Used 2014 Subaru BRZ Coupe Consumer Reviews
Enter every road curve with joy in my heart
This is a car to increase your quality of life. I love it for where I live in the San Diego foothills with no deer. However, if I lived back in the Hill Country of Central Texas, I'd have sold this car within 6 months. The headlights are set ridiculously low so literally heaven help you if there are deer on the road ahead. You won't see them until they're through your windshield. The dealership's Service Dept told me I can't get them raised up because they're high density headlights. I think the headlights are a huge safety risk in areas with large-sized wildlife. Other than that, I adore this car for the thrill of driving it. Kudos to the excellent engineers! Update: Have had the car for a while and we still love it. We have no intention of trading it in for anything else. My only gripe of note continues to be the low position of the headlights, but the freeways, canyon and foothill roads we drive don't make this a big issue for us in SoCal. No elk bounding across a Wyoming plain. Just rabbits and the coyotes are too savvy to get hit. We have found you can't always reliably shift from 4th to 6th. Seems to insist on a pit stop at 5th. Again, not a deal breaker. We've had no issues needing repairs. Everything still seems tight. This car is all about the Curves and we love it for that. Update 11/13/17: Still no repairs have been needed. I still LOVE this car! Everything I wrote above is still true. But so is my complaint about headlights. I went to Subaru twice and was told no upward adjustment possible. Didn't look at replacing them though. Not a problem in heavily populated Southern California and if you know the roads. I wish I could easily replace the speakers. They buzz on certain octaves. I don't blast them but I do play them loudly sometimes. You kinda have to because the car is a typical sporty car with some noise inside. I hate the display though. No steering wheel controls so you have to use the display for music. This is the worst point of the car. The internal temp controls and clock are perfect but music and maps is a major pain to manipulate. It's easy to read the maps on the display though. My husband and I are still very happy with this car purchase. As soon as a take a sharp curve, I fall in love with this car all over again. Like being a kid in a go cart. Update 5/14/2020: The car's still performing great. Driving is just as fun. We've followed all recommended maintenance and have had no mechanical or any other problems. It's our play car so our mileage is low, about 28K at this point. My gripes are the same as on the first day. Headlights aren't good for rural areas where wildlife leaps out at you although they're perfectly fine in populated areas. The speakers should be replaced and the entertainment panel. Happily we checked into an aftermarket Android Auto install plus better speakers and it's easy to have done. We just procrastinated since we drive our other vehicles more and they have it. I feel comfortable to recommend this as a reliable Used Car, made in Japan, if the previous owner wasn't an idiot driver and that you calculate in an Android Auto panel plus speakers upgrade. My car is a manual so automatics might be different.
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Great car. Drives great, looks awesome.
This is a great car. I bought this car for my wife in April 2014 in Portland and she loves it. We are the first and only owners. It has been well maintained using the correct oil and always premium gas. While I was working out of town, we needed a third car so I bought an big, old american land yacht. Now that I am back in town, something has to go. My daughter occasionally needs a car to drive when she is home from college and we figure a Towncar with automatic transmission is better for her to drive than a sports car with a manual transmission. This car is fun to drive. The GPS works well and the stereo is great. The back seat works well for one teenager and for groceries. It is, also, built to accept a bike rack.
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Fun Fun Fun
I'm 64 years old, this car is a gas to drive. cornering, handling, is very tight. I've been averaging 29 miles to a gallon. The bucket seats have nice supporting sides, instruments are very nice the controls are at your finger tips. I like not having all the horns and whistles on the steering wheel. The automatic climate control is very good too.
Blast to Drive
This is the first 2 door rear wheel drive coupe I have owned, and it is super fun to drive. My prior cars have been SUVs and sedans. The low seating position, combined with the super responsive steering and manual transmission are amazing. When I see cars that cost 2 to 3 times more, I think they way overpaid for the badge and extra horsepower that will hardly be used in my traffic congested area.
Do Your Homework!
There are lots of printed road tests of these cars (BRZ, FRS, and 86). There are plenty of videos as well. Read and watch as many as you can so you will know what to expect. The car is small and my '03 Kia Spectra GSX had some conveniences the BRZ doesn't have. Everyone seems to think the "burz" is underpowered. Not necessarily! Power is judged by how you apply it. I got my burz to be my daily driver, and it has plenty of power for that role. If you can live with the small size, harsh ride, some road noise, just OK radio, and if you understand that it's really not a four passenger car, and that it requires premium gas, and more, you'll be fine. Like I said, educate yourself and know what to expect. All that being said, I knew what I was getting. These are driver's cars, and that was what I wanted. I didn't even test drive mine. The salesman probably thought I was crazy, but I had done my homework. After all of the above, I hadn't even gone two miles after picking it up and I caught myself grinning from ear to ear. The car drives like a go-kart! This is a car you need to check out thoroughly before committing to.
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