MrChaos said:
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:
MrChaos said:
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:
Yeah, the one I'm looking at is a '13 which has had the recall and a bunch of other work done. Supposedly clean title, though.
that is the thing, I see way to many reports of the engine eating itself after the recall work was done.
I thought this mainly affected Scions?
Yea its mainly scions since subaru dealers know how to work on boxers.
Aren't the majority of the cars out there Scions, anyway, since Subaru had a production cap?
This is the type of car where you're buying the previous owner's care or lack therof.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:
MrChaos said:
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:
MrChaos said:
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:
Yeah, the one I'm looking at is a '13 which has had the recall and a bunch of other work done. Supposedly clean title, though.
that is the thing, I see way to many reports of the engine eating itself after the recall work was done.
I thought this mainly affected Scions?
Yea its mainly scions since subaru dealers know how to work on boxers.
Aren't the majority of the cars out there Scions, anyway, since Subaru had a production cap?
I don't know about the production cap, but like you mentioned, the majority of the cheaper ones are Scions. This one is a Subaru though, and according to the seller, the recall has been done at the local Subaru dealer. For what that's worth.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:
I'm still in two minds if I just go easy-ish button on a car for track use or not, and if I do the Frisbie is pretty high on the list.
As this place knows everything, how much of a concern is high mileage on these? Most of the ones I'm looking at are around 150k, because if I go above that then I can find more interesting Miatas^Wcars for the money.
I'm counting on you to do the Beta testing on this for me.
I shall try to not disappoint in my role as guinea pig and/or crash test dummy.
red_stapler said:
This is the type of car where you're buying the previous owner's care or lack therof.
That's a very good point, which is why I am considering a few more "grown up" cars as well. They're an itch I'd like to scratch, though.
If I was buying from someone like myself, all day long. Stock car, maintenance records. Flat bill bro-dude with spike lugnuts and Monster Energy stickers? Only if it was cheap enough.
I probably wouldn't buy one from a "bro."
They often don't follow maintenance schedules (trans at 22k miles not 30k for instance), cheap mods, etc.
Oh, I mean cheap enough to offset the inevitable purchase of a short block from Subaru.
Well, the seller is pretty young (compared to this old fart here at least). We'll see, I'm supposed to check out on Sunday.
Re the mods, he's pretty adamant that the only mod to the car is an aftermarket exhaust, and it'll come with the standard exhaust as well.
Also, interesting to see that there will be a K swap option. Although I suspect that if I would go through the hassle of swapping anything else into the car, I might as well go LS swap. Which apparently fits extremely well and doesn't seem to require a bunch of bodywork.
Appleseed said:
Oh, I mean cheap enough to offset the inevitable purchase of a short block from Subaru.
Have you been following Chris's rally "BRZ" thread? IIRC he started with a car with engine issues for $cheap (as newish cars go) and then swapped an engine in himself.
Then the build got a bit fabby.
It's turning out so nice, I hope he wears the car out from gravel spray and general decrepitude (hey, body shells are wear items too) and it doesn't end prematurely by getting launched into a tree. Although, given that a lot of the cool fabby bits involved 3D modeling so that braces/new structural panels could be pre-cut, just weld into place, a new shell probably could be put together in less time than this one. Maybe.
Why are they called the frisbee twins? Because the engine is flat?
Captain Awesome has a good thread. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/freddy-mcshreddy-midlife-crisis-frs-thingy/153004/page1/
I test drove a BRZ a few years back. At the time I needed a back seat (kid in a booster) and it was too much of a pain to get kiddo in and out. It also was a little loud for the 2 hours/day I was spending on I-95. I went with a Civic Si instead. Now that kiddo rides in the front seat it's a logical choice. Be sure to drive one, boxer torque curve isn't anyting like your old S2000.
I may be guessing, but I imagine insurance prices may be awful for these things.
I'm leaning towards an E36 BMW for my next DD / Fun car. As long as it's not an M car they can still be found cheap. The values are definitely rising for nice onces, so putting money into refreshing bushings etc wouldn't be a total loss. The drifty-bois are always parting them out, so used parts are easy to find and comparatively inexpensive. GRM just published a buyers guide for M3s last week. If I had a few spare bucks I'd import an E36 touring (wagen) from Europe ($10kish).
944s are very tempting and seem to check off most of the boxes. Make sure the clutch is fresh, because of the rear transaxle a clutch job is a big operation.
They often come w/a long list of deferred maintenance, but if you want something a little more modern E46 ZHP cars (330i w/sport package) are also pretty easy to find. Or, RX8!
Hoondavan said:
I may be guessing, but I imagine insurance prices may be awful for these things.
a nd miata is half as much to insure
MrChaos said:
Hoondavan said:
I may be guessing, but I imagine insurance prices may be awful for these things.
a nd miata is half as much to insure
Yuck. I'll have to talk to my insurance agent tomorrow anyway. If it turns out a BRZ is more expensive to insure than the Alfa, that's going to be a pass then. Might have to look at the Mini after all.
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:
MrChaos said:
Hoondavan said:
I may be guessing, but I imagine insurance prices may be awful for these things.
a nd miata is half as much to insure
Yuck. I'll have to talk to my insurance agent tomorrow anyway. If it turns out a BRZ is more expensive to insure than the Alfa, that's going to be a pass then. Might have to look at the Mini after all.
My BRZ was noticeably more to insure than my 135i.
I've got about 120k miles on my 2013 FRS, and it's been trouble free (I've owned it since 2016 when it had ~30k miles). It's daily driven with a few track days a year. I get an occasional check engine light for "catalyst efficiency error" but it goes away on its own after a few days and doesn't come back for months so I've ignored it. The only annoying part with that is that the cruise control won't work when there's a check engine light. Last week the throw out bearing starting making lots of noise so it went into the dealer today for the valve spring recall and to have the clutch, TOB and spark plugs changed. Other than that, just regular oil changes and other fluids as recommended, and a new battery a couple years ago. I wouldn't be afraid of a high mileage one, as long as it doesn't look like the previous owner abused it.
I'm currently thinking about a more comfortable vehicle for a daily driver and making this a little more track focused. It's not the ride that I find uncomfortable, just the lack of sound deadening makes phone calls hard to hear while driving, and the radio has to be turned up pretty high to hear it. Maybe I'm just getting old. :)
I'm still a fan of mine. It has 78k on the chassis but has the 2015 engine/trans with less miles. No troubles at all. I bought mine modified but sometimes wish I would have started with a stock car. I managed to buy a good modified example and it served me well but I've swapped out most components for more track oriented stuff in the end. Still pleased regardless. The K swap is tempting but it's gonna run about $10k when it's all said and done. That's a lotta jam. I'll stick with the fa20 for now.
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:
MrChaos said:
Hoondavan said:
I may be guessing, but I imagine insurance prices may be awful for these things.
a nd miata is half as much to insure
Yuck. I'll have to talk to my insurance agent tomorrow anyway. If it turns out a BRZ is more expensive to insure than the Alfa, that's going to be a pass then. Might have to look at the Mini after all.
So a certain annoying gecko quoted me less than $300/6months, which is less than I expected.
My current agent would've loved to quote me if their headquarters with all their computer systems weren't in Texas.
Right, finally managed to agree when and where to meet with the seller. Talked to him a bit more and it looks like the car has done about 3k since the recall work. That should be enough for any problems to manifest themselves, right?
Oops, I appear to have agreed to buy this particular BRZ.
Owner has driven it a bit since putting up the ad so it's been almost 6k miles since the recall. Drives fine, has a couple of dents but nothing serious and overall feels pretty good.
He even offered to put the stock exhaust back on as I'm a tad too old for the noise levels the current exhaust produces.
docwyte
PowerDork
2/21/21 2:45 p.m.
All of those cars are various degrees of horrible at being a track car compared to two cars that aren't on your list.
would you please just buy a nicely setup e36 or e46 M3 and call it a day?
docwyte said:
All of those cars are various degrees of horrible at being a track car compared to two cars that aren't on your list.
would you please just buy a nicely setup e36 or e46 M3 and call it a day?
Good luck finding one for frisbee money, though! That is in the same mechanical and cosmetic shape, at least.
docwyte
PowerDork
2/22/21 8:51 a.m.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
$10k buys you any number of well setup E36 M3's. That'll mop the floor with a frisbee.
