[Fat Charlie]

My 250 hp AWD turbo was fun. Great in the snow and the twisties, great at blasting down the straight. Cruising at 70 and want to make a quick pass? No problem!

My 117 hp econobox is fun. Great in the snow and the twisties and goes down the straight just as fast as my old turbo did. How? I commute. Rush hour traffic sucks, and a couple brilliant passes gets me... two car lengths ahead when we get to the next bottleneck. And that only if everything else goes well. Now even in the worst traffic I'm still doing high performance driving.

And that barge that was rudely and dangerously riding my a... courteously filling my wake for me back on the straight? I don't need 250 horses when we get into the hilly curves- he can't keep up with the 117 I do have even though I keep to the same speed.

So by outside performance metrics, it was a move up. I leave home at the same time I always did and get to work at the same time I always did. I still leave people behind in the twisties and pass Jeeps in blizzards. Gas mileage? My worst tank ever, in winter while I was still learning the car and wasn't the driver for half the tank was almost 2 mpg better than my best ever Subaru tank in August under ideal conditions.

You know what the most fun thing about the performance I'm getting is? It's mine. I got it. No 16 year old with the ink still drying on his license can swing by a dealership and come out duplicating my performance because I'm the one turning out these numbers. I bought a pretty efficient car and made a few tweaks to it, but the real numbers come from my driving. That's fun as hell.