Paul,
Thanks for the reply. Yeah the hood is steel, which is disappointing, but I have a comment in
Subie Gal's photo thread, here, in response to that and other points:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...&postcount=345
I think the aluminum hood may well be standard, still, for the JDM cars. And could still come with the STI, as an exclusive bit. If so, that means hood swaps will still occur. And the WRX may get it back, if costs even out, in a year or two anyway.
It just appears, as I stated in that URL, that Subaru evened out some costs in order to improve the major points they were focusing on. I'm more than willing to sacrifice, for example, a few pounds in the hood (which is easy to swap, or, as you said, there's now hood struts), for a double-wishbone rear suspension.
(Pic from Jamie's gallery:
http://www.subiegal.com/gallerymain/...subaru_wrx.htm)
-Chris