The 2013 Subaru BRZ is a gorgeous car. For all intents and purposes, it's identical to the Scion FR-S that we tested last year, but with a few superficial styling differences. It's got different badges, a reshaped lower grille, different wheels, and a different cap on the cosmetic fender vents, but in the broad strokes of the sports coupe's design it's so similar to the Scion model (and the Toyota model that both of them are based on) that you'd have a hard time telling the difference if you passed one in traffic.
One easy way to distinguish our Subaru from its Scion-badged cousins is the signature WR Blue Pearl paint, which is unique to the BRZ and is a stunning color in person.
Cheap dashboard, poor cabin tech
Let's go ahead and get this out of the way, so that I can get on to gushing over how much I loved driving the BRZ: the entire dashboard experience is crap. The build quality is low and the best thing about the audio and navigation system is that it looks easy to remove and replace.
The dashboard itself is an eyesore, made of cheap, hard plastic that felt hollow when rapped with a fingertip. The buttons and knobs for climate control felt toylike and the silver plastic that covered much of the upper dashboard and center console buttons looked like it'd be fairly easily scratched off.
One could argue that a hollow plastic dashboard keeps the sports car's weight down, but it also makes the car feel flimsy. At one point, when removing a music-filled USB drive from the dashboard port, I pulled an entire panel loose -- the USB drive, on the other hand, was still firmly connected to the port. That the panel clips weren't stronger than the USB's grip is just ridiculous.
I gave the USB drive a tug and the dashboard panel just popped out.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)The navigation receiver has all the features I like to see in a modern vehicle. It's got a 6.1-inch LCD touch screen that displays maps for navigation that are stored on an SD card. When routing a destination, the BRZ's navigation system can even give you fuel use, trip cost, and emissions estimates on the trip summary screen. However, these numbers are estimated based on preset values for the car and fuel prices that are input in a menu, not populated live from the vehicle's ECU or the Web.
At the base of the center stack are USB and 3.5mm analog auxiliary inputs. The USB port will allow the system to read and control an iPod. You get Bluetooth wireless connectivity for hands-free calling and audio streaming, AM/FM with HD Radio decoding, and SiriusXM Satellite Radio, which also provides NavTraffic data for the navigation system. And there's a single-disc CD player with MP3 capability. This is a respectable list of audio sources. Unfortunately, the interface design of this receiver is severely lacking.
There are no steering-wheel controls for volume or skip, which means that you'll be reaching all the way over to the receiver quite a bit. The only physical controls are a volume knob and three buttons for audio, voice command, and map. Simple functions, such as skipping tracks, can take multiple screen or button taps depending on where in the interface you are when you decide to change songs. Also, the system isn't very responsive to input and lags noticeably between a tap and its result.
The infotainment system features small physical and virtual buttons and a display that's susceptible to glare.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)The onscreen buttons and the few physical controls are tiny and quite difficult to hit precisely when the stiffly sprung vehicle is bouncing around -- the most heinous offenders are the onscreen audio source buttons, which are arranged in a narrow strip along the left edge of the screen and need to be scrolled through to go from, for example, satellite radio to Bluetooth audio streaming.
Voice control is standard and should help, but you'll still have to reach all the way over to the receiver to tap a tiny button to activate the prompt. Even then, the system is slow and lacks integration with the navigation system. Oddly, the voice command system recognizes the command "Navigation" but doesn't offer any functionality beneath that heading, so either the system is incomplete or a more comprehensive list of voice commands is coming soon.
Perhaps most annoying is the audio coming out of the eight-speaker, 196-watt stereo system -- it was, frankly, not good. There was overwhelming bad distortion in the lower range output at high volume levels and there was a noticeable bass buzz coming from one of the A-pillar speakers at moderate volumes that would be filtered out on a better stereo with some sort of crossover. Even at lower volumes, there seemed to be an odd tonal dead spot between the midrange and bass where the volume just dropped off; the midrange frequencies were a bit muddy, and the highs were harsh. You can make minor fixes with the seven-band EQ, but there's only so much that you can do. Either the speakers or the panels to which they are mounted are just not up to the job.
I don't think I've heard a stereo this bad in years. Just for kicks, I tossed in a Skrillex CD and cranked the volume to see what would happen. The resulting audio sounded more like controlled flatulence than listenable audio -- though some would call this an improvement. It would almost be funny, if I didn't want to actually listen to a song now and then.
Excellent driver's seat ergonomics
It's not all bad in the cabin, however. Fortunately, the 2013 Subaru BRZ's ergonomics are fantastic. The steering wheel and shifter fall perfectly into hand, and the seat offers a good amount of manual adjustment to make sure of that. Deep bolstering on the seats helps keep the driver in place during hard cornering, so I didn't have to brace myself with my knees like I often do. Pedals are perfectly placed for heel and toe downshifting. Drop a water bottle in the door panel cup holders and you'll be able to grab a swig without stretching -- I don't think I've ever actually used a door panel cup holder before, but I was impressed by the Subaru's. Toyota and Subaru's designers have clearly done a good job of wrapping the cockpit around the driver.
Forward visibility is also quite good. The raised arches over the front wheels makes it easy to spot the vehicle's corners despite the low hood.
The BRZ's sport seats grip the driver and passenger during high-speed cornering.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)If I have one complaint about the ergonomics, it's rear visibility. The high rear deck makes reversing a tricky affair. Meaty C-pillars make reversing out of a perpendicular spot or changing lanes a matter of double and triple takes. Of course, the BRZ's track- and enthusiast-focused design is probably to blame here -- you don't do much rear-mirror checking on an autocross or road course -- but owners will need to live with the coupe off-course, as well. That a rear camera isn't available on the BRZ must be noted.
Subaru Boxer engine
Underneath the BRZ's hood is the same 2.0-liter, horizontally opposed (aka Boxer), four-cylinder engine that you'll find powering the Scion FR-S. There are no tuning differences or surprises here. Power is given as 200 horsepower and the crank is twisted with a mere 151 pound-feet of torque. That torque is multiplied by a standard six-speed manual transmission before reaching the rear axle, where it is split between the 17-inch wheels shod with 215-width tires via a Torsen limited-slip differential.
The Boxer engine's exhaust note has a nice burble at wide-open throttle that, while not as guttural as the Subaru Impreza WRX's note or as loud as the WRX STI's, has a nice deepness when compared with the buzzy in-line four-cylinder engines that it competes with. More importantly, the engine feels responsive. Blips of the throttle for downshifts are immediate and there is little rev-float when upshifting.
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