Mine showed up at the dealer
3 days after I posted that, and I took it home the next day. I've got about 900 miles on it.
I'd be interested in knowing how you think it compares to the STI?
My thoughts:
4BW pros:
It is way faster. Even with the suspension in Tour mode it feels like it corners as fast as the STI, but is waaaay more comfortable doing it. Seats grip better than the Recaros in my STI Limited, but feel just as comfortable. It think I'm getting the same fuel efficacy despite having 50% more hp and torque on tap. The STI gearbox was pretty good, but the 4BW's is better. Rev matching downshift is really nice.
STI pros:
The STI had more steering feel; it's hard to beat hydraulic steering. The STI had better visibility, especially around the A pillars. The side view mirrors being mounted to the doors rather than the A pillar is a big part of the reason. The STI's stereo sounded better. The main way I listed to music is via USB drive, and the 4BW's USB folder navigation functionality is ridiculously lacking in functionality. Overall the STI is more "raw"; sometimes that rawness is a better experience, and sometimes it undesirable. After 18 years of driving Evos and WRXes, I was looking for something less raw.
Caveats:
While the 4BW is faster, there are 2 caveats.
1) I think the only reason we can drive something as powerful as a 4BW on the street without dying is that it has electronics that keep us out of trouble. The STI, OTOH, could be daily driven and spanked hard without all the gizmos. It has a more manageable amount of torque, and routes it through an AWD system full of limited slip diffs. Yes, it has gizmos, but my old Evo VIII had similar power and no gizmos except ABS and could be driven hard on the street.
2) I'm not sure the 4BW would be faster on a bumpy, wet back road out in the country. If it can be faster, I'm not sure I have the stones to access that speed. The 4BW struggles to put down power in the wet, and when I am accelerating and go over some uneven pavement I get an ugly feeling transmitted up from the rear. By contrast, my old Evo VIII had no gizmos except ABS. No trick center diff, no stability control. And I could drive that thing hard with confidence over any pavement in any weather. I once drove it back-to-back with a C6 Corvette, and remember being absolutely convinced that the Evo would be faster on back roads. The 4BW brings more stuff to the party than the C6 did - but I do not feel the confidence I had in the Evo.
In fairness, though, I did not have that confidence in the Evo until I had done a couple of track days in it. And I don't even have 1,000 miles in the 4BW yet - and the first 500 of those were break-in miles.