|
As a longtime lurker, I've been waiting for the day that the refresh got announced to come out of my cave...
- 5hp increase is irrelevant to me, what matters is the power/torque curve, not so much peak power. Heck if Toyota got rid of the mid-range deadspot then I'd be happy even with a 0 horsepower increase. It needed a more fun powerband, not necessarily more topend power. Miata has even less HP but is a more entertaining engine to ring out. You want turbo and more horsepower I'd go buy a used BMW 135i, imo.
- Front grill is ugly, then again all new Toyotas have an ugly giant maw so what's new. I like the headlights, but overall the front doesn't blend with the rest of the car. Let's face it though, the pre-refresh front was bland and never a stunner, so this is a slight downgrade at worst. Rear bumper got needlessly fussy, the taillights do look better (old stock ones look cheap). 86 badge on front fender is unnecessary.
- Steering wheel buttons are okay in theory, it's weird when the buttons are only on the left side though.
- People are overreacting about a price increase. The thing is slowing in sales, last thing they want to do is hike it up and turn off more people. I'm guessing a couple hundred dollars more at the most, just to keep up with inflation.
Without driving it I'd say the refreshed model is the one to get on paper--if you're repulsed by that bumper you can likely swap it out for the old without much work. We can hope the BRZ refresh will look better, but I'm guessing they'll bat 0 for 2.
|