I've got 700 miles on mine (silver sleeper edition) and I can't wait to get in and drive to/from work. It is parked outside my office window literally about 15 feet from where I sit. I look over my shoulder every 15 seconds just to make sure she's still there.
I think one of the best kicks for me is when I turn the key. The engine fires up with a very angry growl that just will absolutely plaster a grin from ear to ear. I sit there just kind of taking it in for a minute or so. The next best sound (someone back me up here) has got to be when you downshift from 4-3 or 3-2 and the backfires start spitting. I think one of the magazines put it best when they said it acts as pissed as it sounds (and it sounds PISSED OFF!). Another major smiler inducer. Third best sound is the blow off valve when shifting at high rpms. Nice...whoosh!
So far the power is excellent. Accelerating in all gears seems effortless. You have to be very careful on the launch in first or you'll hop hop hop the wheels all over the place. For break-in I've been giving her short (4-5 second) WOT in second to third gear. Don't take it too easy on break in, that can be just as bad as thrashing it during break in. Gotta have some spurts of WOT to seat them rings.
So far my only real gripe might be that the thigh bolsters in the front seats are just a *bit* too narrow. Maybe it's because I'm tall that my legs sit wider apart at the seat edge. That being said, I'm 6ft3in and this is the first compact car I've sat in where I actually had to click the driver's seat up one notch. Loads of leg room for tall folks. I can even sit in back easily without my knees jammed into the front seatback.
Stereo is reasonable. Good enough for non-audiophiles to be happy.
I love the notchy shifter, it feels all business.
Cool, just looked at my watch, I'm leaving work in 12 minutes...
You will love this car, you made the right decision. This is the best bang for buck sports car at the moment. You don't need a test drive. I test drove a bunch of <20K sports compacts during my car shop and I thought the SRT-4 was in a performance class by itself.
Every other car I testdrove, I'd get out and kinda look at my wife and say "well whaddya think?" and she'd say "well do you like it?" and I'd say "yeah, it's pretty cool, maybe this will be the one, dunno". After testdriving the SRT-4, I got out, went over to my wife and just said "jackpot, we have a winner". It wasn't even close.
Anyway, gotta run, quittin' time...can't wait to be stuck in traffic.
My only complaint is that when i'm working, I can't drive my car. I think i'll try and get a job at PVO to fix this complaint. Seriously, I love it.
