Its funny you mention the
Its funny you mention the rational for the 08 hatch model was a better rally base. Some Subaru sales guy or spokesman probably said something to that effect but the truth is actually the total opposite. In Rally America you don't see very many 08+ WRX/STIs being run because the rear suspension geometry is actually quite bad for stage rally. Do a couple web searches on vermont sports car (the company that runs Subaru's American Rally Program) and look for their build videos. You will see that VSC actually totally rebuilds the rear geometry of the cars to better handle stage rally (at considerable cost I might add). I'm interested to see if the newer 2.0L WRX becomes popular for Stage rally in a few years. I have no idea what the suspension make-up is on those models but I do know its a totally new (non-impreza) frame so its possible they will be better out of the box for stage. All of these things are mostly unimportant for the majority of us simply because, rear geometry or not, Stage Rallying at all is a very expensive hobby and using a 5 year old or new car only makes it that much more expensive (especially when you hit a tree on day one, stage one!)