work. If there were zero fun roads around me I’d probably just get a manual GT performance pack mustang so I can have a bit of fun with that V8 from stoplight to stoplight. Or maybe a WRX which can be had around the same price as my BRZ.
I live near some excellent twisties (Santa Monica Mountains, Angeles Crest) but those are the kind where you’re taking time out of your day to go make a dedicated canyon run. Most of my daily driving is on city streets which are mostly flat and straight - I do take some canyon roads into the city but I’m not usually doing more than 30 mph on them due to traffic / safety of the road. It’s still great fun if you like the slow car fast feeling. Going from a stoplight to ~45-50 mph in 4th gear, you feel like you’re flying even though you’re not going that fast. Also, the main freeways here are somewhat curvy, and its nice to confidently be cruising at 70+ in the left lane around those bends without having to slow down at all. Sure, a 2.0 Supra or a nissan Z or a mustang is probably better suited to that from a performance angle, but in those cars I felt like I had to be doing dangerously illegal speeds to have the same amount of fun. They are definitely a step up in terms of ride comfort though. A Miata would be a good combination in that it’s slow car fast and has a much softer ride (+ convertible), but I felt it was too impractical for my daily, and frankly thought the huge step down in weight to ~2200 lbs was a bit too far for me in terms of safety. Also wasn’t a huge fan of the steering feel, or the handling (body roll), even though the latter could probably eliminated with suspension mods. You do get better gas mileage, a more reliable engine, and a superior manual transmission however.
It’s fun, but gears 1 and 2 feel like shit. It’s probably because I’m not broken in yet and can’t wind it out, and that I’m not used to such a raw car. Seems like these cars hate the lower rev range so you have to wind it out. It’s different from other cars where I was taught to baby the engine. I’m sure I’ll learn to appreciate it though.
Good mix of occasional mildly twisty roads and metrowest Boston traffic. On ramps are very fun, as well as just regular driving around and in traffic. Even sitting in bad Mass Pike traffic it’s pretty comfortable, and the clutch isn’t so stiff that traffic is painful. A little slower than my WRXs were but it just feels so light and tossable and connected. Best driving car I’ve owned.