I was looking for an AWD vehicle for the winter time since I traded in my wife's Outlander for the HHR SS. I shopped around for an AWD and ended up getting a killer deal on a 2005 Subaru Outback XT (turbo) 5 speed. I absolutley love the way in drives. Very smooth and almost as agile as the HHR. I wanted to see how much balls it had for a stop and when I dumped the clutch I could not believe it's acceleration. I didn't look up the specs on it before I bought it because I didn't care about them. I just wanted a reliable and cheap awd vehicle. Come to find out it as a a 2.5 turbo engine derived from the STI. Attached is a link which has the Outback reaching 60 from a dead stop in 5.6 seconds!!! Before I drove it I would have guessed 9-10 seconds. I ended up getting it for 7g's with my 2001 mazda trade in. Damn it is impressive. I called a local tuner for ****s and giggles who tunes subaru's to see what kind of power he could get out of it. He said with just a stage 1 tune which is just a reflash of the ECU his customers Outbacks are running right with an STI and in some cases a little quicker. I think I found the ultimate sleeper wagon.

http://www.carzunlimited.com/carz-st.../553/info.html

 

You got a pretty good deal for the subaru