2023 Subaru BRZ Interior and Cargo

To keep costs down, Subaru and Toyota didn't spend a lot of money on various interior options. We think most owners simply won't care or replace the seats with aftermarket buckets as soon as the car arrives. The base model, dubbed the Premium, comes with black cloth upholstery with red contrast stitching and a leather-wrapped steering wheel, shifter, and parking brake boot. The more upmarket Limited boasts Ultrasuede upholstery with red leather accents. In both Subaru BRZ models, Brin Naub Nubuck-like material is used to trim the instrument panel and doors.

The main interior trim is still hard and soft plastic, depending on where it's located. It looks fine but feels cheap, although not as cheap as the last-gen. To make this car affordable, costs had to be cut somewhere. At least it's all nailed together properly, so there are no annoying rattles or squeaks.

The BRZ's trunk is only 6.3 cubic feet, but you can increase the size by folding the rear seats down. Subaru doesn't officially report how much extra space you get when you do, but it has retained the first-gen's ability to fit a full set of four wheels with racing tires into the trunk/rear seats. Most people will likely use the BRZ as a two-seater since the 2+2 seating configuration doesn't provide nearly enough space in the rear.

Inside the car, there's a small glove compartment, center armrest storage, and a couple of cupholders, but it's far from as practical as a hot hatch. The rear seats have a small storage area between the seats.

Like before, the BRZ comes with lots of features as standard. It has keyless access, a push-button start, dual-zone climate control, heated exterior mirrors, USB charging ports, and welcome lighting. To improve the sporty feel, Subaru provides a seven-inch digital instrument cluster with a special track mode to improve shifting times. You also get Active Sound Control, which pipes engine noise into the cabin, but it sounds pretty natural.

Subaru's award-winning EyeSight Driver Assist Technology is only available with the optional automatic transmission. It includes adaptive cruise control, pre-collision braking, lane departure intervention, sway warning, and lead vehicle start alert. The Limited comes as standard with blind-spot detection, lane-keep assist, steering responsive headlights, and rear cross-traffic alert.

Both models have an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Bluetooth connectivity, rearview camera, and a trial subscription to SiriusXM. As opposed to the newer SUVs from the company, this one is laid out in landscape format and has real controls for climate underneath as opposed to integrated ones.

As for operation, it worked fine the little we used it. Apple CarPlay was flawless and the icons are big enough to hit while driving. The screens seem to switch fast enough and the navigation could grab GPS better than our phones, which was important considering there was barely a signal between our hotel and Lime Rock in the mountains.