my roomate has an o2 WRX. absolutely love that car. hardly any lag at all, handles beautifully (sway bars done) and i havent noticed any "cheapness" on the interior at all. maybe you just test drove a crappy one.

on a side not, i test drove an EVO VIII the other day, and was more impressed by a stock WRX then that POS!

 

They're not bad. They have a lot of lag, you only start to feel the turbo spool at 3000RPM.

I imagine with a twin turbo setup those things would be a lot more entertaining.

And for $24K the interior isn't that bad. It's no RSX, but I wouldn't call it neccessarily cheap either.

 

stock they et great but they dont mph very well. maybe thats why you werent so impressed with them. throw a up pipe, mid pipe, down pipe, etc just essentially bpu it and there a totally different machine.

 

I felt the same when I drove a WRX.

There's a lot of hype about them because of the "magical" combination of all wheel drive and a turbo. It's like you combine those two things and all of a sudden you're supposed to be driving the best car ever.

The fact of the matter is that most folks out there aren't really so concerned with how good a car is for drag racing and rather just want it to feel nice while they're putzing around town and perhaps taking a few twisties.

 

3-4 more grand and you could have yourself an evo h:

 

regardless if your drag racing or not, it's still faster than hondas closest competitor for it the RSX-S stock for stock and packs much more torque down low for your driving pleasure. also, if you live where it snows the awd weighs heavily in your decision. you talk as if the WRX handles like crap, it may not be RSX-S handling levels, but it's still pretty darn good when consider what the other capabilities of the car are.

and probably $1-2K more and you can have an STI

an '04 STI can be had for under $30K now.

 

:werd:

 

To answer a few questions. It was a new '03. Last one on the lot. Kind of a maroon color (not a big fan.) But they were willing to work the negative equity in my vehicle. I really had no intention of buying it but I wanted to actually test drive one and see what a dealership would give me for my vehicle. Both goals were accomplished.
Eventually I will probably still end up with one. But I will be looking for a used '02. That way it will be a little cheaper and I can afford to put the aftermarket pipes on it right away. That and I am waiting till I get a debt consolidation loan paid of in about 3 months, only 3K left on it and I am done!

In regards to the interior feeling "cheap." I can see how people feel that way, but imo I think it was designed to be a little more durable (maybe marketing towards a younger crowd? :dunno: ) as opposed to luxurious and thus comes across as "cheap" for a $25K vehicle.

edit: p.s. THE CUP HOLDER ON THE DASH BLOWS A$$

 

i wasnt impressed when i drove a new 04 Forester 2.5XT.... didnt feel as fast as i thought it would.

 

My point is that not everyone is concerned with the actual numbers a car is able to produce but rather how it feels while driving. Totally subjective stuff.

Furthermore I did not make any comparisons to other cars. All I said is that the WRX didn't feel very good when I drove it.