2024 Subaru BRZ tS review

The Subaru BRZ used to be the rarer version of the two-party Japanese rear-wheel-drive sports car also known as the Toyota 86. Since the launch of the current generation, it has outsold its Toyota twin (now called the GR86) by quite a margin, partly due to its head start. 

Under the skin, the two cars’ fundamentals are identical with detail differences – allegedly bigger than the first-gen – to distinguish them. The same goes for the outside, with different lights, bumpers, wheels and, of course, the inclusion of Subaru’s signature hue, blue.

Sports cars have always been a hard sell, but in a market seemingly obsessed by chunked-up SUVs, the survival of the BRZ is a minor miracle.

The BRZ is a completely off-the-reservation proposition in Subaru’s mainstream range of SUV-skewed hatches and wagons. Yes, the WRX still exists, but it’s true to Subaru’s core values of looking weird, driving all four wheels, and requiring an extinction-level event to break it.

Subaru offers the BRZ in three flavours – entry-level BRZ Coupe, the BRZ Coupe S and the BRZ Coupe tS. Quite why the word coupe is necessary is a mystery because it’s the same body shell all the way through, but we can let them have their fun I suppose.

The tS entered the party late and helped cover the range’s price rises for the 2024 model year.

Starting at $48,690 plus on-road costs, there’s not a lot to add to your BRZ tS, which is about right because it’s the best part of five grand more than the base. You can add a boy racer Styling Pack for $3931, which includes a bunch of little aero devices in either black or silver. Actually, it’s a bit unfair to label it a boy racer pack because it’s quite subtle for the most part. Whether it’s four grand’s worth is up to you.

Before ticking that particular box, you get grey 18-inch alloys over the painted brake calipers, both exclusive to the tS. You also get auto LED headlights with self-levelling, auto high beam, dual-zone climate control, 7.0-inch digital dashboard, 8.0-inch touchscreen, satellite navigation, keyless entry and start, leather shifter and wheel.

The tS inherits the ultrasuede and leather trim of the S as well as the heated front seats, with a dash of burgundy to brighten things up.

Finally, the tS has stronger Brembo four-piston brakes at the front and two-piston units at the rear, all gold in colour. The aforementioned grey 18-inch alloys mean the spare tyre is replaced with a tyre repair kit, which is baffling because the 215/40 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres remain the same size as the rest of the range’s Pilot Sport 4 or slightly slipperier Primacy rubber. Finally, the suspension has been seen to by STI, but not so much Subaru has given much of any detail.

Cheeringly, no matter which colour you pick, you’ll pay no more. That’s a rarity.

The BRZ is very small, barely bigger than its Japanese rival the MX-5. Where it differs from the roadster – apart from the obvious – is the pair of rear seats. These look like an afterthought, but an adult can actually get in, and if the driver is showing off, they won’t be sliding across a cheap bench seat. That adult wouldn’t want to be there long and children wouldn’t be too keen down in the guts of the car, but they’re useable. 

Well-designed seats are so important in a car like this, and the BRZ doesn’t disappoint. I’m a fairly average 180cm tall adult male and the cabin is perfect for me. There is plenty of adjustment, heaps of support, particularly laterally, and even your shoulders are snugly held. And they’re extremely comfortable even for a long drive. I’d cheerfully have these in any car, let alone this one.

The low console features a split-opening lid covering the dual cupholders. Some very cheap switchgear offers seat heating controls and ahead of that driving mode switches. There is a small postage slot under the HVAC controls for your phone, but it all gets a bit tangled if you’re using a normal-length USB cable for charging and CarPlay/Auto usage.

You wouldn’t call the dash design a classic, but neither was the old one. You can see a lot of money was not spent in here, but I’ll take hard plastics in exchange for the fun and surprising practicality offered by the BRZ.

The boot is a predictably tiny 201 litres, but in the tS that lacks a space-saver, the floor is flat. You don’t have to arrange your shopping around the tyre or worry about tyre rub marks ending up on your white bags if you’re brave enough to own a set. It’s plenty of room for a week’s shopping for two or three people and will take two or three cabin bags or two hefty soft bags.

Dropping the rear seat back will easily double the available space, but Subaru does not offer an official volume figure.

The BRZ ships with a pretty dowdy 8.0-inch media screen swimming in a bunch of hard grey plastic. It does have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, though, which is nice, both of which are accessible by plugging into one of the two USB ports up front. It’s ripe for ripping out for folks who want more grunt or screen real estate.

It does work quite well with Apple CarPlay at least, so unlike the old car, it’s not mandatory to fling that screen. 

The satellite navigation is a bit annoying because it beeps for various reasons but nothing comes up on the dashboard. If you’re using CarPlay or Android Auto, you won’t see anything on the screen, which is mildly baffling at first until you work out what’s going on. The beeps might even be useful, but it will take a while to to sort out what they all mean.

You also get the usual AM/FM radio as well as DAB digital radio, all pushing through six speakers in the small cabin, so there’s plenty of power to fill the space.

The digital dashboard looks great and is really nice to use. As you’re sitting so low in the car, a head-up display would genuinely be impractical, so the fact the dash is clear and concise is a help, with a rev counter surrounding a digital speedo smack bang in the middle. Perfection.

The new-generation BRZ has not been tested by ANCAP.  The tiny cabin is crammed full of seven airbags, however, including a driver’s knee airbag.

When the second-gen BRZ launched, manual versions didn’t have Subaru’s EyeSight safety gear, which includes much of what you see below.

I’ve never much liked EyeSight and my mild antipathy remains. Depending on the car, it has always been on the frantic side of things, warning you about the slightest possible danger, mostly oncoming traffic. As ever, I had a wave of false-positive forward collision warnings.

Having said all that, sports cars seem to be left out of safety gear for various often spurious reasons, so having EyeSight is better than not and I’ll applaud its inclusion any day.

On top of the electro-nannies, you get seven airbags, two ISOFIX points and two top-tether anchors in the rear seats.

Subaru offers a capped-price service program with visits required every 12 months or 15,000km. Servicing costs $364, $586, $459, $740 and $379 as the years roll on. That works out to an average of $506 per year, which isn’t cheap for a relatively simple naturally aspirated engine.

The warranty is the industry standard five years/unlimited kilometres, and also comes with a year of roadside assist into the bargain.

Toyota takes a different approach, capping each service at $280 per service for five services, adding up to $1400, a tenner cheaper than Subaru’s three-year deal. A manual Mazda MX-5 will cost more than the BRZ to service at $2721 over five years.

An insurance quote came out at $1553 based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

That’s not too bad by sports car standards, and for a car that has, let’s face it, something of a reputation.

The 2.4-litre flat four lab-tested at 9.5 litres per 100 kilometres of 98-octane fuel. On the road – where few owners will be driving as gently as the ADR testing program – I got 10.9L/100km. If you were gentle, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t hit the claimed number.

Having said that, it’s not an especially thrifty engine, and its maker's insistence on the good stuff is a genuine cost concern. At least with its little 50-litre tank it won’t feel too expensive when you fill it.

Right from the second the gravelly engine kicks into life and you select first, you know even a trundle to the shops is going to be fun. The short clutch pedal had me pounding the firewall for a day or two – muscle memory is an extraordinary thing – but at all times the gearbox is tremendous fun to use. It has such a nice action, and I’m not saying that just because I rarely get to drive a manual.

This second-generation car has more power and torque, but just as importantly, it’s more flexible. Along with the higher capacity of 2.4 litres, it’s an engine a little more suited to the application, and I can’t imagine as many voices screaming for more power. A perceived lack of power has been a constant complaint for some folks, but I wasn’t one of them.

The 2.4 is a lot more flexible, but the key thing here is the throttle response. So many of the cars we drive are turbocharged or are saddled with a continuously variable transmission (CVT), getting revs with a flex of the toe, let alone the ankle, is such a rare feeling now.

I don’t want to come off as 'things were better in my youth', because that youth included pouring a lot of carbon dioxide into the air and driving terribly unsafe machines. Turbos are way more efficient, but the BRZ’s nicely judged revviness is a genuine joy, which is why every drive should put a smile on your face.

You do still need to work the gearbox, which is nice because of the aforementioned loveliness. That’s always been part of the BRZ’s charm. What’s gone is the skipping differential, something I was always not keen on. A roundabout near my house needs pretty much full lock, and every time I drove this car’s predecessor, the diff felt like it didn’t really want to be doing it and one of the wheels would chirp its way around. So that’s fixed.

What’s been made better is pretty much everything else. The steering is still sublime, retaining its lovely direct feel. Here in the tS you’ve got Michelin Pilot Sport 4 boots – a favourite tyre of mine – which deliver plenty of grip and feel and a lovely change of direction. You can hustle this car, and with the stickier rubber, you’re far less likely to be catching slides on greasy roads and can concentrate on your lines and braking.

The Brembo brakes are predictably strong. I didn’t sneak into a track anywhere or give it the caning I sorely wished for. My time with the BRZ was largely underwater during Sydney’s endless winter rains, so I can’t tell you how hard you’d have to drive to see any fading or degradation of performance.

It is still a pretty noisy beast, though. The growl of the flat four comes through clearly in almost all situations, but that’s definitely part of the appeal. Less appealing is the road roar on less than perfect surfaces, blasting away at the fairly meek stereo system and making conversation with your passenger a little difficult at highway speeds.

As ever, the ride is firm but never harsh or bouncy. I had it in my head that even the first-gen was slightly better than the 86 despite the protestations of mechanical equivalence. My wife, a harsh critic of cars she says are for teenagers, didn’t complain nearly as much in this iteration, so I think things are much improved while still retaining the fun that this car is famous for.

I quite like the idea of the tS with its Brembos and Pilot Sport 4s rubber. In a way it’s for a more 'mature' audience. One less interested in tail-wagging shenanigans and more interested in a quick point-to-point machine that has the purist element of rear-wheel drive into the mix. The low-slung, like-a-glove driving position is something a hot hatch driver can only dream of, along with uncorrupted steering and the feeling you could pass a truck both around and underneath.

Good question. No is probably the easiest answer, because Subaru does not offer a tow rating in its specification sheet and the website and brochure does not offer a tow bar. 

A quick search of the internet will yield the usual 'Pfft, of course you can', and I found a series of folks claiming they’ve towed anything from a motorbike to a trailer full of stuff.

It’s not exactly made for towing, being a low-slung sports coupe and Subaru’s lack of factory options would suggest it isn’t a great idea, but as I say, people have done it.

It would be damning with faint praise to say that the BRZ is basically in a segment of two, with the MX-5 GT RS being its only real rival. Because on its own, the BRZ is a terrific car. As I’ve already said, the more mature vibe of the tS really suits my own vibe (hard to believe for those who know me), but you can see what it would be like with the lesser tyres of the lower-spec mode – still fun, still good.

It’s a great car for what it is – relatively affordable, looks great, has four seats, and is a car you can use every day as well as for fun on weekends. The Toyota twin is all the same things, but there’s a bit of 'if you know, you know' cachet to having the BRZ.

It would be remiss of me to suggest also looking at the Toyota GR86, which may come closer to your requirements; however, there is not yet an equivalent to the tS in the range. The MX-5 GT RS is basically a choice of soft or hard-top and considerably more expensive with its Bilstein dampers and Brembo brakes, but a closer match to the tS.

The tS, as I said, is slightly different to the rest of the range. It's a bit more planted and focused than the more taily lower versions, so whether it’s the sweet spot of the range is up to your preferences and, naturally, budget.

As ever, the first place to go is the Subaru website, which has a pricing and specification tool so you can build the car you want. Subaru offers online purchasing of a BRZ – and was the pioneer of such a thing with the first generation – and there is a detailed process to make that happen.

Alternatively, you can head to your local dealer using the dealer locater here. Subaru doesn’t have an online stock finder, so calling a dealer to find out if it has stock is the easiest way to find a car, and Subaru tells us there is good availability of the BRZ tS with some ready-to-roll as soon as you sign on the dotted line.

You can also find Subarus for sale at Drive Marketplace.

If you want to stay updated with everything that's happening with the Subaru BRZ, you'll find all the latest news here.