ihustle, you’re an idiot. There are parts of Oregon and Washington where every third car is a Subaru; I’d say thats a successful marketing campaign, considering their “greenie outdoorsy” ads of the last three years. We’ve got four Subaru dealerships in Phoenix; if the sales were bad, how could the market support four competing dealerships? I’m not going to argue on the looks department, as nothing is more subjective than some asshole’s opinion, but let’s be clear here: no one besides a complete moron thinks Subarus suck. Well, OK, the Brat sucked.

I take my 02 WRX to a local car meet-up every once and awhile; my friend brings his DeLorean (in mint condition). We always stake out a corner together and check out the huge collection of muscle cars, sand rails, jalopies, low-riders and other vehicles that show up. My totally unadorned, wingless 02 WRX, looking stock except for a set of rims and a turbo-back exhaust, always draws a crowd. Guys who still have grease on their hands from working on their ‘Cuda come over and ooh and ahh over it — “that’s a rally car ain’t it? Sheeooot those things kick ass!” I run 18psi of boost through the stock internals, make better WHP than a stock Cobra (to all four wheels) and get 24 mpg on the highway. I’ve kicked the **** out of Mustangs, Boxters, Corvettes and more at auto-X events and more informal races (ahem). I’ve had the distinct pleasure of having a guy in an NSX throttle back when he saw me and drive very cautiously, not eager to set me off and (possibly) lose a race. Sure, you can judge them by their looks, but I can’t think of a bigger way to miss the point. My WRX will still be tearing up pavement 50,000 miles after most cars are dead; the STI 2.5liter has won engine competitions all over the world for power delivery, reliability and solid design. Ignore them at your peril; I used to take my wife’s Legacy wagon out at night (192hp, N/A 2.5liter) and absolutely CRUSH suckers by drifting it through corners, locking the auto transmission in 2nd gear and spinning all four wheels. I had a neighbor with a Z3 roadster who pulled out of his driveway behind me one night and then tried to follow me through a windy section of a nearby road; I left him so far behind that he parked his car inside his garage for a week afterwards.