 is only offered in a hard top model, much to the dismay of people with beautiful, long hair and no wind to let it blow in. But not so fast, people with beautiful hair—there may be […] "'Pin It")
Scion Hopes for an FR-S Convertible
Currently, the Scion FR-S (or, as you may know it, the Subaru BRZ with a Scion badge slapped on) is only offered in a hard top model, much to the dismay of people with beautiful, long hair and no wind to let it blow in. But not so fast, people with beautiful hair—there may be hope! In a recent article out of Wards Auto, Scion VP (here in the States), Doug Murtha, actually commented that the brand really, really wants an FR-S convertible.
So why don’t we have one already? Subaru won’t make it. (Curse you, Subaru!)
You see, while the FR-S may operate with a Scion badge, it is Subaru that does all the hard work in developing the FR-S, which is just a Scion-badged BRZ (with fewer features but at a lower selling price). And Subaru has made it clear that it will not be moving forward with a BRZ convertible or, by extension, an FR-S convertible, despite its widely popular FT-86 Open Concept.
Before you find yourself shouting, “What gives, Subaru?” please note that Subaru has its drivers in mind when refusing to develop a BRZ/FR-S convertible. (Or at least that’s the official story.) The safety-embracing brand claims that there would be too much re-engineering for safety involved in making convertible variants.
But Scion won’t let the vision of a soft top FR-S die just yet. In talking with Wards, Murtha said, “It’s something we’re looking at internally from both a manufacturing standpoint – where do we build something that’s relatively low-volume, if not at Subaru – and from an engineering standpoint: Where are those resources going to come from to do it?”
Thank you for your words of hope, Mr. Murtha. We won’t rule out an FR-S convertible quite yet. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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