Know Thine Enemy – I mean, the competition.

[ianphampton]

Having heard so much about the Toyota GT86 and the Subaru BRZ, I'd been on the Toyota and the Subaru websites -

 

I had an email about a week ago from Subaru saying they now had cars arriving in the UK on a regular basis, and would I like to test drive one? So, I said "Yes" and on Saturday took a BRZ out for a run

 

http://subaru.co.uk/vehicles/brz/se/

 

 

Initial reactions on driving it - the engine is willing and pulls well, the noise is reasonably satisfying when you accelerate (but not in the full stainless zorst leage on a 350) and she gets you up to - mildly in excess of the 70 limit - in good order. There's not much rear lumbar thrust, but it's only got 200 horses against our own approaching 300 - but the BRZ weighs only 1.2 tons so it's a bit lighter. I couldn't go wild as it was all done just pulling onto the motorway.

 

Cornering seemed quite nice, went round a couple of roundabouts, at definitely faster than normal sensible driving so 50 plus - and she felt quite nice, pulled well when straightening back up to go back onto the motorway

 

Anyway - driving wise, pretty good

 

Internally - you'd only get in the back seats if you were a double amputee. There's no way this is a 4 seater - at most it's a 2+2 and the kids would need to be small as there's no legroom at all in the back unless you pul the front seats right forward. (Maybe a bit churlish to complain about rear seats as a Zed driver - when we haven't got any at all!) Room in the back is very tight too - I sat in just so see and my head was against the rear window - I'm only 5ft 9" so once again, only suitable for small children

 

Boot was reasonable and the rear seats fold down easily so you have a good area.

 

I only drove the basic model and it didn't have a sat nav - the mileage computer fuctions were very basic and you only get a single CD slot radio - so this was a bit minimalist, I thought.

 

My son also had a drive and said he thought it was a bit 'letterbox' on the vision around - I hadn't noticed a problem but that was his comment

 

Overall - I'm used to the characteristics in a Zed so she's not as quick - but for Mazda MX drivers or something it would be OK, overall feelinig was pretty good and the cabin felt quite nice.

 

Would I buy one - if I was moving up from a smaller car, it would be OK, but compared to the Zed - I don't think so. Maybe they'll bring out an F/I version in a year or two, and that would (perhaps) be a different matter

[TOM'S_ZED]

I had a test drive in the Toyota I had an hours test drive and took it back after half hour. Nice looking ok to drive but gutless should have put the wrx or sti lump in there from the factory. To me it felt like a Type R without the vtec constantly waiting for something to happen when you put the foot down. I was driving a astra 888 cdti at the time and that was a faster car. Then I bought the zed.

[StevoD]

i think if your think its a fast sports coupe your missing the point and the main point people are raving about which is the handling,

i havent driven one would love to mind, but this is a mx5 rival not one for a 350/370z,

 

But wait to see if the rumors are true and nissan bring back the silvia name to take it on.