Willtl

I'm surprised your wife finds the size of the GT86 intimidating, this is the smallest car I've ever owned. Although admittedly, I'm not your wife. Or am I?

I like the doors locking, the other cars we have lock the doors once you get started. I just don't think you should have to press a button to unlock the door, pulling the handle should unlock and open. This setup just makes the car feel primitive. There are some very strange design decisions in this car, some feel like very basic omissions which would be OK if everything was basic (e.g. no rain sensors for automatic wipers, but automatic head lamps). It is almost as if someone said "right, we are going to spend £15K to build this car so make a list of things we want, put them in priority order and when we get to the £15k spend limit, everything under the line is not included - no compromises".

After 3 months of ownership my "bad" list is as follows: * The driver's seat/position. No lumbar support and the fact I can't bring the steering wheel back as far as I like. I'm tall and want to move the seat back as far as it goes, but I can't bring the steering wheel back as far as I want so I need to move the seat closer to the steering wheel. I think I have a slightly bad back and the lack of lumbar support really highlights this. Unfortunately, this is a pretty serious issue for me which still leaves me undecided on whether to keep the car * No automatic wipers * The very poor stereo system that comes with the car. It was a 2015 model, Bluetooth and DAB should be standard, you can't even have DAB as an optional extra! * Having to press the unlock button when the engine is running. I should be able to just pull the handle and the door unlocks like every other car

I've never owned a Porsche, but I feel like my BRZ gets just as many admiring looks as my TVR Griffith. I like the fact that it is a fairly cheap car but literally a head turner. When driving through town I sometimes note who has seen the car and check my mirrors to see if they turn their heads to follow it. After 3 months of ownership I would say the "good" is: * The looks * The fuel consumption. Yet to get less than 32mpg, best is 45mpg and most of the time return mid to high 30s * Keyless entry and locking * Interior light coming on when I stand near the car

Agreed but these hardly get warm at all & even then, I'm convinced it's my body heat, not the warmers. Turn on the passenger seat when you are on your own so you can see if it is heating up.

This is my biggest complaint against the car, driving it feels a little like torture compared to our other cars. I've ordered a lumbar cushion to try out and I'm also looking into car upholsterers who can open up the driver's seat and add some foam for lumbar support.

How many people have leather seats? Perhaps it takes longer to heat up. I have the Alcantara seats in my BRZ and these are up to full warmth in just a couple of minutes but like Rob says, they then work to keep the seats to a certain temperature. I assume you've tried the rapid heating setting on the switch?

I like the look of these, saw something similar on an Audi yesterday. Are these simple to fit for someone with the DIY skills of Homer?

I think it is enough just for them to put things right. I'd ask for them to put in writing that in the event of the car experiencing engine problems in the future due to this mishap they will take full responsibility. About 10 years or so ago I picked up my 156 from its service the day before I was going on holiday with it. The next day I got it out of the garage to find a pool of oil underneath. I rushed it back to the dealer to discover that the sump plug had been cross threaded and the whole sump needed to be replaced. At first they were saying it wasn't their fault until I pointed out that they do the f---ing servicing and I don't go around unscrewing and screwing the sump plug for fun. They gave me some shitty courtesy car so I ended up using the wife's Brava for our holiday.

Oh yes indeedy! I got her to phone the claim in to Direct Line and get their 3rd party team to deal with my repair. It will still cost £350 for the excess, but at least both cars will be fixed. Plus the hike in insurance to be enjoyed over several years.

I assume Disney paid for this as you are now advertising their products? How much does something like that cost?

As we all know, the manufacturers published figures on fuel consumption are never achievable as they are probably based on fuelling the car with exactly one gallon and removing unnecessary weight such as seats etc. My BMW 325i had an urban figure of something like 49mpg and I managed 41.3, our Dodge Journey has an urban figure of something like 47mpg and once I managed 43.5 mpg. According to the BRZ literature, the unachievable urban figure should be 44.1 mpg. I've just returned from a round trip on one tank of fuel (pictures below were taken after refilling). Unsurprisingly, the average mpg was on the optimistic side but based on purchasing 43.95 litres to re-fill the tank, the returned consumption was 45.43 mpg. I find this a disgusting practise from Subaru, you should not be able to buy a car from a manufacturer, fill the tank, carry a passenger and return a mpg higher than the manufacturers figure. I'm looking into the sale of goods act.....

Hi Eddy. I've been to Malaysia quite a few times and also driven there a fair bit. Why would you consider torturing yourself with a manual? I know there are loads of car shops there, but would you be taking the car to a dealership for servicing? If so, you might want to consider who has the biggest presence in Malaysia (I'm guessing Toyota).

He works for Shell and is angry that I spent less on fuel. Double whammy though, I used Momentum 99 from Tesco.

Yes, you have to have a certain level of confidence in the readings to do this. I always like to think that when that light comes on, there is at least 10 litres left rather than the car just remembered to check and found there was 2 litres left so thought it had better tell you.

They are slow, but I can't see them still trying to clear it in 15,986 years time.

Tell me about it! I live about 4 miles away from the crossing and in the last two weeks twice there has been a big knock on effect, meaning that the road I live in was grid locked and had to do a 50 minute walk to pick up my daughter from her school bus stop rather than a 5 minute drive.

That was done without cruise control (I've experimented with this in other cars and found switching it off is more economical). I decided I would not go above 70 (although went to about 72/73 in a couple of places) and according to my sat nav, 70 is about 66. This was a round trip from Grays in Essex to Leeds so no serious hills, but inclines and declines along the way. Some fairly serious traffic coming back today, but when I arrived last night the average mpg was showing 48.8, couldn't quite get it to show 50 what I was aiming for.

Nice idea, but people in my family aren't exactly queueing up for a back seat, we basically treat the car as a two seater. I have tried a rolled up towel behind my back but that was kind of a hassle. I think I'll try the lumbar pillow like S18 RSG has suggested. Not ideal, but given the amount I'll probably lose by selling the car, another £20 will be a small drop in the ocean.

I'm 6 foot 4 and a half inches and although I didn't have any problems in either of the test drives (longest was about an hour), last night my back, legs and in the middle of the night, my arms were a bit achy. Could be that I'm old, tall or the aches are just a coincidence, but wondered if any other drivers are as tall as me and whether they get any aches through driving, at least initially.

Hopefully the BRZ will be if I keep it, only around 1,000 of them about.

I kind of noticed something similar the other day - in traffic on the M25 found it relatively easy to signal and move and later, Focus ST let me change lane, flashed me in when he/she saw me indicating. RESPECT.

I've tried a couple of cushions and yesterday tried a lumbar support from Halfords that was adjustable (had a little pump like device) but it didn't fit very well into the seat (and has since been returned). Given that I chose the Alcantara heated seats, chucking them out and replacing them with something different seems a waste (as does trying to add cushions and lumbar support) and would end up with non matching front and rear seats. Even if I did choose to do this, I have no guarantee that the new seats are going to do the job, I'm not going to get to test drive them. I'm going to see how the drive goes tomorrow and if no improvement, going to try not using the car for a couple of weeks to see if the aches and pain subside before using it again. ...and then start thinking about replacements....

After putting up with back ache for 2 months and 2,000 miles and trying various cushions and lumbar accessories, I've decided that the problem (at least for me) is the car's lack of lumbar support - there is zero adjustment for this. I did a quick search on the internet and discovered that I'm not alone with this problem, there is a US based forum with members posting about this exact same issue with none of them experiencing the problem in other cars. Suggested solutions seem to centre around declining the seat and moving it forwards which I was kind of moving towards with the various adjustments I've made but now I've made a more conscious decision to decline the seat more and try to see if this brings about an improvement. I have a 500 mile round trip coming up this week and I think if this leaves me with aches, I've come to the end of the line with my BRZ adventure which is massively disappointing because I feel like I've just not had a chance to simply enjoy the car and I'm likely to lose at least £2k when I try to get rid of it.

That time will fly by, I ordered my BRZ in July, it finally arrived in November....