So, it makes 345hp.....

Knurled wrote:

TGMF wrote: Even beaten, old examples of a STI are 10k or more.

I haven't been able to find any decent examples of GD for under $15-16k, and I know that chassis just *dissolves* up here, any of those cars will have a hole in the rear inner fender where there is a "shelf" opposite the strut, and no real good way to patch it without deskinning the rear quarters first. So I had been looking at '08-11 STIs... because the control arm rear suspension doesn't have that "shelf", and any Impreza I've seen from that generation is pretty clean so I am assuming that Subaru managed to figure out how to make a car not rust. But now we're talking $20-25k... And oddly enough, it's easier to get financing for a new $37k car than an eight year old $25k car. And to be brutally honest, I wouldn't own an STI without expecting to go through an engine or two. Apparently the Root Cause of the bearing issues is the case halves spreading, causing mains clearance to skyrocket, which starves the rods of oil. Only way to fix that is to skim and line-bore the block, at which point you may as well just buy a brand-new shortblock... And this is also how we talk ourselves into buying a Focus RS as the sensible choice

I see no flaw in this logic.

I think Ford has a great product and is going to sell a bunch. Here in the PNW subarus are everywhere, and now I'm starting to see FoST's all over too. Target market, 25-40. For those of you who say they don't have enough money for one, all the guys I see driving cars and trucks newer than mine tells me they have good jobs or good enough credit.

I guess I'm older than the target market (45)... but back 12 years ago when the USDM STi came out I bought one. Adjusted for inflation the RS is in the same ball park.

Anyway, I really want to buy the RS. I have no interest in pony cars. With two kids and Pittsburgh weather/hills I'd much rather have an AWD hatch.

Oddly enough the thing that may push me towards the Golf R is the RS seat. I'm tall with a bad back so I must be able to adjust the seat bottom angle. In my STi I ended up pulling the seat and welding the mounting bracket. Even then I hated the fact I couldn't adjust it on the fly. I'm too old for that business now - especially on a $40K new car.

In the end it's a DD-only so the Golf R ticks all the boxes for me... except I'm not too happy giving money to VW. But maybe they'll kill low volume products like the R during the re-org and I'll end up with a collector's item :)

I think Ford has a good trio going here with the FiST, FoST and the RS.