Nice car. My wife is interested in these...torn between this and a Mustang; however, her one drawback is the seat material in the Scion. She doesn't want leather (gets too hot for her here in AZ), but the cloth in the Scion we looked at was almost like a felt...which she is worried would start "balling up."

Any comments on that?

I much prefer the FR-S/BRZ...
Having said that... the new Mustang is available with the eco-boost turbo 4 banger.

From Jalopnik:

I Changed My Mind About The Scion FR-S And You Should Too

Thanks Jim, good read.

I keep thinking about one of these, to me they are pretty darn close to the e36's I've liked so much.

Yes Guy the seat cloth wear might be a concern. I will keep tabs on that. Also it is not easy to get out of this car unless you have the doors all the way open and slide the seats back. This car really comes alive in 2nd gear. Per the article above the clutch pedal is mush, we removed the over center spring and now you can feel it engage properly.

The factory camber bolts, BFG Rivals and new Borla cat back arrived today. Just need the new front sway bar and the blue car is ready to rock some cones. DP

She was interested in the turbo. Test drove one and loved it, but it's first-gen, and has already had several recalls. If we go Mustang, probably gonna get her the V6.

If this was MY car, it'd be Mustang all the way, no questions asked. I'm a 'Stang guy, and I think this year's is dead sexy perfect. And it'd be the GT for me ;)

Thanks for the reply. The clutch being mush is irrelevant to my wife, as she can't drive stick, so we'd be buying her an auto. I tried to teach her on my Z, and she did fine after a bit, but was never comfortable. She's automatic for life, unfortunately :(

I am reminded why some people, rightly so, are paid to write:

"Most people consider driving nirvana to be on a winding coastal road with your foot welded to the floor in a European car that has two cams spinning away above a loudly-ticking cylinder head and a manual transmission with more-than-two-but-less-than-five forward gears, made at a time when the number one holiday gift idea for the woman in your life was a shiny new mop. The reason why so many die-hard enthusiasts look to this experience as the penultimate bucket list drive is because the human brain has a tendency to laser focus the positive and block out the negative.

For instance, the high-strung car that revs to the moon, made at a time when communism wasn’t just your hipster friend’s political affiliation on Facebook, probably needs its valves checked, the car will leak oils of many shades and viscosities, the carburetor is likely clogged from all the ethanol we use in modern fuel, the driving position will give you back problems, the bias-ply tires will make driving in the rain akin to ballroom dancing with Cthulhu, and you won’t need to worry about accidents because I’m told the force of the steering column piercing the front of your skull only hurts for, like, a second."