I'll take a chance on getting flamed for making WRX comments...
I have one, and it's not *fun* to drive on the street. I got on a waiting list for it, waited, paid MSRP, and now only drive it when we're going someplace as a family. My wife uses it as a daily driver to commute.
On the track, it's a lot of fun, and in a low traction environment it's fun to play with. On dry pavement, it's not so much fun... It doesn't misbehave on dry pavement, but you can't drive it the way it needs to be driven on the street without risking killing other people...
I know everyone is enamoured with zero to sixty, 60 ft, and 1/4 mile times, but that is truely boring in a WRX. Add in wicked lag on the street when you can't stay in the powerband safely, understeer when you don't dare use a lift throttle to rotate the car, and it gets downright frustrating.
A couple months ago in my first post to the .org SRT forum, I said I was waiting for the SRT-4 because I couldn't justify completing the 2.4 swap into one of my first gens, then adding the turbo when I could buy the car from the factory with a warranty. This car is going to be fun to drive on the street, it's going to be very annoying for the corvettes, M3's, Porsche, and Viper on the road courses who want to stay in front of it.
Even if it runs the same times on the road courses as the WRX, the SRT-4 will be a lot more fun there. Add in the "just a neon" factor and it just gets better. Everyone expects a race-bred rally car to do well, there's no shame in being hunted down and passed by a WRX, but it kills the C5 driver who has to 'point by' a Neon when he was sure the car would just fade out of his rearview...
I'll wait as long as it takes for the SRT-4. Our Subie dealership has new WRX's on the lot, and he's offered to sell below MSRP, but I already made that mistake.
If something wierd happened, and the SRT-4 never became available, I'd buy my co-drivers turbo miata for a lot less than a new SRT-4. It wouldn't have a warranty, but it's fast, fun, and just as disposable. But through the end of summer, I'll wait for the SRT-4....at MSRP
Dale