Mercedes has been producing fake leather (Mercedes-Tex) interiors for years that IMO are much better than actual leather or cloth. Cool. Easy to clean. Not sticky like vinyl. Last forever. Feel like leather.

Always wondered why more auto companies haven't figured out how to improve on leather interiors.

oh man 40yr old MB Tex looks soooo good. i agree it's amazing.

I have developed a real desire for one of these:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1242868236.jpg

The Subarus are bad to the bone IMO.

Mike

I'm not a fan of the clear tail lenses - I may change them out at some point. Those are STis (notice the fender bulges), and with the WRX wagon I prefer the darker color. The silver doesn't quite do it for me. The STi is more angular and I think works better in silver.

A dark car in California makes zero sense to me.

What about heat absorption?

What am I missing?

The dark cars are faster...specially da black ones :)

A base Subie ain't gonna do it for me but a STi would be special - especially if it lost the tail wing-a-thing. But at that price point I can think of a lot more cars I'd rather have.

my problem is that I would HAVE to get the STi...there goes the "deal". It just looks so much better w/ exception to those pepboys tail lights.

I loved my WRX when I had it. Cheap, fun, fast and can take a beating. I bought a base model (no options) for $24k back in '06 and sold it 1.5 years later for $22k when I discovered BMWs and Porsches..

The '09 "base" WRX is about as fast as the STi. Right now the STi doesn't make a lot of sense unless you really need the 6spd and different differential setup. It is due for a refresh in '10 and it'll like get upgrades that differentiate it. Right now though you're paying over $10K more for not a lot more performance.

David, I'll bring it down and we'll run it against the TT on Palomar ;)

Get some red taillight tint off of ebay, if you dont like it you can always peel them off later.

Never said the base WRX was slow, or even as slow as my pork chop TT, but I'll let you run interference up the South grade and we'll see who's first to the Lake Henshaw overlook ;)

IMO a stripper WRX as a DD does is not appealing. Guess I'm aging faster than you as I enjoy a plusher ride for the 95% of the time I'm just commuting in the car. Hope this WRX works out for you and plz post some pics when you get a chance.

You may be keeping the A3 for a while. It's not a good time to be selling used midrange cars.

I've had my A3 up for sale on Craigslist for a bit over a week, with nothing but lowballer responses...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1242923104.jpg

At $38k, I'm suprised that anyone is buying the STi.

What is your asking? I had mine on CL for $16K and had a couple of responses. I ended up trading it for the Subie. I was a tad upside down but didn't want to hassle with a PP sale.

I'm asking $15,250. Immediately got offers at $10-12K. Would like to see an offer around $14,500. Not upside down, fortunately.

I had dealer trade offers ranging from $12-14.5K for mine. The lowball guys are out there but I specifically said in my ad that I wasn't interested. In my case I could have likely found the right buyer, as a 6spd w/sport package and no sunroof or other crap is hard to find but desirable if that's what you want. Seems most A3s are DSG and loaded with a few 6spd/cloth.

I've heard that EVOs are going for $6k off sticker... anyone ever driven one?

NoStatic - I am about to do the same thing. Base WRX dark gray with a short shifter. I drove it back to back with the Speed3. I don't get the magazine testers. The WRX is faster 0-60 and faster on the track, seats are great and overall it felt better to me. The MSpeed3 suspension is probably better out of the box but I just liked the WRX better. I can't stand FWD. Got rid of a Civic SI because cars should be RWD or AWD and never FWD ;-) The rush with the turbo is pretty awesome!