Brought her home on 12/31, after trading in my 2004 WRX. This is exactly what I was looking for.
I was ready to get into a new car, and was only interested in another sport wagon like my WRX. I was considering a new WRX, the Mazda 3, and the Jetta Sportwagen.
I couldn't find a new WRX anywhere in Washington or Oregon to test drive, and I was calling for about 3 weeks. I finally broke down and drove an STI, although I knew I wasn't considering paying enough to get one. The STI was a blast to drive. They let me take it on a test drive by myself, which surprised me, but was quite a treat.
My local Mazda dealer didn't have a single 5 door with MT, so I test drove a 4 door with MT and really liked it. They couldn't come to a number I would accept on my trade-in, so I went home.
Next I went to another dealer (30 mins away instead of 15, as the first was) through the Costco program (paid $19300). There I test drove the auto tranny and tried the MT again, for further comparison. I liked the auto more than any other auto I've driven before.. nice quick and crisp shifts, but I just don't enjoy it as much. I won't shift down into 1st gear in a MT when I'm moving more than a crawl (I try to be kind to my synchros), so the auto is nice in that if I'm going 10mph I can easily drop to 1st (I assume this is mechanically a reasonable thing to do.. but don't take my word for it, maybe I'm wrong). In the end they were able to offer me $500 more on my trade in, as well as bringing the car I wanted up from Oregon via dealer swap, and they paid the cost for the driver.
This thing is a blast to drive. I have owned a few Toyota MR2's before, and really loved how the handling made it fun to drive even when you are going slow. The WRX had fun power, but it didn't have nearly the feeling of connection with the ground that the Mazda does. Getting back to this feeling was one of the main goals I had in picking my new car. With the skyactiv engineering, I am super impressed how much power and driveability they managed to get out of the fuel economy. According to the trip computer, I averaged 38mpg on the 25 miles home, with 80% highway driving (not going easy on the throttle). Not exactly scientific, but fun to see on that first drive home.
Pics here:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...t=a.10150546167095990.433831.563465989&type=1
I was ready to get into a new car, and was only interested in another sport wagon like my WRX. I was considering a new WRX, the Mazda 3, and the Jetta Sportwagen.
I couldn't find a new WRX anywhere in Washington or Oregon to test drive, and I was calling for about 3 weeks. I finally broke down and drove an STI, although I knew I wasn't considering paying enough to get one. The STI was a blast to drive. They let me take it on a test drive by myself, which surprised me, but was quite a treat.
My local Mazda dealer didn't have a single 5 door with MT, so I test drove a 4 door with MT and really liked it. They couldn't come to a number I would accept on my trade-in, so I went home.
Next I went to another dealer (30 mins away instead of 15, as the first was) through the Costco program (paid $19300). There I test drove the auto tranny and tried the MT again, for further comparison. I liked the auto more than any other auto I've driven before.. nice quick and crisp shifts, but I just don't enjoy it as much. I won't shift down into 1st gear in a MT when I'm moving more than a crawl (I try to be kind to my synchros), so the auto is nice in that if I'm going 10mph I can easily drop to 1st (I assume this is mechanically a reasonable thing to do.. but don't take my word for it, maybe I'm wrong). In the end they were able to offer me $500 more on my trade in, as well as bringing the car I wanted up from Oregon via dealer swap, and they paid the cost for the driver.
This thing is a blast to drive. I have owned a few Toyota MR2's before, and really loved how the handling made it fun to drive even when you are going slow. The WRX had fun power, but it didn't have nearly the feeling of connection with the ground that the Mazda does. Getting back to this feeling was one of the main goals I had in picking my new car. With the skyactiv engineering, I am super impressed how much power and driveability they managed to get out of the fuel economy. According to the trip computer, I averaged 38mpg on the 25 miles home, with 80% highway driving (not going easy on the throttle). Not exactly scientific, but fun to see on that first drive home.
Pics here:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...t=a.10150546167095990.433831.563465989&type=1
