My New Toy: 2008 Subaru WRX STi

I completed several months of research and shopping last night with the purchase of a lightly used 2008 Subaru WRX STi from Chaplin's Subaru. Its Dark Gray just like the picture above.

I went out to Chaplin's to look at a Dark Gray WRX Premium Hatchback w/ Navigation. The sunroof on the Premium loses you at least an inch of headroom and I wanted to see if it made a difference vs the base model without the sunroof. This car was also the only Dark Gray or Black (only acceptable colors) WRX Hatchbacks in Washington. After some pretty heavy negotiation I got the salesman down to invoice and the trade in on my Porsche up to what I was trying to sell it on craigslist for. I took the car home to see if my helmet fit and unfortunately it didn't.

So I headed back to the dealership thinking I'd just return the car and head home to decide if I wanted to settle on a sedan or hold out for a hatchback. However being the tricky salesman he is, he showed me a used WRX STi that had just come in. All STIs are hatchbacks and they had don't have sunroofs. It also has 40 more hp and 50 extra ft-lbs of torque and a fancy electronic diff. I took it for a spin and it was very quick. This one was loaded with the DVD Satellite Navigation and the Silver BBS Wheels. I talked him down to a price pretty close to what I was going to pay for the WRX Premium and we had a deal.

I feel like I really belong in Seattle now since I have a Subaru like everyone else. It has been a lot of fun so far and I can't wait to get it to the track.

I'm writing up a review of all of the cars I looked at and test drove narrowing it down to the WRX. I've found very little help for finding fast cars that tall people fit in, so maybe it can help someone else.

P.S. If you are a car salesman and you want to sell me a car, let me take my test drives alone. Its a huge plus for me and you can possibly make another sale while I'm gone :-)