You've no doubt heard endless praise for both Subaru's wicked Impreza WRX STI and Mitsubishi's wild Lancer Evolution. It's well-deserved. With an intoxicating mixture of monster horsepower and magical four-wheel-drive systems, these little rockets have hexed a generation of boy racers into spending more than thirty grand on what are, in essence, tarted-up, entry-level economy cars.
But what happens when the boy racer grows up? Subaru says he turns into Jason, a fictional character its marketing department has developed and affectionately refers to as the "affluent man-child." Jason shares more than just his name with your humble author - at thirty-two, he's the same age, also has no kids, watches little or no television, and works in a creative field. Jason must be newly interested in cushy refinement because, to ensure that their new 2008 STI and Evo models continue to appeal to him, Subaru and Mitsubishi have kept the same blistering performance recipe - about 300 turbocharged horsepower and four-wheel drive - but added lots more everyday livability and convenience features.
They've added a lot more price, too. In fact, both cars, when fully loaded, come perilously close to the base price of a certain BMW, the 335xi - the car that Jason will surely want in another few years, when he grows from affluent man-child into affluent man. Although you might not realize it, the BMW is similar in size to the Japanese cars, and its powertrain cauldron is cooking up the same ingredients: a turbocharged, 300-hp engine and four-wheel drive.
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