New Noises Lead to Dealership Visit for Long-Term Subaru BRZ

We recently noticed that our long-term Subaru BRZ had developed some new noises — or maybe we were able to hear them more now that it's getting warm in Chicago and we're driving with the windows down.

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We could hear a ticking sound and a squeaky whirring noise coming from the engine bay at idle once the four-cylinder had reached operating temperature, so we decided to take it to our dealership's service department.

Tracking the Fuel Economy of Cars.com's 2013 Honda Civic, 2013 Subaru BRZ

Cars.com's long-term 2013 Honda Civic and 2013 Subaru BRZ have accumulated roughly 1,000 and 1,100 miles, respectively, since our previous update a month ago. Surprisingly, both are within 2.7 mpg of each other in overall observed gas mileage despite one being an enthusiast's sports coupe and the other a bean-counter's economy car.

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The Civic's highest tank average of 33.58 mpg is up from its previous best of 33.11 mpg and bumps the overall average up a few ticks to 28.53 mpg after 2,500 miles. Hold on: 28 mpg? The Civic has half the total miles of our BRZ; it joining the Cars.com long-term test fleet a few months after the Subaru and has far fewer highway miles under its timing belt. Our Civic's overall average hovers right on top of its EPA-estimated 28 mpg city rating.

Spring Showers Bring Summer Tires Back to Our Subaru BRZ

It has been a long winter here in Chicago. Even with the dawn of spring we experienced subfreezing temps, snow and just plain awful, gray days. That meant keeping our winter tires on Cars.com's long-term 2013 Subaru BRZ a bit longer than we wanted.

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Conventional wisdom in our office is to swap the tires on or around April 1 ... simply because Chicago weather can be so unpredictable.

We didn't do the deed until April 12. And it snowed the next day.

Subaru BRZ's Touch-Screen, Navigation Need a Reroute

Cars.com's long-term ownership of the 2013 Subaru BRZ aims to answer many questions about living with the spritely sports coupe year-round. Its winter proficiency was put to test right off the bat and impressed us, but we also wanted to know whether editors could adapt to the BRZ's quirky touch-screen stereo and navigation after repeated exposure.

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After five months of ownership, the stereo and navigation system have been a thorn in drivers' sides. The 6.1-inch touch-screen lacks the refinement of other factory systems with its aftermarket style. Worst of all, there's no avoiding the inconvenience because every 2013 Subaru BRZ comes standard with the problematic stereo and navigation.

What We Miss in Our 2013 Honda Civic LX

Cars.com's editorial staff is just getting our feet wet with the newly purchased 2013 Honda Civic LX that joined our long-term test fleet in late February. The Civic is an undeniable powerhouse of standard features for the money with exclusive technology in base LX models that some compacts don't include even on their highest trim level.

Considering the new gadgets and toys inside the Civic for 2013, we polled our team to ask if a feature that eluded the Civic LX's standard feature sheet was sorely missed.

And to be fair, we asked what their favorite Civic feature was after turning the odometer over 1,400 miles.

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"So far my only gripe with the Civic is the lack of automatic headlights. I didn't realize how much I rely on automatic headlights on my own Subaru Outback until I got into the Civic," writes Cars.com Senior Editor David Thomas.

Tracking the Fuel Economy of Cars.com's 2013 Honda Civic, 2013 Subaru BRZ

We welcomed a 2013 Honda Civic to Cars.com's long-term test fleet in March to evaluate the unheard of changes Honda made just one year after the Civic's complete redesign. Like our 2013 Subaru BRZ, the one-year ownership experience is tracked in numerous ways including detailed gas mileage logs.

The Civic's gas mileage was not one of the numerous alterations for 2013; the 2012 Civic's EPA-rated 28/39 mpg city/highway was already competitive.

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We've only just begun to put the LX sedan trim level with an automatic transmission through its paces after logging 1,400 miles in just over two months. The Civic is mostly being used as a commuter car in and around Chicago with city and suburban stop-and-go driving, a style of driving reflected by the observed 28.4 mpg average. Road-trip season is approaching quickly, and we expect to rack up quite a few trips this summer to test the Civic's 39 mpg highway rating.

Cars.com's 2013 Honda Civic Photo Gallery

It may not be as exciting a car to photograph as our long-term 2013 Subaru BRZ, but that doesn’t mean we're not documenting our recently purchased 2013 Honda Civic. The base LX model we purchased has wheel covers that most of our editors find wretched, but we all agree we made the right choice on the Crimson Pearl paint. We just wonder how the tan interior will look after a year of testing.

The full gallery is below.

Living Through Winter With a 2013 Subaru BRZ

One of the biggest questions we wanted to answer by purchasing a long-term 2013 Subaru BRZ tester was whether the sports coupe is capable of driving year-round in winter’s ugliest conditions. Our Chicago test location has potential for nasty wintry weather that could have been disastrous for our dainty 2,776-pound, rear-wheel-drive, low-slung BRZ Limited. 

A normal winter didn’t happen, however, and the BRZ faced just a few bursts of extreme weather. But it showed promise as a year-round daily driver given the right preparation and conditions.

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Our first preparation for winter happened long before we even took delivery of the car. As co-winner of Cars.com’s Best of 2013 award along with the 2013 Scion FR-S, we planned to purchase one of the two and put it through a yearlong evaluation. Deciding between the two was an easy choice given our cold climate: The BRZ has available heated seats, the Scion doesn’t. Done; BRZ ordered.

Quarterly Ownership Cost of Cars.com's Subaru BRZ

Prepping our long-term 2013 Subaru BRZ tester for winter wasn't cheap, but it was certainly necessary. Purchased on Dec. 12, 2012, the rear-wheel-drive sports coupe has emptied $1,348.94 from our wallet in the first quarter of ownership with a large chunk of change going to winter tires and utility floormats — that cost also includes fueling the car for 2,825 miles. The winter items proved invaluable despite a weak showing of snow through much of the Midwest's winter.

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Cars.com's BRZ performance has been flawless so far with nary a hiccup or any indication we need to schedule an appointment at the Subie dealership. Our BRZ rolled off the assembly line late enough in the production run (October 2012) to avoid the common problem of earlier models accumulating condensation in the taillights — our BRZ's taillights are condensation free so far.

Tracking the Fuel Economy of Cars.com's 2013 Subaru BRZ

Since our previous update a month ago, Cars.com’s long-term 2013 Subaru BRZ tester accumulated nearly 1,100 miles. The BRZ is rotated among our editors who use the BRZ as a daily driver for commuting, running errands and taking road trips as if it were their own car. One editor took the sports car from Chicago to the Quad Cities on a 300-plus-mile road trip, accounting for a third of the miles racked up in the past 28 days.

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The road trip nearly matched the longest distance — 302 miles — we’ve traveled on a tank of gas; on this trip our editor managed 301 miles. The BRZ continues to bulls-eye its combined rating of 25 mpg. Our manual-transmission BRZ has EPA ratings of 22/30 mpg city/highway. We’ve observed 25.58 mpg after 11 fill-ups so far, with many more to come in its yearlong evaluation.