Mazda and their fancy, newfangled engines!

They are actually INCREDIBLY reliable when you consider how complicated they are. It’s all down to statistics. The sheer number of things that have to work right means even in this day and age, there is still a [small, but not insignificant] possibility of something going critically wrong.

They only seem more…

Although they are both based on the same design, I believe most of the engine components are not shared, so I suspect a lot of that stuff is indeed very different. Especially considering the FA is a dual-injection engine.

My car recommends 93. It requires 91. I assume the same principle applies.

I’ll assume the difference is that you have the FB engine, whereas I have the FA engine. Unlike the FB, the FA has dual (direct and port) injection, which I am going to also assume is part of the reason why my car requires 91 at a minimum.

I’ll have to do some research to see what the exact reason is, though, because I…

My BRZ has a compression ratio of 12.5 to 1. I’ll stick with 93 as recommended... I’m satisfied with the 35 MPG highway it already gets.

Basically, it feels like a car that came from the Bioshock world. Retro-future.

Something that should be mentioned in the article regarding the whole “don’t hit the brakes” thing. Aside from potentially locking up your wheels, standing on the brakes in a panic ensures that once you slide past the patch of black ice, you will come to a sudden stop.

Sudden stops are good sometimes. However, they are…

Yeah, no idea what they will be replaced with, but hopefully they will be alright. I bought the 12" wheels instead of the 8" wheels because most of the trailer-towing is on the highway. The faulty ones I have on it now are rated to 55 MPH (as are most trailer tires) but I generally tow it at 80 MPH (as do most tire…

Heh, I lived in Evanston for a few years up until a few months ago :P
Scraping is honestly a rare occurrence in this car, and when it does happen, it is very minor. If anything, I angle some of the steeper driveways and things.

And I agree. Cars are meant to be DRIVEN! I do the same. Just buffed and waxed it two weeks…

So irresponsible! Should have towed your car and gear with a Ferd F-Teenthousand! You almost died!!!

In this trim it was probably approaching 700 lb, but yout point stands. HOW IS MY CAR STILL INTACT?!

IT’S NOT A FERD F-TEEN-THOUSAND!!! This is America. You NEED a Ferd F-Teen-Thousand to tow ANYTHING in this country.

Mine is also a Series.Blue. The first two winters it was at stock height, but I still plowed through all sorts of chunks of snow and ice, and the lip survived intact! Last year, winter was spent lowered 1.5" on coilovers (photo I posted above) and I was worried about the lip but it survived another year unscathed!…

Haha, yeah. They’ve got a decent amount of room inside. The size of the trunk OPENING is what I’ve found to be the biggest limiting factor. Sometimes I wish they’d added a few lbs and just gone for a liftback style trunk. I can fit a king-size bed set from IKEA in there no problem, but like a 15x15" box won’t fit…

No coating. I just try to wash it at least once-a-week in the winter, and use the manual sprayer thing and just walk around the car spraying the crap out of the undercarriage as best I can. 3 winters running so far, and no major rust. Just surface rust on exposed metal parts which you would expect. No “problem” rust,…

Exactly. It’s not that they’ve done testing to determine that towing is unsafe, they just haven’t bothered to do the testing to prove that it IS safe! That section of the Manual was written by Lawyers, not Engineers!

It weighs 650 lb. The combined weight of the car and trailer (and my skinny self) is actually under the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of the BRZ. So while the OEM doesn’t recommend towing, they’ve still certified the car to haul that much weight :)

I made it myself using a Harbor Freight trailer as a base. I have a blog post with all the info you need, including links to all the different parts.
(Note, the trailer is currently not for sale on Harbor Freight’s site. They pulled it temporarily because of a recall involving the tires. It is my understanding that…

Had nothing to do with the car or trailer, lol. The trailer was just the only way I could transport a full board of plywood home from Home Depot, lol. Was building some things (cat house, and simulator rig.)