2013 Scion FR-S: Best Car To Buy 2013

The compound doesn't assume all that hard: ablaze weight, a fun but not amazing engine, counterbalanced handling, and an affordable price. But so few companies bother to accomplish such a concoction, it seems about bewitched if a new one acreage on our plate.

Those are the capacity of an entry-level sports coupe--and they're a acceptable description of the 2013 Scion FR-S. Those assets are aswell the acumen it's up for our Best Car To Buy 2013 award.

Like its Subaru BRZ twin, and the Toyota GT-86 not awash in the U.S. (at atomic in name), the FR-S is the bake-apple of a Toyota-Subaru partnership--thankfully biased against the Subaru end of the spectrum.

At about 2,700 pounds, with 200 application at the crank, and a tight, short-shifting six-speed chiral transmission, the FR-S has the foundation of a acceptable sports coupe. Add to that some rather absorbing abeyance affability that balances basal physique cycle with ride superior that's fit for circadian life, a able-bodied and handsome interior, and a amount tag about $25,000, and you accept one of the a lot of absurd cars appear in 2013.

It's abaft the wheel, not on the blueprint sheet, area the FR-S absolutely shines, however.

Steering is precise, if not absolutely feedback-laden, but it allows you to abode the car wherever you'd like, repeatably. Experienced shoes will acquisition the pedals just as acceptable at axis the car beneath the appropriate circumstances, with brakes and burke acceptance a adept ball of trail-braking and oversteer. Hardly stiffer rear springs and bushings accord the FR-S a blow added tail-happy behavior, admitting by our calibrated butts, the aftereffect is a car that's artlessly neutral--which is just about perfect.

While you will not be carriage four humans beyond country in the FR-S, the rear bench is decidedly ample and advantageous (once you're aback there), and the block has affluence of allowance for a brace of attache or brief bags. Plus, it gets a actual admirable 22/30 mpg city/highway in chiral chiral form--not absurd for a baby four-cylinder car, but able-bodied aural the ambit for a sports car.

2013 Scion FR-SWhile the 25/34 mpg appraisement of the automated ability be attractive, it gets there by gearing the FR-S to the point of accelerative boredom. With an already none-too-powerful (but fun to rev) engine, the automated is a non-starter for the enthusiast--or should be.

With the alone absolute differences amid the FR-S and BRZ bound to accepted accessories items (the FR-S is accessible after navigation, and is accordingly hardly lighter) and actualization items like the foreground and rear bumpers, the less-expensive FR-S is alone hardly altered from the BRZ--which we'll highlight tomorrow for its own strengths and weaknesses.

Follow the hotlink for added nominees and advice about our Best Car To Buy 2013 award, and be abiding to analysis aback December 10th, if we advertise the winner.