Subaru BRZ News

Demand has outstripped supply for both versions of the new sports coupe cooperative from Toyota and Subaru - now Subaru has managed to get some more of the sportscar. Subaru Australia has been allocated extra production to the tune of 140 units for the $37,150 BRZ sports coupe, a.k.a. Toyota's 86, to roll down the Gunma Main Plant line in Japan during the first quarter of next year.The extra allocation of 140 vehicles means customers given delivery dates from May onwards will get behind the wheel a little earlier by up to two months. Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior says the BRZ was a big success for the brand."We're delighted that Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) has recognized the enormous demand for BRZ in Australia and allocated additional production," he says. Back orders for Subaru's version of the rear-wheel drive coupe stretched out to November next year after the initial allocation of 201 cars for this year sold out in an online buying frenzy that lasted just three hours.Anyone looking for more details can log on to www.subaru.com.au or www.buybrzonline.subaru.com.au. The good news for those opting for the Subaru version follows the addition of 1500 vehicles that will arrive in Santa's sack at Toyota late this year. 

Subaru will not only debut a hot production version of the coupe with an after-market sports kit at the Australian International Motor Show, but also a stunning BRZ motorsport pack. The car, which has already sold out until the middle of next year, will be a catwalk highlight at the show. The company is now offering buyers a range of genuine factory backed Subaru Tecnica International (STI) and performance parts and accessories on delivery of their BRZ sports car or after-market for those who have already taken delivery. Prices have not yet been negotiated with Fuji Heavy Industries, but the products will be backed by a factory warranty. The BRZ STI parts and accessories on the display car include: front under spoiler, side under spoiler, boot lip spoiler, flexible tower bar, black wheel nut set, 17-inch STI alloy wheels, coil spring set, quick shift gear lever, sports muffler, gear shift knob and rear under diffuser. Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior said the kit would satisfy pent-up market demand.  “All indications are that many BRZ buyers want to add performance touches to their cars,’’ he says. “Choosing Subaru-backed equipment offers great design, quality and peace of mind that isn’t necessarily guaranteed by after-market suppliers.’’ STI is Subaru’s performance arm and is respected worldwide by car enthusiasts for its fully tested range. The motorsport pack will be available for sale to BRZ customers for recreational or competitive track time. While details of the BRZ motorsport pack are not yet available, Subaru has ruled out a turbo or supercharger. They also can’t reveal if there is a computer chip available for a power boost. It’s only a matter of time before the sports coupe starts hitting the tracks around Australia and, with the level of online discussion, possibly even their own racing category. The potent BRZ variants will share some of the spotlight at the Subaru stand with two new Liberty variants as well as the 2013 model Outback, XV and Impreza.  

When I was a little bloke, a visit to the old Sydney Showgrounds was always a very special event.

...the car will get a featured role in the upcoming The Fast And The Furious 6,  tentatively set for release in May of 2013.Motor Trend reports that Subaru has delivered five BRZ coupes to the film’s production company, which can’t make customers awaiting delivery of the rarer-than-honest-politicians coupe very happy. It’s one thing to see your car on screen, but it’s something else when it means waiting longer for delivery.As with previous Fast and the Furious installments, expect the BRZ to appear wearing a full aero kit, complete with splitters, diffusers, side skirts and an almost comically-large rear wing. There’s no doubt that the horsepower will be upped, too, and we’d expect to see both forced induction and nitrous injection if the car has a starring role.If Subaru has delivered five BRZs, we suspect it may be featured in the film, and even Motor Trend seems to suggest it will be driven by one of the main actors, including Vin Diesel, Paul Walker or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.It’ll likely be crashed, too, so we’ll offer up this free advice ahead of the film’s release: if you’re awaiting delivery of your own BRZ coupe and the thought of seeing one destroyed on screen makes you nauseous, you may want to wait for the film’s release to video.www.motorauthority.com 

A combination of high demand and low supply has already made the Toyota 86 or Subaru BRZ rare with a 18-month waiting list for customers.

The Japanese coupe beat the Toyota 86 to a coveted five-star ANCAP score, thanks to an early test in Japan as part of Subaru's long-term commitment to Australia's crash-test rating program. Subaru was the first to trumpet a five-star ANCAP result, at a time when other makers shunned the system, and it is happy to have beaten the Toyota 86 as the two coupes shape up around the world. "Five stars are central to our safety story and commitment. The testing was done in Japan, but it is a five star ANCAP rating," says Nick Senior, managing director of Subaru Australia. Toyota admits it has been trumped this time but expects a similar five-star tick for the 86. "The car will be tested in the fullness of time and we're confident it will be five stars," says Mike Breen, spokesman for Toyota Australia. The BRZ's success comes as the Holden Colorado ute and the new Hyundai i30 hatchback also pick up a five-star rating. The Colorado joins the Ford Ranger-Mazda BT50 twins, which were the first utes in the world to rate five stars, while the i30 continues Hyundai's recent crash-test successes and repeats the five-star score of the previous i30. "It's satisfying to see manufacturers lifting the safety of light-commercial vehicles. Manufacturers have been incorporating greater levels of safety into passenger vehicles for some time now, yet the safety of LCVs has trailed," says ANCAP chairman, Lauchlan McIntosh. “Pressure not only from ANCAP, but now big business, is encouraging manufacturers to elevate safety as a priority in the design and construction of new LCVs, and consumers are the winners." For Subaru, the ANCAP result is part of a push that has created a six-month waiting list for the BRZ. The company is also taking a new approach to selling with the BRZ, trialing an online selling system for the hot coupe. "We don't see this is as fundamentally changing the nature of automative retailing overnight but it is a learning experience for us and we'll trial it for six months while we have this very,very low stock," says Senior. “Our online initiative offers a fantastic level of transparency for BRZ customers. They will know exactly what the price is going to be and vehicle availability. They can choose their delivering dealership and can even arrange a trade-in valuation. “We knew that we wouldn’t have sufficient BRZs to supply our entire network immediately following the launch.The online approach allows us to place demonstrator BRZs with selected dealerships, from which customers can arrange test drives via subaru.com.au and also select their preferred delivering dealer." But Senior still cannot predict the Australian arrival of Subaru's next performance headliner, the all-new WRX. "That's still about a couple of years away before we see an all-new WRX and STi," he admits. "There's the halo effect of BRZ but WRX is still selling about 150 a month. We have about two months back-orders on WRX since the wide-body shape came in just on two years ago." But one thing is certain, the WRX and STi will not follow the BRZ down the rear-wheel drive path. "BRZ is a unique departure. There is nothing in the product planning charts for another rear-wheel drive, or a front-wheel drive car. This is a one-off for us and I don't expect to see another," Senior says.  

The new Subaru BRZ sports car -- a highly sought after version of the same Toyota 86 sports car -- goes on sale this Monday at noon. With supply of just 201 cars available until 2013, Subaru expect their version of the car to sell out almost immediately. The waiting list for the Toyota version already stretches into the new year. "We believe this is a world first," Subaru spokesman David Rowley said. "Essentially it is being sold online because supply is so limited at the present time that we do not have enough cars to give even one to all of our dealers. By going online buyers will be able to specify colour and equipments levels, and take care of insurance." The BRZ has a national drive-away price of $37,150 for the manual and $39,730 for the automatic. It comes with free servicing for three years or 60,000km. The jointly-developed Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ has been hailed as the best affordable sports car since 1989's original Mazda MX-5. Toyota planning chief Yoshi Sasaki has called it an antidote for "boring modern sports cars that do everything for the driver". Even with Toyota limiting supply of its version of the car to 250 a month and sales beginning only last month, the 86/BRZ is expected to become Australia's best selling sports car in 2012. In the UK the first year’s allocation of 4000 is understood to be almost sold out. Though not as fast as some hatchbacks - it takes more than seven seconds for the manual version the 86/BRZ to reach 100kmh from standing - it is winning acclaim for exciting dynamics.  

Executive city location, gorgeous (of course) supermodel date, even man’s best friend. They all get ditched for a spin in the Subaru BRZ, according to this latest bit of blatant promo film. And the spin on the video is that nothing will compare. Carsguide hasn’t had more than a few laps in the car, so we can’t comment thoroughly on that. But it certainly looks the business – easily one of the best designs to wear a Subaru badge in …well, ever. And that alone is good enough for us to give the footage a thumbs-up. And it may be as close as we’re going to get for a while. The hot rear-drive coupe launches here in July, and just about all the stock is already sold. It promises to be a cracker, with a 2.0-litre direct-injection petrol engine putting out 147kW of power and 205Nm of torque, and mated to either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission.

Virtually all stock of the hot rear-drive coupe is sold ahead of its official July launch - an event that is shaping up to be a very quiet affair for motoring journalists - and it may take months for the pent-up demand to ease. Subaru has sacrificed part of its own marketing strategy with the BRZ. It ceased production of its broad-brush mini-car range - sold predominantly into the Japanese domestic market - and converted the factory to make the BRZ. Toyota, the majority shareholder in Subaru's parent Fuji Heavy Industries, has taken over some of the minicar production. The BRZ is expected to be sold in the $40,000 range, slightly higher than the Toyota GT 86 clone that goes on sale a month earlier. The July launch date for the BRZ coincides with the release of the far less thrilling - unless you're a parent - seven-seat Exiga wagon. This wagon was originally launched as a six seater but was re-configured to broaden its market. It retains the 2.5-litre engine of its sister car, the Liberty. Subaru Australia's managing director Nick Senior says feedback from Exiga customers showed they wanted the size and flexibility of the cabin "but some felt a seventh seat would be the icing on the cake''. "So that's exactly what Fuji Heavy Industries has now delivered,'' he says. Minor cosmetic changes will come with the seven seats, including a new-look 17-inch alloy wheel design for the Premium model and changes to the door mirrors. The model was upgraded in January with standard reversing camera, dusk-sensing headlights (Premium model) and steering wheel controls for Bluetooth, voice command, audio streaming, USB connectivity and iPod jack.  

But not in the disastrous manner of 2011, when the  brand's production was stalled by natural disasters. The Australian arm of the Japanese car maker may struggle to get enough of its two new models, the Impreza and the XV, until production capacity is improved later this year. Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior says sales targets are around 700 per month. "Last year was 11,000 with 2000 WRX - our biggest problem will be supply for Impreza and XV - adding the XV we have another model without increasing production capacity, that's later this year," he says. The introduction of the rear-wheel drive BRZ (a shared development with Toyota) has given Subaru a boost as it continues to overcome its 2011 performance that was marred  by natural disasters. "It has already started doing things for us, there's a focus on Subaru since the announcement, with all the coverage and the unveiling - we've never seen so much coverage for the brand. "When it goes on sale there will be a potentially new audience for us," he says. While the rear-wheel drive model has been seen by some in the industry as a dilution of the Subaru All Wheel Drive mantra, Mr Senior says there were no plans to go front-wheel drive with its new Impreza to provide a cut-price contender in the small car market."The short answer is no - we've been able to demonstrate that the changes we've made to the Impreza, in terms of weight reduction and transmission technology, has put us towards the top of the pack."In terms of fuel efficient and low emissions, a competitive price, the strategy we have adopted is the correct strategy and there's not a lot of benefit to gain from trying to compete at the bottom end with a front wheel drive car in that category," he says. Sales targets for 2011 were set above the brand's 2010 record of around 40,000, numbers. Mr Senior is aiming to see in the year-to-date total column at the end of December, but without resorting to a front-wheel drive model. "We at the moment have a point of difference in the small car class, we've demonstrated it doesn't have to add weight and in fuel consumption we are ahead, we've addressed a whole lot of issues - there's not going to be a huge saving going FWD any way, our system is simple and we do it efficiently," he says. Four new Subarus will grace local showrooms over the next 12 months - XV, Impreza, BRZ and Forester - but the wait for new WRX and STI models (now a line-up divorced from the Impreza) will be a little longer. "WRX and STI is now it's own model in its own right, the business model is being done at the moment, it will not be here this year - we've seen the strongest WRX sales we've seen in the last 5 years on the changes made, that will continue for a couple of years," Mr Senior says.