2022 Subaru BRZ Design Deep Dive: Refreshing or Revolting?

The low-slung Subaru BRZ, with its flat-four engine and enthusiast-pleasing rear-drive layout, is an affordably priced and extremely satisfying sports coupe. And it doesn’t seem that Subaru has changed the formula significantly: The redesigned 2022 Subaru BRZ is shaping up to be another car built for those who love to drive—and we can’t stress enough how nice it is to see automakers re-investing in cars like this (and its sister model, the Toyota 86). But with a new generation comes new styling, and it’s time to see if the 2022 BRZ‘s new sheetmetal is a good match for its driver-focused mission.

Still clearly recognizable as a BRZ, the 2022’s design is bold and more than just a freshened-up version of the previous car’s look. Starting up front, the old BRZ’s slimmer, more elongated headlights were the visual focus of the front end, with the rest of the details fading somewhat into the background. A broad, quadrangular grille flanked by smaller inset elements looked sporty, but also traditional. You couldn’t say it was over-styled.

The new front fascia is much more dramatic. The visual emphasis is less on the less oblong headlights, and more on the massive C-shaped scallops that flank the similarly-shaped grille that seems to jut forward. While the old car had a ventral character line that flowed back over the hood from the badge, the new car adopts two character creases that sweep closer to the headlights and create some separation from them. The headlights themselves seem to surf on a ripple of sheetmetal that streams past them.

The front wheel wells are interesting, with a fairly conventional line tracing an arc over the wheel well and then, as if grabbed by the passing air, draws backwards and terminates in a little bulge on after the door’s front cutline. That bulge also forms a hood of sorts over the extractor vent styling element aft of the front wheels. That vent dips down into the rocker, which stands well proud underneath the door with a heavy character crease, and dives into the flank just ahead of the rear wheels and disappears. The rocker styling is much more prominent, more extreme, than the current BRZ and exaggerates the swell of the fenders by making the door appear to recede.

Above the rockers, the doors, greenhouse, and backglass all adopt a very similar shape, although the C-pillar now has a handsome kink that differentiates it from the previous car. The new car does lose the shallow fender scallops at the base of the A-pillars, a key styling feature of both the BRZ and 86 previously—amply compensated for on the 2022 by all the new stuff that’s happening below the belt line.

The taillights of the 2022 BRZ may prove to be controversial. Larger, they sit higher than the older units, which had the effect of making the rear deck look flatter and wider than in the 2022. The new car’s taillights combine with a prominent ducktail spoiler sprouting out of the trailing edge of the decklid to pinch the upper part of the rear of the car. It makes the rear fenders appear pronounced, sure, but so did the older car’s bluffer hindquarters.

The lower rear bumper, on the other hand, is a more shapely version of the old car’s, with fat dual exhaust pipes poking out from underneath black plastic cowls. The older BRZ’s rear end didn’t invite overt comparisons with other brand’s offerings, but our staff sees echoes of Lexus and Honda products, especially in the taillights, with maybe a little Toyota Supra down low—surely no accident, given how this basic car also will serve duty as the Toyota 86, which will sit under the Supra in that automaker’s sports-car lineup.

The interior, it should be said, seems much cleaner. The old BRZ’s prominent outboard round air outlets are still there, but now they jut out like jet engine nacelles. And the overall shape is much flatter and more linear, without the center stack hump, or the concave panel in front of the passenger. Instead, the top edge of the dash gets a gentle curvature and streaks across the cabin in a nice, flat line to terminate at the instrument hood. In front of the passenger, there’s almost a slight shelf, giving the dash less of a monolithic appearance. A large touch screen with an appropriate amount of hard buttons breaks up the space between driver and passenger. Both sit on tasteful, well-bolstered sport seats with perforations and red accents.

Is the new 2022 Subaru BRZ a great improvement on its predecessor, or a step backwards? Tell us in the comments on Facebook, shoot us a tweet, or just scream into the void in your home.