Already went through this process last year looking for a fun commuter that had awd for snow, handled excellent, reliable, mpg around 30, 4 doors, avoiding the boy racer look, reasonable costs for maintenance and loaded with the farkles most like. Test drove the gti, A4, impreza, wrx, and sti. The focus rs hadn't been released at the time. For the money the wrx was hands down the most fun. Has enough power and fantastic handling to have a lot of fun in the twisties, getting 30 mpg after 10k miles. Upgraded the speakers ... its' a must. Get the 6 spd, short shift kit, and sti exhaust in the premium trim.
Fun topic, lots of opinions. Could have more than one right answer.
