2013 Subaru BRZ Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Subaru BRZ Long-Term Road Test

Chevrolet considers building a rear-wheel-drive coupe similar to our Edmunds.com long-term 2013 Subaru BRZ.

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quadricycle

Hehehe thank you Mr. Toyoda, for resuscitating this segment! Add some more competition and there's only going to be good things for us consumers. Also, what a perfect time for Mazda to have a new Miata in the works.

duck87

It would still be somewhat strange for Chevy to enter this market, particularly because the Camaro outsells the Toyobaru twins by a large margin. Maybe it's more of a hedge bet, but 9000/year isn't a huge number, particularly since the Toyobaru has that niche all to itself, currently.

legacygt

3 things.

1) This is certainly easier said than. GM's memory can't be so short as to forget the Sky and Solstice. Those cars has some charms but were seriously flawed and sold in small number, and that's when the only competition was the Miata.

2) And, how big can this segment get? There's not a huge market out there. What's the market? 20,000 annually? 30,000 tops? You want to start dividing that up across the Miata, FR-s, BRZ and one or two from GM. We're talking low numbers.

3) The FR-S is probably selling better because there are many more Scion/Toyota dealers than Subaru. Also, the BRZ does not fit in with Subaru's marketing or reputation n the US at all. Subaru advertising still states that AWS is what makes a Subaru a Subaru. If this car were selling as a Toyota, they'd be moving even more of them.

bankerdanny

I agree with Legacy. a small, RWD sports car is not really what the typical Subaru customer wants. Subaru has built its rep on AWD sedans and wagons, like the Forester I bought from the local dealer in 2007. Here in the Liberal bastion of Evanston, IL it often seems like there are a couple of Foresters and a Legacy on every block (along with a Mark IV Jetta). But I have yet to see a single BRZ.

benson2175

The thing is the GM car will be a flop because GM doesn't get it. All the swoopy styling and marketing hype couldn't save the terribly engineered Solstice.

fordson1

All you'd have to do is Photoshop some tracks and a 75mm gun onto the Code 130R and you'd have a Sherman tank. Or leave off the tracks and you've got the USS Monitor. Who designs these cars? If the beltline were any higher it would look like Steve Urkel.

stovt001_

I'm hoping if it does happen it doesn't look like the 130R. I'd be surprised if this actually did happen, but I hope it does. As it is now the Camaro and Mustang outsell this segment by incredible margins, but if fuel prices go up again I can see that all changing very very fast. If fuel prices go up, the small RWD coupe segment could grow from buyers who would have otherwise wanted a Camaro or Mustang but couldn't afford the gas.

greenpony

Because the Solstice was so awesome...

huisj

Can the Camaro's platform really be scaled down to a point where it's actually light weight? That platform is beastly.

opfreak

I like how people are ripping on the solstice

2005[7] 5,445
2006[8] 19,710
2007 16,779
2008[9] 10,739
2009[10] 5,642
2010 7,409

Lets also list the sky
2006[5] 8,671
2007 11,263
2008[6] 9,162
2009[7] 3,399

Over 6 years, they sold 100k cars, averaging 16370 cars/year.

nothing stellar, but not the end of the world like some posters here are making it out to be.

darthbimmer

Why would Chevy even care about this market? It doesn't seem large enough for them to build a new model. If they did want to compete in it they'd probably make a successor to the Cobalt SS -- such as a Cruze SS or Sonic SS -- and call it done.

gtfrank1

Subaru is limited under contact as to how many BRZ's they can sale. I had to wait 4 months to get mine.

gtfrank1

GM should just put the development money from the 130 R into making the Camaro Lighter and better. This concept is destine to fail.

gregnv

Can you say Beretta?