Today I finally got to test drive a BRZ/86, which my kid has been asking about for a while. I wasn't sure how practical it would be, but it wasn't as cramped as I thought it would. Still - it was pretty strange how it all started. My kid has the whole week off school with early spring break and I don't have to work until next week (strange how that works out).
At one dealer they didn't really have many because of construction (sales manager said they moved most to storage) and the one they had wasn't available for test drives. So I called up another dealer and asked them, and set up kind of an appointment. Eventually I got passed off to one saleswoman to help take me out.
Around the lot they had a bunch of BRZs, including a lot of 2018 models that I was told would go well below MSRP. For whatever reason they haven't been sold and I was told $24k for the base model. Still - I wanted to drive one first. And they had apparently been on the lot so long that they pretty much all had dead batteries. Tried one, then another until they brought out their fix-it guy in the showroom who found where they kept their jump starter. He brought it out, started it, then said go have some fun. The sales lady apparently didn't know how to drive a stick so I had to take it out of the lot. So far so good. I take it into traffic (about a block away from the dealership) where I stop at a light and then promptly stall it since I'm kind of scared of burning the clutch. And since it was just jump started it won't restart. I put the hazard lights on and they promptly stop working after about 10 seconds because the battery is dead. So my only option was for all three of us to get out and wave traffic around it from the sidewalk until help arrives. There's a guy walking down the sidewalk who's kind of amused at all this, but understands when I say it was just jump started at the dealer and I stalled. It was suggested that we put the hood up so that people get the message that something is wrong.
Finally the same guy who jump started it before arrives with the jump starter and he takes it back. But without the jump starter and his cell phone which he left in the car that he drove there. He made it back, probably by not taking it easy on the clutch.
So it's not much of a test drive, and they figured that there was another BRZ on the lot that doesn't have a dead battery. But they had 3 lined up single file in tight formation and the one at the rear is the one with a good enough battery. Since the sales lady can't drive a stick I have to do it. I looked at the shifter, tried getting it in reverse, and promptly lunge forward 6 inches. I try it again, and another 6 inches. So they asked for help, someone else backs it and I saw that it has that strange lock-out mechanism where the ring on the shifter has to be lifted up before it will go into reverse. I think it's similar to a WRX that I test drove but I never had to put it in reverse.
So finally I get to actually drive it where it's more or less uneventful, or at least I didn't stall it again. Took it on city streets, in a residential neighborhood, on the freeway, and back to the dealer. It was a fun ride although the engine isn't anything like my 2004 WRX. The clutch is much lighter (reminds me of my 1995 Integra GS-R) and the pedal feel is softer than my WRX. A bit higher revving and I really had to spank it to get it to go fast.
But the cherry on top was what happened in the lot, which I had nothing to do with me. We were waiting to park in the customer lot, where someone who just had a car serviced was waiting. Only a driver in a diagonal space in front is impatient. These are double spaces boxed in by curbs on three sides. So this driver tries to back up, comes close to hitting the car behind in the aisle, and then backs off when I honk. Then she moves forward and jumps the curb. Then she backs up again. She could have waited, but I suppose damaging her suspension was worth trying to save 20 seconds, and possibly bottoming out her car's underside on the curb. The sales lady said they actually had drivers drive over another curb where there's a foot drop to the grass and they've needed to call for a tow truck to lift it out.
At one dealer they didn't really have many because of construction (sales manager said they moved most to storage) and the one they had wasn't available for test drives. So I called up another dealer and asked them, and set up kind of an appointment. Eventually I got passed off to one saleswoman to help take me out.
Around the lot they had a bunch of BRZs, including a lot of 2018 models that I was told would go well below MSRP. For whatever reason they haven't been sold and I was told $24k for the base model. Still - I wanted to drive one first. And they had apparently been on the lot so long that they pretty much all had dead batteries. Tried one, then another until they brought out their fix-it guy in the showroom who found where they kept their jump starter. He brought it out, started it, then said go have some fun. The sales lady apparently didn't know how to drive a stick so I had to take it out of the lot. So far so good. I take it into traffic (about a block away from the dealership) where I stop at a light and then promptly stall it since I'm kind of scared of burning the clutch. And since it was just jump started it won't restart. I put the hazard lights on and they promptly stop working after about 10 seconds because the battery is dead. So my only option was for all three of us to get out and wave traffic around it from the sidewalk until help arrives. There's a guy walking down the sidewalk who's kind of amused at all this, but understands when I say it was just jump started at the dealer and I stalled. It was suggested that we put the hood up so that people get the message that something is wrong.
Finally the same guy who jump started it before arrives with the jump starter and he takes it back. But without the jump starter and his cell phone which he left in the car that he drove there. He made it back, probably by not taking it easy on the clutch.
So it's not much of a test drive, and they figured that there was another BRZ on the lot that doesn't have a dead battery. But they had 3 lined up single file in tight formation and the one at the rear is the one with a good enough battery. Since the sales lady can't drive a stick I have to do it. I looked at the shifter, tried getting it in reverse, and promptly lunge forward 6 inches. I try it again, and another 6 inches. So they asked for help, someone else backs it and I saw that it has that strange lock-out mechanism where the ring on the shifter has to be lifted up before it will go into reverse. I think it's similar to a WRX that I test drove but I never had to put it in reverse.
So finally I get to actually drive it where it's more or less uneventful, or at least I didn't stall it again. Took it on city streets, in a residential neighborhood, on the freeway, and back to the dealer. It was a fun ride although the engine isn't anything like my 2004 WRX. The clutch is much lighter (reminds me of my 1995 Integra GS-R) and the pedal feel is softer than my WRX. A bit higher revving and I really had to spank it to get it to go fast.
But the cherry on top was what happened in the lot, which I had nothing to do with me. We were waiting to park in the customer lot, where someone who just had a car serviced was waiting. Only a driver in a diagonal space in front is impatient. These are double spaces boxed in by curbs on three sides. So this driver tries to back up, comes close to hitting the car behind in the aisle, and then backs off when I honk. Then she moves forward and jumps the curb. Then she backs up again. She could have waited, but I suppose damaging her suspension was worth trying to save 20 seconds, and possibly bottoming out her car's underside on the curb. The sales lady said they actually had drivers drive over another curb where there's a foot drop to the grass and they've needed to call for a tow truck to lift it out.