Thinking about picking up a used Subaru BRZ

[Zivic]

Just noticed the bit about handing it off to your daughter when she STARTS DRIVING....
BRZ all the way.
Appropriate, approachable power for the street and all the latest and greatest safety and tech. enough practicality to be used as a primary driver. Handling that teaches and rewards at safe speeds.
350z is S2000 are too much car for a noob

350z is very lumbering compared to the honda....
want to tone down a honda. just tell driver that they redline at 6k

 

[Paratus]

So a quick update.

Found a nicely priced silver 2015 BRZ 6mt Limited. Unfortunately it had a ding in the drivers door.

Said we were interested but the ding was a problem. They called us back and left a message saying their Subaru body shop would fix it. It was sold by the time we called them back.

We test drove another one but the interior had been beaten on.

Found another one today. 2016 6mt limited with only 13K miles for a decent price. Subaru blue and the interior and exterior were immaculate.

Figured we would buy it until we took it for a test drive. Really noisy.

Turns out it had an aftermarket Invidia N1 exhaust system and after checking the engine bay a $600 Bluetooth enabled Delicious Tuning E85 system.

The hunt continues.

 

[XavierMace]

Turns out it had an aftermarket Invidia N1 exhaust system and after checking the engine bay a $600 Bluetooth enabled Delicious Tuning E85 system.

The hunt continues.

If you're wanting one that's perfect any unmodded, that's going to make your search pretty hard. Most people buy these cars to drive them hard and modding usually goes with that.

 

[Paratus]

If you're wanting one that's perfect any unmodded, that's going to make your search pretty hard. Most people buy these cars to drive them hard and modding usually goes with that.

So far about 1 in 4 have been modded.
The dealer didn’t even know about the engine mod.

I’ve got time to wait for a few more to come on the market. Like I said this a third car for us.

So far this is nothing compared to the hunt for my new RX Vega GPU.

Guess that’s why I didn’t like that Invidia exhaust. I’m more of a Radeon guy.

 

[XavierMace]

Just because it doesn't have any mods on it when you look at it, doesn't mean it wasn't modded.

Are you only shopping dealers or are you shopping private party too?

 

[tcG]

It is not difficult to find an unmodded BRZ, they are still relatively new and plentiful.

 

[HitAnyKey]

It is not difficult to find an unmodded BRZ, they are still relatively new and plentiful.

Yep. You want a car owned by a family guy with no free time to mod/race who dealer maintained it and drove it on the highway daily. Then you buy it privately and pay less. That's the car I would want

I like your choice of car by the way. A friend at work has one and they way he drives it, I wouldn't be buying his LOL!

 

[NutBucket]

Meh. Cars are meant to be driven hard....so long as they are well maintained.

 

[Meghan54]

It is not difficult to find an unmodded BRZ, they are still relatively new and plentiful.

Plentiful? I don't know if I'd put that word to a car that sold 4131 examples last year. Subaru has approx. 600 dealerships in the U.S. and sold an average of 7 BR-Z's per dealer last year. Not exactly selling like hotcakes.

And I'm surprised, given the very low sales totals of both the BR-Z and Toyota's 86 that, that the OP hasn't researched for a good price on a new one.

 

[tcG]

They're plentiful, you can find the exact one you want within a month.

My jam is 80s/90s cars. THOSE are hard to find in good condition - one might search nationwide Craigslist/eBay listings for 2 years before finding a good example. A Subaru BRZ is not.

 

[XavierMace]

Plentiful? I don't know if I'd put that word to a car that sold 4131 examples last year. Subaru has approx. 600 dealerships in the U.S. and sold an average of 7 BR-Z's per dealer last year.

Yeah, most the private party ones for sale in my area have salvage tittles.

 

[Paratus]

Just because it doesn't have any mods on it when you look at it, doesn't mean it wasn't modded.

Are you only shopping dealers or are you shopping private party too?

We’re keeping an eye out for any that come on the market in our area.

It is not difficult to find an unmodded BRZ, they are still relatively new and plentiful.

It’s been about 50/50 so far on the ones we’ve seen.

Plentiful? I don't know if I'd put that word to a car that sold 4131 examples last year. Subaru has approx. 600 dealerships in the U.S. and sold an average of 7 BR-Z's per dealer last year. Not exactly selling like hotcakes.

And I'm surprised, given the very low sales totals of both the BR-Z and Toyota's 86 that, that the OP hasn't researched for a good price on a new one.

The reason I’m looking for a used model is it’ll go to one of my kids in 3 years. Insurance on on 5-8 year old car is a lot cheaper than on a 3 year old one for a teen

 

[NutBucket]

Insurance on a RWD 2-door is going to be ridiculous to begin with. You sure this is a good plan?

 

[Paratus]

Insurance on a RWD 2-door is going to be ridiculous to begin with. You sure this is a good plan?

We’ve already talked to our insurance and ball parked the costs. The Subaru shouldn’t be much worse than my 8 year old Malibu for a teen driver (which they consider a performance car

). Once we play with the deductible, good student discounts and miles driven/year it’s a few hundred more per year.
The expensive part is simply adding a teen to the insurance.

Strangely the BRZ is a couple of hundred less/year to insure than an equivalent FR-S.

Plus my wife and I miss having a manual and we wanted something to teach our kids drive manual with.

 

[XavierMace]

Because Subaru's are cheaper to ensure because their AWD makes them safer.

That's insurance logic for you.

 

[Paratus]

Found one. It was a bit older (2013) with a bit more miles (60k) but ticked all the boxes and was several $1000 less than I thought I’d have to pay.

The only major things I need to do is raise it (it was lowered1.5in with some aftermarket coil overs) and take of the air dam (keeps scraping on my driveway). With the money I saved I don’t mind fixing somethings. Lower insurance too.

Strangely this one shifted better and sounded better than some of the newer mileage models I drove.

 

[XavierMace]

Nice. Are the coilovers adjustable? If so, could try raising it a bit before replacing them.

 

[Paratus]

Nice. Are the coilovers adjustable? If so, could try raising it a bit before replacing them.

Good call. I’ll have to check.

 

[Zivic]

at least you bought the right color

 

[NutBucket]

Because Subaru's are cheaper to ensure because their AWD makes them safer.

That's insurance logic for you.

Our 13 year old WRX still isn't cheap to insure!

at least you bought the right color

But it needs gold wheels.

EDIT: Scraping the driveway? Yours looks super car-friendly.

 

[Paratus]

Our 13 year old WRX still isn't cheap to insure!



But it needs gold wheels.

EDIT: Scraping the driveway? Yours looks super car-friendly.

I know. Still scraps though.

@XavierMace Turns out aftermarket struts/springs are adjustable from -2.3 - 0 inches. So with luck it won’t be that hard to raise the ride height.

 

[XavierMace]

EDIT: Scraping the driveway? Yours looks super car-friendly.

The front of the BRZ sticks out quite a bit, that's got a lip added onto it which makes it even worse, and then it's lowered. By his pictures, I'd say it's lowered quite a bit. That's going to scrape on pretty much everything at that point. LOL.

 

[NutBucket]

Angles man, it's all about the angles!!

 

[Yuriman]

May not need to pull the air dam off once it's raised.

They're usually worth 1-2mpg on the highway, so as long as you don't mind an extra $50-100 per year in gas...

 

[XavierMace]

Angles man, it's all about the angles!!

Angles aren't always an option.

May not need to pull the air dam off once it's raised.

They're usually worth 1-2mpg on the highway, so as long as you don't mind an extra $50-100 per year in gas...

I have a hard time seeing an extended lip on that car making any appreciable different in fuel economy.