Bullwings

Also part of the "dumped my STi" camp.

had an '09 GRB that I bought brand new. Decided after a year the "Do everything all purpose car" was a "Do everything half assed and nothing specifically good car."

picked up an s2000 in 2010 and have never looked back at wanting an sti again. I now have a base 2015 5-door Impreza cvt for my practical DD needs. Also as an fyi, I drove my s2000 as a DD for 6 years with a 60 mile round trip commute in Los Angeles traffic.

TommyDeVito

I agree with Jon here (have a party jon!). 2015 Booby went with the VA chassis. WRX got a new motor, and a solid one (for once!), the FA DIT. As long as you don't do dumb S like tune it to the moon (It will bend rods if you try to extract too much power) it will be excellent at stock, stage 1 or stage 2. With the STi, and its' EJ motor you'll always be at risk with busted ringlands, piston #4 failure, and spun bearings. The EJ is a 90's engine, and all Subaru has done is tighten the ring gaps to meet current emission standards (for cold start EPA testing reasons). If you get a new one, tune it right off the bat, then it's ok, but a bad batch of gas, which can happen, you can blow it up. And that can happen even with the best tuners in the country.

I'm 6'+ so seating, comfort, whatever, I loved my GR (2008 Hatch STi). I never missed my AP2, not for a second. The STi made me an AWD convert and have been ever since regarding sports vehicles. I'm running a Focus RS now and still love AWD. The RS is a real motorsports car and the STi is an understeering pig but still one of the best platforms on the road for all weather, all temps driving. My STi was an absolute beast in the rain, the floods we get here, snow, ice, name it. With the proper tires for the season it's one of the safest cars on the road. I own fast sportbikes so this is the reason why I could sell my AP2 and not be bothered with it. If my bikes were out of the equation, I'd still have the S2k. Bikes offer better power to weight, a better top down experience, power to weight, brakes, name it. But if RWD and top down are big checks on your list, no way would I sell your S2k. Drudge on, pay it off, and buy something better suited for DD purposes.

I would not buy a STi. I'd either do, as Jon mentioned, buy the 2015+ WRX, get a Focus RS (while you can, they are drying up fast), or buy a Golf R. I loathe sedans with a passion so I'm hatch or die. The Golf R steering is very numb and the haldex, while good, does not allow oversteer and power oversteer like the FoRS does. The RS, for me, is one of those once in a lifetime vehicles.

TommyDeVito

I do not agree. If there is one thing I've done in my life that has zero repercussions, it is education. Just like credit card debt, with school loans you know what you are getting into before you sign anything, same goes for a mortgage. These millennials cry and whine about their school loan debt when it is their own damn fault. When I was in college, for multiple degrees at the same time, I saw so many just take out loan after loan living off that money. That's stupid. It's also stupid to do that while paying out of state tuition. I had academic scholarship opportunities for out of state, which paid tuition and books but didn't pay for housing or food (athletic scholarships get that). Then you read the fine print and my scholarships required living in dorms for the first 2 years of college and it was bank. I said F that, decided i didn't want to play by anyone's draconian rules, stayed local, knocked out what I could at JC, got a degree there, then every single class transferred for undergrad. I went to a state uni and in the end I had 17k in debt when I wrapped up my degrees. I worked my way through college. Meanwhile the idiots I went to school with were all "I have a great GPA, I'll get 50k right after graduation". I laughed. Last semester they were hitting me up for a job and I had to break it to them that my manager wouldn't hire them with zero experience. During college I took a massive paycut from my previous career and started at the bottom in my degree field. I tripled my income by junior year and was making 80k with OT and bonus my junior and senior year in college. Today these kids and everyone else cry about edu costs, etc. That is what it is. If you work during college (I worked full time and worked my 2nd career on weekends), stay in state, you can completely mitigate the costs. Seems like nobody wants to hump it, bust A, and hustle for it. They want to sign some paperwork, half ass it and expect the moon. No sympathy. College tuition law in place, is no different than ARMS. All those idiots bought homes they couldn't afford on variable rate interest. That's not anyone's fault other than idiot's that did it.

I'm doing grad school, two MBA's at the same time. Same thing applies. Going to a solid local school, with an excellent rep, and using my company's tuition reimbursement program to pay for it. Doing it slow so less money out of my pocket. There is a better grad program here but it's super bank and not necessary. But I'm sure there are working fools who'll just take out loans to go there. Stupid is as stupid does.

CosmosMpower

Owned a 16 Limited STI for 2,300 miles. Hated almost every one of those miles. Couldn't get rid of the car fast enough. Clutch engagement was terrible, throttle mapping was terrible, infotainment was the worst ever, understeer like a pig and SLOW.

mosesbotbol

Part of the scam is telling everyone in high school "they need to go to college" knowing full well they are not college material; setting them up for failure and debt.

You are a minority that attend college. Education is critical, but there are a lot of alternates to college for education. Education never ends. I too have multiple college degrees, but in retrospect if I had went to vocational school, I'd be better off. Paid for college mostly myself working full time... The same story as a lot of us. Cost of college has gone up faster the inflation, why? Peddling worthless degrees and indoctrination of group think. The dialectic and debate has long exited higher education.

mosesbotbol

Same here... Had an '03 WRX I bought new. One year and "bye bye". Wasn't for me and traded in on an '03 S2000. Would rather have my mom's Forester and money in the bank.

TsukubaCody

This is a stupid post & I think you probably know it deep down.

vader1

I think he is right on. My sister is spending $80k to send her kid to school to get a degree. In journalism. It is worthless. He is not high performing in school either. He could learn some trade and make $100k within a couple years and provide for himself, but he will end up in my sister's basement working at Starbucks.

If you are not going into computers, one of the sciences or engineering or skilled technical fields or business, half the degrees are a waste of time. No body wants a person with a history degree, or social science degree or things like that anymore. Times change, and we have more opportunities for people to make big money at an unfilled trade or heck even in a lot of sales than companies that will take someone with a social science degree. And yet I paid the guy who tiled my shower at a rate where he can make $200k a year with steady work. And they were in such high demand he is the only one who would actually show up to give an estimate and I called about 20 tile guys.

In 1950 you could get a degree in philosophy, political science or whatever and a company would value the effort to get an education and hire you, now you are unemployable. I got a friend with a women's studies degree, she aint doing well with it.

I am on the hiring committee where I work, I could teach a chimp to do my job it is not really that specialized a field, and we won't even talk to you unless you have a masters in a particular area. We get tons of resumes from people with worthless expensive degrees and they wonder why they can't find a job. I went to college and got an accounting degree and have made about the same amount of money over the last 25 years as my friend who drives a truck for UPS. My salary has passed his now with about ten years left until retirement, be he made far more for the first 15 years than I did and was able to do more saving early and set himself up pretty well.

Try googling "College is a scam" to see how many articles have been written about it and some of the titans feel that way as well:

https://www.newsweek.com/2017/03/03/...on-559261.html

rwheelz

I also have a friend who works for UPS and it is an incredible gig for the right individual!

My local plumber charges $300 an hour. More if you have a problem on nights or weekends. I was blown away. Nobody ever suggested becoming a plumber, it was all about working toward a degree when I was growing up (currently 41).

To the OP- keep your S2000. If you do decide to make the switch, you can do better than the STI (or the WRX, IMO). Look for an Evo, focus RS, Golf R, etc.

TsukubaCody

Have you considered a large part of the value of higher education is to be a better, more valuable member of society? College should not exist for the sole purpose of gaining employment. Also, it sounds like you're a huge part of the problem...YOU WANT THIS ENTRY LEVEL JOB? YOU BETTER GET A MASTER'S DEGREE. "But you said yourself an ape could do it."

Americans are under educated. The solution? Less education.