2024 Subaru BRZ

The Mazda Miata roadster is very popular – and has been so since Mazda first began selling Miatas back in the late 1980s.

But not everyone wants a roadster with a soft top and just two seats. And some people want an affordable sports car that’s otherwise very much like a Miata.

While also being its own very different thing.

Enter the BRZ

What It Is

The BRZ is Subaru’s alternative to the Miata.

Both are small, two-door sports cars but the BRZ is a little larger, with four seats rather than just two – and a hard rather than soft top.

It also has a different kind of four cylinder engine; instead of four in-a-row, four laid flat, with each pair “boxing” the other from opposite side of the crankshaft.

Both are also two of the last vehicles made by their respective manufacturers that are rear-wheel-drive and come standard with manual transmissions.

The BRZ’s base price – $30,195 for the Premium trim – is slightly higher than the Miata’s base price of $28,985 but it’s not enough of a difference to make much difference in terms of what your monthly payment will be.,

It’s even less of a difference when you move up a notch to the $32,695 Limited trim – which comes standard with heated leather seats, an upgraded eight speaker audio system and a more aggressive 18-inch wheel/tire package (17s are standard with the base trim).

The mid-trim Miata with a similar roster of equipment lists for $32,485.

A top-of-the-line tS trim lists for $35,345. This version of the BRZ gets upgraded Brembo brakes and an STi-tuned suspension with Hitachi dampers, plus special blue interior contrast stitching, an upgraded digital instrument cluster and 18 inch gray metallic wheels with the same high-performance “summer” tires that are standard with the Limited.

For reference, a top-of-the-line Miata Gran Touring lists for $34,285.

Worth a mention here is that Subaru includes a limited slip rear axle as standard with all BRZ trims. This arguably essential feature (for a rear-wheel-drive sports car) is not standard with the base-trim Miata. It is also not available as a stand-alone option with the base trim Miata, either.

That means you have to step up to the Club trim ($32,485) to get it and that does establish a significant cost differential between the Subaru and the Mazda – in the Subaru’s favor.

There is also a cost differential between the BRZ and the same car sold with a Toyota badge on its hood – the GR86. The latter stickers for $29,300 and tops out at $34,72 for the TRUENO trim, which is a limited edition that has the same equipment as a BRZ tS plus a few Toyota-specific cosmetic touches.

What’s New For 2024

The tS is a new addition to the BRZ trim lineup.

What’s Good

A hardtop for those who want a sports car without the soft top.

An extra pair of seats to make up for what won’t fit in the trunk.

Like the Miata but also not a Miata.

What’s Not So Good

Back seats can’t be sat in.

LCD touchscreen audio interface is easy to accidentally touch and swipe.

BRZ is significantly thirstier than the Miata.

Under The Hood

The BRZ and the Miata share a traditional rear-wheel-drive/short wheelbase sports car layout but each has a very different kind of engine, even though they both have four cylinder engines.

Powering the Subaru is a larger, 2.4 liter boxer engine that is not only a different type of engine than the Miata’s 2.0 liter in-line four cylinder engine, it sounds different by dint of that. And that is no small difference given how much the same other engines in most other new vehicles are – to say nothing of how literally the same the battery packs and motors are in electric cars.

The difference in sound – and power – and power delivery are also important in sport cars because sports cars are supposed to sound (and feel) different than other cars. It is one of the main reasons for sports cars, which are highly individualistic cars.

There is another difference as well.

The BRZ’s 2.4 liter engine makes more horsepower (228) vs. the Miata’s 2.0 liter engine (181) and more torque. Sooner. The larger-displacement boxer four produces 184 ft. lbs. at 3,700 RPM vs. 151 ft.-lbs. at 4,000 RPM.

This probably accounts for the difference in gas mileage – and range.

The BRZ’s city mileage is just 20 MPG. This is why it can only take you about 264 miles on a full tank of gas in stop-and-go city driving. The Miata can travel 26 MPG on the same gallon of gas in city driving – and so can take you 309 miles on a full tank. There’s a similar disparity on the highway. The BRZ’s 27 MPG is 7 MPG less than the Miata’s almost-economy-car 34 MPG and that accounts for the Mazda’s longer highway legs. It can travel 404 miles on a full tank – 12 gallons – vs. 356 highway miles on 13 gallons of gas for the BRZ.

On the other hand, both engines are the same in one way.

They both produce their peak power at a screaming 7,000 RPM and they are both high-compression engines that need premium fuel to deliver on their maximum-advertised horsepower numbers.

The BRZ and the Miata are also available an with automatic transmission, which is an interesting difference vs. almost everything else that’s available that comes standard (and only) with an automatic.

On The Road

There is a big difference in driving feel, hardtop vs. soft-top. Especially with the top down, which is something you can’t do (or experience) in a BRZ. You will not feel the wind in your hair.

But you will feel more inside.

The BRZ feels tighter. Less “in the wind” – because you are less “in the wind.”

Mazda does an excellent job insulating and fitting the Miata’s soft top, which doesn’t leak (as many soft-tops do). But it is still a soft top and there is a certain feeling that’s conjured that is different than the feeling you get with something more substantial than cloth above your head.

You’ll also see better – vs. the Miata with its top up. Because the Miata was designed to be driven with its top down. People put the top up because they have to, on account of the weather and such. The BRZ, on the other hand, was designed to be driven with its top on. So being able to see around the structure of the top was given more consideration. The Soobies’ rear glass area is probably twice as much as the Miata’s and that’s a difference you can literally see – from the inside.

None of the above is necessarily better – or worse. The point is the difference.

Another one  is the sound of the Subaru’s boxer four, which has a lower-pitch/growly sound, not unlike the sound a German Shepard makes when he alerts to the presence of an intruder. The Miata’s sound is quieter at first but builds to a higher pitch as you wind out the free-revving 2.0 liter four. The BRZ’s boxer four also likes to rev freely but it is less necessary to rev it as high as often as it is in the Miata because the BRZ’s 2.4 liter four makes significantly more torque, significantly lower in the power band.

You can remain in third or fourth or fifth longer, at lower road speeds, before a downshift is needed in the BRZ. It’s needed sooner, in the Miata, in order to bring up the revs and get into the meat of the engine’s powerband.

Once again, this is not a question of better or worse but of differences.

Both cars are easy to drive (it is why the Miata is often daily-driven to work and back) but it is easier to get snappier reaction out of the BRZ’s engine with less shifting.

Both cars are also fun to drive – which is of course the main reason people buy sports cars. In particular, sports cars with manual transmission – which makes them more fun to drive than more powerful performance cars with automatic transmissions that are quicker and faster.

The driver does more driving, as opposed to just steering.

Especially while cornering. An automatic can be programmed to know you’re cornering and hold a lower gear in the corner and not upshift to the next gear until you’re out of the corner and on the gas hard again – but there is an irreplaceable, intangible fun in holding the gear yourself and upshifting to the next gear yourself, with the timing and the action performed entirely by yourself.

You may not be out in the wind, but you are one with this car – as you are in a car like the Miata. Both are unlike any other car you can still buy and either one gives you the choice to experience that difference

At The Curb

The BRZ is about a foot longer (167.9 inches) than the Miata (154.1 inches) and that allows for the rear seats the two-seater Mazda lacks – which is one of the things that makes the BRZ a more practical Miata. The back seats aren’t so much for passengers as they are to make up for the lack of space in the trunk – which isn’t much in either car (5.1 cubic feet in the BRZ and 4.6 in the Miata).

In the Mazda, whatever doesn’t fit in the trunk doesn’t come along – assuming you have someone sitting in the seat beside you. In the Soobie, there’s room in back for your bags, if they don’t fit in the trunk.

There’s also more in-between room in the BRZ. In the Miata, the driver and passenger sit very close to each other and if either is a bigger-than-average person, they may be rubbing shoulders. The BRZ has about 1.4 inches more shoulder room for the driver/front seat passenger (53.6 inches vs. 52.2) and if you think that’s a small difference, sit beside someone else in both cars and see what a difference it makes.

There’s also room in the glovebox the BRZ has that the Miata doesn’t. This small thing is a big thing because it gives you a convenient, easily accessible place to put small things you might not want to keep in your pocket while driving. The BRZ also has cupholders; the Miata does, too – but you have to pop them into place – and then they take up space. When in place, they extend into the passenger’s space and it’s easy to bump them with a leg or an arm and spill whatever they’re holding. The BRZ has multiple cup (and bottle) holders, too. Including a pair molded into each door panel. It’s a small thing that’s a big thing in terms of long drives – for which the BRZ is better-suited than the Miata.

And the BRZ manages to be more practical without being less fun.

The Rest

Another point of similarity between these two driver’s cars is that neither has an overlarge LCD touchscreen to distract the driver from the task at hand. Probably because neither car needs something to keep the driver’s mind occupied – because neither car is boring to drive. You have things to do – and feel – so gawping at a glowing touchscreen display is an irrelevance.

This brings me to the one thing I discovered about the BRZ that falls into the I-didn’t-like-it department: It’s fairly easy to inadvertently brush one’s finger against the touchscreen’s glass while trying to touch something else – such as the volume control knob – and that can cause an inadvertent switch from whatever you were listening to (such as SiriusXM) to something you didn’t want to listen to (such as FM).

But this is greatly offset by the presence of physical knobs and buttons for most functions, end-running the need to let your fingers brush against the touchscreen.

Another thing – that’s unique to the BRZ (and its Toyota-badged twin, the GR86) is an oil filter you can reach just by popping the hood (and that can be removed and installed by hand, without using tools).

The Bottom Line

If you have always wanted a sports car – but not a roadster – the BRZ might just be the right sports car for you.

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