A truly affordable roadster; The Scion FR-S
True sports cars in the sense that we have come to know them are few and far between. There are many out there that are trying to claim sports car status, even some with 4 doors want to be sports cars, and to some measure they are sports cars. To us a true sports car has only two doors, rear wheel drive, bucket seats, and yes maybe even a manual transmission!
So, we welcomed a week with the newly refreshed Scion FR-S sports car that came with all of the above features, and was more than eager to show its stuff out on the road, especially if there were a lot of curvy mountain grade involved. We do have to point out that the Scion is one of the lowest starting price points for a roadster type vehicle.
It is available in both a manual and automatic transmission as are most of today’s cars, but after a week in the manual we would definitely have to recommend it over the last time we had a week with an FR-S, much more fun to drive momentum in that arena, and a big bonus it’s about $1,700 less pricey.
It’s not often that we need to refill the gas tank in one of our test drive vehicles, especially by Saturday morning, considering we didn’t receive the FR-S until late in the day on Wednesday it was a quick two day tank of gas. This goes right to the fun to drive quotient of the Scion FR-S. We each had and entire day with the car and had each used our fair share of fuel motoring around during our turn as it was.
Craig had to take a quick trip on Thursday down to Nephi to see a client and Deanne took a friend to Trader Joes on Friday, giving us each some great road time in the fantastic looking and equally great handling little FR-S. Considering we averaged right at 32 mpg for the week, we had racked up almost 300 miles on the odometer by Saturday morning, and had to add to our dwindling fuel supply, after all… letting the little roadster just sit in the driveway was not going to be an option.
As we are both progressing somewhat in age, we found that once in the coupe it was much easier to spend as much time as possible getting to our destination, it was somewhat harder to extract ourselves from Scion. Easier to just stay in the car and enjoy the ride, so maybe it wouldn’t be the best mid-life crisis car, it was still very fun to drive!
Of course this is but a small price to pay when driving a small roadster, that more than made up for any problems our age might have given us, by generating many looks from others along the way, it also came with all the performance we would have expected from of vehicle sporting this energetic design.
Throughout the entire week we spent with the Scion, it seemed we could always find a little somewhere else to go, or a longer way to get there… yes, driving in the FR-S was really that enjoyable. It is basically a sports car that is affordable to a much larger segment of the market, especially to a younger demographic allowing almost anyone, yes of any age, the experience of owning and operating a true sports coupe.
The FR-S comes came complete with everything we would want from a sports coupe including a fine 4- cylinder 2- liter 200 horsepower Subaru Boxer engine, and yes we checked, it does say Subaru on the motor just in case you were wondering, along with Toyota. About the only complaint that we had during the entire week was the low end torque was not that great. What this translated to mostly was off the line it was not a dragster, but through the turns at higher speeds it couldn’t be beat, eliminating the traction control did enable Craig to get some spin from the tires in first and second gear.
In fact, truth be told- Craig and our son Jacoby had the opportunity to put this theory to the test on a winding back road. A BMW M3 thought it might be fun to show off how much acceleration they had off the line and indeed left Craig and Jacoby wishing for more, but after catching up and coming into a set of curves the FR-S held snuggly to the road and the M3 had to back way off to keep from losing all grip through the turns! Just goes to show there are some things that money cannot buy, but great engineering will come through, along with a very low center of gravity.
There was a back seat included in the Scion, but with any normal two adults occupying the front seats you would be hard pressed to get anyone into the rear seats, especially if they were over the age of 4. We would have to compare this space to that of the old Datsun 280 Z 2+2, there was a back seat, but it was used more for storage than anything else, maybe throwing one of your friends back there on the way to lunch when you were a teen would be about all the use one would ever get out of it.
New additions to the 2016 model included a dressed up interior taking it from all black by adding various silver accents and cool red pin striping in dashboard accents and the seats. A new touch screen radio and backup camera come standard with the option to add navigation to that package.
The exterior styling of the FR-S is really what we felt set it apart from any of the completion and the Scion website lists a few, such as the Mazda Miata, Honda Civic coupe, and Hyundai Genesis coupe. The designers at Scion have done an excellent job giving it the looks of a real contender and the fact that ours came in a ‘Hot Lava’, or a very bright orange lava color didn’t hurt either. It made us really stand out in the crowd, although it also made it more visible to the local authorities. Although throughout the week Craig didn’t have the unique opportunity to meet any of the local police while in the car, Deanne felt if we had a car like the Scion it would only be a matter of time.
Inside the FR-S was very simple indeed, with none of the fancy gadgets that come with more luxurious high end vehicles. The base comes with cloth covered seats that looked a lot like Riccaro seats and kept you snuggly in your place.
The climate controls are very simple and easy to use, there are heat and air conditioning and it is limited to the front seats, not that anyone in the back is going to complain. With such a small car the heat was quick to get to temperature on the cold October mornings.
There is also 6.1 inch touch screen display that controls the radio and Bluetooth functions in the FR-S. It was very similar to those found in other Scion models; ours did not include SirrusXM radio, but did have HD radio capabilities. The Bluetooth work seamlessly, hooking up our phones and also streaming audio from them, we didn’t even miss the satellite radio. For and extra few dollars navigation could also be added, just in case getting lost on those long drives becomes a problem.
The Scion FR-S is one of the best affordable coupes we’ve had the opportunity to drive. We do need to point out that it was a rear wheel drive vehicle so getting around in the snow would be an experience here in Utah, so most likely you would have to put it in the garage on those nasty days. To fall in love with a sports coupe again, see them today at any Scion dealership.
Base Price: $25,305
Price as Driven: $25,305
Sunday Drive
2026 Kia K4 Hatchback GT-Line: Bright, bold and built for Utah roads
Sunday Drive: 2026 Toyota Sequoia Capstone Hybrid — The perfect companion for a weekend adventure
