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"      Initial Report: 2013 Subaru BRZ     Delivered price   $26,265   Total miles   4816    Maintenance costs to date   $599.26   Repair costs to date   $0     We shouldn&amp;#039;t have to tell you what the Subaru BRZ means to the driving faithful. Ever since Subaru and Toyota announced a partnership on a light, affordable, rear-wheel-drive coupe, that car has been held up as the second coming of cheap speed. We were hopeful: The idea of a year-round, 2,800-pound, 200-hp sports car for less than $26,000 had more than a few staffers checking their credit ratings. We grabbed a metallic gray six-speed for a long-term test as soon as possible.         2013 Subaru BRZ     We&amp;#039;ve gotten good use out of the car so far. Executive Editor Sam Smith used the Subaru to help move his household to Road &amp;amp;amp; Track&amp;#039;s new home in Ann Arbor, familiarizing himself with the coupe&amp;#039;s capacious trunk. I took it to a track day at Grattan Raceway, growing acquainted with the remarkably rigid chassis and low center of gravity. And Road Test Editor Robin Warner spent a long weekend with the BRZ, trying to circumnavigate Michigan and reaching a certain understanding with the Subaru&amp;#039;s electronic amenities. Everyone in the office has put in decent seat time, a heck of an intro indeed.         2013 Subaru BRZ     Our verdict to date can be summed up in one quote: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m really glad this car exists,&amp;quot; said...well, every person who has driven it. This is also exactly what those people said before driving it. No, it&amp;#039;s not a rave review or a wholehearted endorsement. Fact is, the BRZ is a bit tough to warm up to.   It&amp;#039;s not that the Subaru is bare-bones. Our car is a BRZ Premium, the lower of the two available trim levels, but it comes with a satisfactory list of equipment: supportive bucket seats, Bluetooth audio, a voice-activated navigation system. The fog lights and heated seats of the top-line BRZ Limited would be nice, but we can do without that model&amp;#039;s iffy-looking spoiler and Alcantara trim. We&amp;#039;re fine with a medium level of luxury on our cheap sports car.         2013 Subaru BRZ     The problem is that the BRZ, for all its handling prowess, has some issues. Yes, it&amp;#039;s dynamically gifted, and we especially love how the chassis lets the driver step the car&amp;#039;s tail out with stability control on. However, a weirdly abrupt clutch coupled to a rather deliberate shifter makes it difficult to be smooth and get the most out of the car. For all the steering&amp;#039;s accuracy, it&amp;#039;s disappointingly lacking in feel. So, for that matter, are the brakes, which managed to chew through a nearly new set of front pads during my few hours on track. Grattan isn&amp;#039;t known for being hard on brakes. It&amp;#039;s disconcerting behavior from a car whose builders touted its ability to carry an extra set of wheels and tires.   What concerns us most, however, is how difficult the BRZ is to like. Warner noted the noisy cabin, with a boominess that permeates the interior during highway driving. Add in the treble-mad stereo and short final-drive gearing, and long-range cruising is more fatiguing than it should be. The nav system is also one of the worst we&amp;#039;ve encountered, with an impenetrable and nonintuitive interface, a persistent inability to figure out the car&amp;#039;s location, and a tendency to lose its satellite signal every ten minutes.         2013 Subaru BRZ     We want to love the BRZ, but the car isn&amp;#039;t making it easy. The whole experience was summed up by Editor-in-Chief Larry Webster, who noted, with some regret, &amp;quot;Driving the Subaru was a blast. It&amp;#039;s so sharp and so good at the limit. But since I got out of it, I haven&amp;#039;t been jonesing to get back in.&amp;quot;   Of course, we&amp;#039;ll be getting back into the BRZ over the next few months, both literally and, we hope, figuratively. The car&amp;#039;s good parts are very good, and there&amp;#039;s no reason to believe it won&amp;#039;t grow on us. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/road-tests/reviews/a18366/test-car-intro-2013-subaru-brz-1/>