[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by kaisen

The RX8 was small-ish, handled well, and was underpowered.

For similar out-the-door money you could have a 274hp Hyundai Genesis Coupe or a 305hp Mustang V6 or a 312hp Camaro V6.......200hp just doesn't cut it.

In a recent comparison, the Mustang V6 was faster than the FR-S in every way: higher lateral Gs, faster slalom, faster figure eight, shorter braking distances, faster acceleration to every speed, faster road-course track time, etc, etc.

Loving the FR-S is weighing the subjective 'feel' over the objective measurements. Kinda like a Porsche.

When they add a STi turbo version, you can bet it will win lots of praise

I'm convinced that Toyota/Subaru has invested millions in bribing journalists to hype the hell out of these cars. The RX8 was a lightweight, agile, borderline underpowered sports car that has a unique motor and real backseats. It was consistently criticized for its lack of power. While I'm sure the Toybaru is a great car, it gets accolades for the same things that the RX8 was criticized for and actually has less HP. WTF? Other than better MPG I see no advantage to the Toybaru over the RX8, but I'm also biased.

Your comment about options was spot on, when you near $30k there are a lot of tasty cars to choose from. You could probably even find a 5.0 Mustang for similar money once you factor in sales incentives.