Well, as promised, I have another report of what it is to actually live with the FRS as an early adopter.
3000 miles idown the road and three months later.
The good news is that you just never get tired of driving the car. The road manners and way it comports itself on the road do not stop being fun the entire time you are in the car. It is a good long distance touring car and if I can keep my foot out of it, the mileage is better than the Protege.
The bad news is that either the early adoption or the built down to a price factor is starting to show.
Known and reported tailight issue where it condenses has cropped up. Won't stay condensed long enough to show dealer, so no fix.
Radio has a static issue whenever I stop. Go figure. Not high on priorities, but annoying.
Synchros are slow in second. Klunks a lot especially when cold.Miata box this is not.
I have not developed any love for six speed boxes. In any car. Wish it was a five speed.
LOTS of drivetrain lash.
Noisy AC condenser cut-in and out.
The car is light. This lightness had to come from giving up something like sound insulation. Hard rain and gravel roads will let you know about that. NOISY!
The traction control has a bad habit of re-engaging itself from full OFF to full ON when making abrupt entries into a trafic stream. The sudden loss of power is un-nerving when you have fast moving traffic arriving on your tail. Need to learn more about this and how to replicate consistently so I can show dealer service department. Most consistemly done (but not always) when exiting a gravel road intending to hang the ass end out on a right hand turn.
Scion is not clear on whether or not the lack of TPS will default the tracton control to ON all the time or not. This in relation to a thread I started about running snows without TPS.
Sounds like a bleeping tractor. Subie guys like this. Me, not so much. Maybe if I get rid of the retarded ricer/fanboi noisemaker into the cabin it will be better. I am an ld guy, so this might be subjective.
Never heard a car crinkle and ping as much as this thing when you put it away hot. It is a literal symphony of cooling noises. No idea what the hell that is about. Disconcerting to some extent.
Needs real tires.
No steel wheels available for winter rims. Not sure why? Going to have to run alloys and run the risk of snow packing in rims that makes for unbalanced ride.
While the above might seem like foder for the FRS haters, and sure to be quoted out of context, let me assure you that I still much prefer driving the FRS to the bloated pigs that present themselves as competition. Heavy cars can most certainly be made to go fast and a go around corner, but they can't be make to handle well. If that last sentence goes over your head, so be it.
Much the same as I would forgive a Lotus for shedding its parts en-route to just about anywere, the FRS has that charm.
I'll give you another report once I have some winter driving on the thing. Should be interesting.
