12-01-2012, 12:40 PM
Cliff's notes: Saabarus are awesome.
Longer story: I had a WRX for a while, mostly dedicated autox car. I loved it and all but I had it for eight years. Sold it to buy an Evo, which I don't regret. But that car was tough and awesome and didn't have any failures I couldn't blame on autox. (and the "glass" 5-speed has over 1000 autox runs on it now).
I daily'd an E36 M3 from 2008 til June. I loved that car too, but it does require maintenance that is well out of its price range (i.e. it's still a $42K car even if you only buy one for $10K). I found a Saabaru for $9250, 77k miles and totally stock, heated seats/moonroof and bought it.
Here's my mileage since then - a couple highway trips have that skewing a little higher than reality, but it's probably ~1 mpg better than the M3 was. The only mod that's really on it is an uppipe (really helps w/ lag). It's a hatch, I can throw shit in it, I don't care what I park it next to, and the heated seat thing is pretty awesome. Better yet, it's a Subaru underneath so it should still be tough and reliable and awesome. And for $1K I can get a whole bunch more whp into it (will probably do that in the spring). One thing though, there aren't a lot of them period so there are even less with leather/HIDs. HIDs are the only thing I wish I had... leather can suck it in the winter/summer.
If you want to see one up close or something, LMK.
FWIW I do think the 9-3 is a great looking car, but I'd much rather have a Subaru drivetrain than a Saab one.
Longer story: I had a WRX for a while, mostly dedicated autox car. I loved it and all but I had it for eight years. Sold it to buy an Evo, which I don't regret. But that car was tough and awesome and didn't have any failures I couldn't blame on autox. (and the "glass" 5-speed has over 1000 autox runs on it now).
I daily'd an E36 M3 from 2008 til June. I loved that car too, but it does require maintenance that is well out of its price range (i.e. it's still a $42K car even if you only buy one for $10K). I found a Saabaru for $9250, 77k miles and totally stock, heated seats/moonroof and bought it.
Here's my mileage since then - a couple highway trips have that skewing a little higher than reality, but it's probably ~1 mpg better than the M3 was. The only mod that's really on it is an uppipe (really helps w/ lag). It's a hatch, I can throw shit in it, I don't care what I park it next to, and the heated seat thing is pretty awesome. Better yet, it's a Subaru underneath so it should still be tough and reliable and awesome. And for $1K I can get a whole bunch more whp into it (will probably do that in the spring). One thing though, there aren't a lot of them period so there are even less with leather/HIDs. HIDs are the only thing I wish I had... leather can suck it in the winter/summer.
If you want to see one up close or something, LMK.
FWIW I do think the 9-3 is a great looking car, but I'd much rather have a Subaru drivetrain than a Saab one.
2006 Evo MR #7 STU | 2016 Focus ST #7 GS daily | Class of '01 and 4 year owner of The Original Mr Spoiler Wing | project:BDR