Bought a 2023 BRZ yesterday!

I'm loving it! It was time to replace my Mazdaspeed Miata as my daily driver and the BRZ ticks almost all of the boxes for me. My wife says the car reminds her of an 80s sports car, because of its looks, ride, and personality. It does remind me of an FB RX-7 or 944 in a lot of ways. It just needs a rear hatch. The clutch is taking some getting used to, because the pedal motion has a much different feel from the MSM. I'm also still trying to figure out how to heel & toe in it because brake and gas pedals are pretty far apart.

Now to find the time to pull the aftermarket intake and exhaust off of the MSM and track down an oil leak so I can sell it. 
 

Edit to add photos 

Congratulations. And pictures? :)

I keep thinking I'd love one of these, but then my fear of Subaru head gaskets creeps in......

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

I keep thinking I'd love one of these, but then my fear of Subaru head gaskets creeps in......

Head gaskets haven't been an issue in like a decade. Not that there's nothing else to worry about...just not that.

dps214 said:

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

I keep thinking I'd love one of these, but then my fear of Subaru head gaskets creeps in......

Head gaskets haven't been an issue in like a decade. Not that there's nothing else to worry about...just not that.

<EDIT> I just realized this wasn't helpful to someone with a new car.  Sorry! </EDIT>

That said, they're a super fun car, with a great chassis!   I would be very, very hesitant to take it on track, ever.

I have liked mine for over 10 years. 

I have been oogling of these for the past couple weeks.  I really want one but I need someone to buy my bike.

Fortunately for the head gaskets, the closest this car will probably ever get to the track is the parking area at the VIR. I don't have the time to do HPDE and if I wrecked it, my wife would make sure my body was locked in the trunk when it's sent to the junk yard.

Congratulations!  It's very handsome.  And being reminiscent of an '80s sports car is pretty high praise indeed.

What a beautiful car - congrats. From a fellow brz owner, I agree with your wife - it does remind me a bit of the 944s that I've driven. I have a first gen and would love a second gen at some point. they really are fantastic, easy to live with cars. Enjoy

My dad bought one, and after driving it, I can say if I buy a car built in the 21st century it's going to be a new brz. Nice choice.

Congrats!  I've been eyeing a new BRZ myself.

Curious - what's the go-to place to discuss technical stuff for 2nd-gen twins? (besides here, of course)  

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

I keep thinking I'd love one of these, but then my fear of Subaru head gaskets creeps in......

Dont fear the creeper.

(Srsly... you make ONE bad batch of engines in like 1998 and become a meme forever)

scardeal said:

Congrats!  I've been eyeing a new BRZ myself.

Curious - what's the go-to place to discuss technical stuff for 2nd-gen twins? (besides here, of course)  

 

 

I've only skimmed through the Reddit  and a couple of forums a Google search turned up, like the  FT86 Club forum, but haven't really dug into it, yet. The depth of knowledge here is probably all I'll need for what I'll do with the car. 

"Don't fear the creeper!" Love it!

Beautiful car, congratulations! I picked up a white 2023 two weeks ago.  

In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :

Nice! Congratulations!

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

I keep thinking I'd love one of these, but then my fear of Subaru head gaskets creeps in......

Dont fear the creeper.

 

(Srsly... you make ONE bad batch of engines in like 1998 and become a meme forever)

These ones don't suffer from head gaskets, these ones suffer from a whole host of other problems, mostly related to oil & bearings...

I'm curious what kind of real world fuel economy these get.

Hell yeah. 

I love them, and am seeing a ton of them at the track already. I just grabbed a manual 128i; but a new 86 would  have been my preference if I had the budget.

My son bought the exact same car last October.....same year/color/trim level. I get to drive it frequently. Subaru hit a home run with the BRZ.  And just for the record we have been a Subaru family for 23 years and after owning seven Subaru,s (all WRX's and STi's), we have never had any of of the Subaru issues that people complain about. All of them have been auto crossed. Enjoy your BRZ, it's so well done you will get many miles/years of enjoyment out of it. Congrats.

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

Is this related to the RTV chunks in the oil screen? Has anyone been able to determine how widespread that issue really is/was? I'd love to see some actual data.

@pimpm3, your car looks great in white!

@AnthonyGS, mine was showing 28 mpg at [supralegal] mph on the way home from the dealer. Haven't driven it enough to get a real reading yet.

In reply to BenB :

The related FB engines, mainly FB25, like to consume oil (in part due to low oil ring tension) and then the rod bearings let go because engines don't like running with only a half quart of oil in the engine.  AKA "Why does the red lamp come on the dash when I apply the brakes?"

If you check the oil regularly, and add as necessary, no problem.  I also suspect that driver habits play a large role, lots of idling and low-intensity puttering around allows the rings to more readily stick in the piston grooves, which will greatly accelerate oil consumption.  Heavy throttle on a regular basis helps prevent that, something your average Forester driver is not wont to do.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Got it: regular Italian Tuneups. I can do that!

BenB said:

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

Is this related to the RTV chunks in the oil screen? Has anyone been able to determine how widespread that issue really is/was? I'd love to see some actual data.

All I have is anacdata, but I can tell you that I've seen two of these (2022/23) lose engines on the track in the past 3 months.  Latest was last Sunday at palmer, the car was completely stock and had less than 18k on it.   Subaru is denying the warranty for the poor guy, it was his third track day with the car, just got promoted to solo novice.  Both of those are suspected (but not proven!) RTV issues, as both let go at high rpm, with main bearings gone.

But, I've seen some of the FAs lose compression, start ingesting oil for the reasons Pete mentioned.  Often this is quickly followed by main bearings destruction.  I've helped my track friends replace 3 of em now with the older engines (circa 2014-2016), I was hoping that the newer series resolved these issues, but Subaru is giving themselves a black eye with the oil control rings and RTV issues.

Thanks. I've been reading about oil usage on the GR86 forum. I'm half tempted to spend the money to have the oil screen checked for RTV just for the peace of mind. And checking the oil at every fill up like back in my MGB days.