Subaru is now charging WRX money for its only sports car, bringing its pricing in line with sport compacts like the Toyota GR Corolla and Hyundai Elantra N.

Everything getting more and more expensive. No where is that more apparent than cars. Because of various factors like tariffs and price increases on raw materials, car prices keep rising. And while this isn’t exclusive to any one automaker, it sucks to see it happening, especially on models that are both enthusiast focused and were once a bargain. The Subaru BRZ is one of those cars. While Subaru has updated the sports coupe for 2026, those updates come with a price hike that has its starting price closing in on $40,000. 

Before we get into the BRZ’s pricing, let’s start with the updates first. For 2026 Subaru has shook up the BRZ lineup a bit. The biggest news is the addition of a new limited edition trim called the Series.Yellow. Based on the BRZ tS, it gets a special Sunrise Yellow exterior paint, matte black wheels and black badging. Inside there’s matching yellow stitching on the seats, wheel, gear shift, parking brake and door panels. If you want one you gotta act quick as Subaru is only making 350 BRZ Series.Yellows.

Subaru has also trimmed the BRZ’s trim lineup. The entry level Premium trim is gone for 2026. Basically no one was buying it as Subaru says sales of the Premium trim “accounted for fewer than 1 in 10 sales in 2025.” This brings us into the BRZ’s pricing. You’ll now have to dig a little deeper if you want to get into the BRZ. The elimination of the Premium trim means the entry price for the BRZ – including destination charges – has risen by $2,675. The new entry point for the BRZ is the Limited trim, which starts at $37,055 for the manual; tack on another $850 if you want the automatic transmission. The Limited is also the only way to get an auto with the BRZ; all other trims are manual only. This includes the BRZ tS which sits above the Premium. The tS now starts at $39,555. The Series.Yellow sits at the top of the BRZ line and will set you back $40,555. 

Usually price hikes are no big deal. Automakers typically raise prices in new model years. Some may ask if that’s the case, then why I’m highlighting the BRZ’s price hike? One number shows why the BRZ is worthy of a call out on its price increase: $8,100. That’s how much the BRZ’s pricing has increased since the second generation of the car debuted a few years back.

When the second generation of the BRZ ( and its Toyota GR86 cousin) debuted all-new for ‘22, it was still a relative bargain. Including destination charges, just $28,955 would get you into a base BRZ Premium with a 6-speed manual transmission. Today, the 2026 price increase is problematic for three main reasons. First, the BRZ being nearer to $40,000+ now puts it in a territory against cars that are both more powerful and better performing, specifically sport compacts like the Hyundai Elantra N, Toyota GR Corolla and even Subaru’s own WRX.

The second problem is the Toyota GR86. Toyota’s identical – both visually and mechanically – sports car has a starting price that’s just over $5,000 cheaper than the BRZ. Just $31,995 will get you into a base 2026 GR86 with a manual transmission. And while the BRZ does come standard with a few things the GR86 doesn’t like the Eyesight driver’s assistance tech, it might be hard to justify if any of the things the BRZ comes equipped with are worth the $5,000 premium. And everything with the BRZ is mostly carried over for 2026. If the updates for 2026 consisted solely of the Series.Yellow that could justify the heavy price difference between the two twins, but that’s  not the case. Things get a bit more murky when you consider the fact that the GR86 gets it’s own yellow limited edition called the GR86 Yuzu Edition. There is an asterisk attached to this second problem though.

Some might see value in the BRZ’s price premium. For instance, some have also said the two drive slightly different. Matt Farah apparently remarked that while the GR86 is fun, the BRZ is Porsche-like in its handling. This may be true to a certain extent; allegedly, Subaru and Toyota went their separate ways with what sway bars were used and the spring & damper rates. There’s also a cohort of people who might simply be willing to pay the BRZ’s price premium because they view the Subaru badge as being a step above Toyota.

The last problem is the overall price increase since this generation’s 2022 debut. From the initial $28,955 starting price to today, the BRZ’s price has risen 28 percent in less than 5 years. This looks worse when you compare that to the national average of new vehicle price increases. Data shows that while the average price of a new car is pretty high right now, it’s dipped slightly since 2022. So what’s driving these price increases? Just things getting more expensive as I mentioned earlier. Back when I covered the BRZ’s price hike in 2024 for Jalopnik, Subaru said to me that the “rising costs of materials and shipping” were the reasons for the price increase then. And look, I get it. Subaru is a small company and they only have so much capital to go around. It’s why the company did things like codevelop the BRZ and the Solterra (and upcoming Trailseeker and Uncharted EVs) with Toyota and using carryover engines and CVTs in new models. It just sucks to see what initially started out as an affordable enthusiast’s model inching closing and closer to unaffordability.