SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


Is Subaru's Bee-Arr-Zee worth the extra money?

We drive the 2013 Subaru BRZ and answer the question everyone asks.

There’s only one answer

Published in Witness Wheels on Thursday September 26, 2013

It fills the room; the elephant that cannot be ignored. Every Subaru salesperson gets asked but has to fall back on PR-speak from the factory because no-one gave them definitive answers. The question: Is Subaru’s BRZ really worth R55 000 more than the Toyota 86 High-spec manual?  We’ll get there. Read on.

We have driven the Toyota 86 High Spec automatic and, just recently, the manual-only Subaru BRZ. While acknowledging that it’s not quite fair to compare vehicles with different transmissions, we believe that defining features go beyond gearboxes. Briefly, they use the same Toyota FA20, DOHC, naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine, they have all the same safety features, similar music systems, the same air conditioner, powered windows and mirrors, a Torsen limited slip differential – we could go on and on.

The most noticeable differences are the aggressive wing and front bumper on the BRZ; toned down seat colours; Alcantara and leather, rather than leather alone; slightly more conservative looking instruments; single beam LED headlights; a five-year maintenance plan rather than Toyota’s four-year service contract, and its distinctive exhaust note. In PR-speak it’s a “performance exhaust system,” which is about as enlightening as the “sports suspension” mentioned elsewhere. We have gathered some information on both, however.

In response to our direct questions, Subaru SA told us: “Whilst the suspensions are identical in nature, they are set up differently. The Subaru is slightly firmer up front, with stiffer springs and damper valving. Rear suspensions are alike but with its stiffer front end, BRZ is tuned to be less tail-happy in corners. Put another way; 86 is more of a drifter, while BRZ is set up to try to emulate the traditional Subaru all-wheel drive feel. As for the exhaust, this is locally developed and frees up a further 7 kW of power, bringing the total to 154.” So there you have it.

The point is that it works and, although its almost-twin is a grand little sports car, the difference is like chalk and cheese. While Toyota 86 might be described as “alright!” Subaru BRZ is “all-gasmic.” It feels planted, more solid, always totally in control; there’s less wind and road noise and the power keeps on delivering. And let’s not forget the engine note that reaches out to your inner werewolf. Give it horns and your face feels hairier, your teeth grow longer, your pulses race, and you just want to howl at the moon.

You don’t always need to drive it hard – it can be a barrel of fun just mixing it up with traffic on the freeway. And it putters gently along city streets when you need it to. The six-speed manual ‘box snicks from gear to gear like a precision Swiss timepiece; it steers like an extension of your senses; you’re at one with the road, and the all-disc brakes are magnificent.

But back to the mundane: Fifty-five big ones is a lot of money, but the extra year of care, with full maintenance rather than just service, is worth a lot on its own. Add sweeter handling, a little more power, that magical exhaust note, the cachet of a distinctive brand and you’re left with just one possible answer to the question up above: Oh, hell, yes!

Test car from Subaru SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R389 900
Engine: 1998cc, DOHC, 16-valve, Boxer four
Power: 154 kW at 7000 rpm
Torque: 205 Nm between 6400 and 6600 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7,6 seconds
Maximum speed: 226 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8,5 l/100 km
Tank: 50 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with Subaru Assist
Maintenance plan: 5 years/105 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.



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