I picked up a 04 STi about two months. Here are my random thoughts on the subject. It is my daily driver.
-It is a rough riding vehicle. The old people complain about feeling every bump in the road.
-20~25mpg estimated is BS. More like 18mpg. I daily drove mine but has a 4 mile commute everyday. If you need to drive long distances, be looking for fuel. Half of the bad mpg is because you can't keep your foot out of it.
-HOLY CRAP the car is amazing. It wants to go fast a lot and often. The first thing I learned was how to drive it the speed limit. I am dead serious. I was going A LOT faster than the posted speed limit without even knowing it.
-Four days after buying the car, I took it to an auto-x. I didn't know nothing about going fast-like and it was 42nd out of 103 cars. It ate spec miatas, spec E30s, Honda S2000s, Corvettes and all the other things I thought were fast like they were nothing. The damn thing is fast, out of the box.
-It pwns on mountain roads. My friend's Porsche Cayman couldn't keep up.
-In the dirt, it'll drift without trying. Just turn the wheel and get on the throttle more. Also it was controlled, simply amazing.
-The DCCD thing is stupid. Keep it on AUTO. If you drive it in snowy conditions, then *maybe* lock the center diff. Otherwise, keep it on auto, it'll do everything you want it to.
-The intercooler spray works good. Before you "punch it", press the little button. Then, engage.
-The girls love it. If you are single, you must have this car.
-Did I mention this car is amazing?
-If you buy one, go buy a radar detector on your way home. DEAD serious. That car pretty much has a giant "COME ARREST ME" sign painted on it. Cops follow me around like its their job...which...maybe it is...
-Middle aged men in minivans look at you with envy.
-Driving gloves are good to have.
-There is a tiny bit of turbo lag, but if you know about it, you can deal with it.
-The magic starts to happen at 3k RPM.
-You have to get used to the huge-ass wing in the back. It blocks your rear vision nicely.
-Get the special STi key. It is great.
-The car is badass.
-At full turn, while on the throttle, it has just a touch of understeer.
-Don't get the extra guage cluster. I have them and they are worthless. You also loose the clock. Now I have a ghetto wal-mart clock velcro'd to my dash. I'd much rather have the clock than a bunch of guages that are rendundant to idiot lights.
-Insurance on these cars is rough. Be prepared to pay BIG dollars. If you live in the Baltimore/NYC/Philly area, then you will pay even more. Apparently, STis are stolen a lot up there.
-Overall it has been reliable. However I have only owned it for two months and 5,000 miles. The owner before me said he never had to use the warranty.
-This is an expensive car. The clutch is like, 1200 bucks or something.
-While heavily accelerating, it has bad torque-steer. Be prepared for this.
-The Windshield wipers are really good on this car. I know, you might think this is a stupid observation but I really like the windshield wipers on this car.
-If you are REALLY REALLY fat, do not get this car. My fat friend was very uncomfortable in the front seat.
-Unless it is a series rover (I have a 109) or some other really cool car, I won't buy anything that doesn't have a 6 speed. You will become addicted to the 6 speed gearbox.
-Get the little trunk-organizer thing. It is a plastic tray that goes in the back. This is great to have.
-There is a lot of room in the trunk. A lot more than my old Honda Accord.
-Sounds system in it kinda sucks.
-The car is purely built to be badass. Everything in it is biased toward performance.
-Having to put synthetic in it sucks. I was used to buying ~10 bucks worth of stuff for an oil change. Now the damn filter costs 10 bucks alone. Oh, and put mobil 1 filters on it. It likes that.
-I tried to test drive a new one at the stealership. They won't let anyone test drive the car. Just thought I'd give you a heads up. They'll let you test drive a WRX, though. Those are a lot better for everyday driving.
-It does not come with floormats. However you can get a set of ballin' STi mats for like, ~50 bucks. Buy these. I just got some for christmas and they are awesome.
-The brakes are amazing. It'll stop REAL fast. One thing is in the morning, you can hear the brakes dragging.
-At idle, the car rumbles like a real race car (My dad has a Formula Ford, so I know that sound).
Overall, the car is amazing. I still cannot believe I have one. Handling wise, it blows away my friend's G35 and his fathers tricked out Focus SVT (still a cool little car). This car can easily get you into trouble if you aren't careful. It has ungodly power and it wants to go. Otherwise, you must have one.
If you want to rally it, go look for one that is prepared. You'll pay a little extra for a lot more. I saw one in alaska about a month ago. 2005 with shit tons of stuff on it. Guy wanted like, 30,000 dollars for it.
PM me if you have anymore questions.
