I have a 02 WRX and my local dealer told me that you pay sticker,
PERIOD! So expect to pay sticker.
Sticker? You would be lucky to do that here. The dealership that
sells Subaru in Knoxville was happily bragging that they made at least
$8,000 on every STi they sold (both in up-front pricing and in the
back in finance). If there wasn't at least that much profit in the
deal (IE: if you walked in with cash) they didn't sell it. They are
also sold out. I wonder if they are still trying to get that much for
them now that there are a few out there.
Seems the STI is in short demand so they know there is no reason to
mark down the price. Also, my local dealer told me they do NOT allow
test drives in the STI. I told them they will allow me to test drive
it if I'm going to buy a 32K car. With that said, when I bought my
Ducati they also said "No test rides". However once I was ready to
sign the papers, they allowed me to take it for a test drive. They
explained that they don't want kids (hey i'm 36!!!) joy riding. I'm
sure it's the same for the Subaru.
Same policy for us on the Evo's. There are a few reasons but most of
it is two-fold. No one wants a new high-strung car like an Evo or an
STi with 100 miles on it and the other is the break in period. 200
miles on the tires, 300 on the brakes, and 600 on the engine for the
Evo and probably similar for the STi. I've driven several examples of
Evo's that were broken in properly and several that were hammered from
day one. The difference in the two is incredible! As much as a second
plus to 100mph and a lot smoother engine over 5k rpms.
You also have to figure that on any given test drive the first thing
someone is going to want to do is see what the power feels like, and
that's the last thing you want to do in these cars. We are a bit
lucky in that a few of our salesforce already own them and don't mind
taking people for rides in ones that are broken in. Of course, the
average person who wants a test drive is about 16-19, thinks that an
Evo is $300 a month with no money down and that at 18-19 they can
qualify to get it. Would you want them driving the car before you
bought it?