My wife and I just bought a red automatic '08 Impreza 2.5i baase model 5-door to replace her '96 Impreza 2-door L model.
It's not bad, but I swear that the old Impreza handled better, accelerated faster (both automatics), among other things. Overall, it should be reliable, if her 1996 Impreza and the other 9 Subarus my family has owned are any indication.
I saw in one of the first posts that someone else didn't like the shifter. I don't know if they were referring to the manual or the automatic, but I find all of the notches on the auto annoying -- I prefer a straight pattern for P-R-N-D-L, and then an offset for the autostick.
Now if I can just get around to buying and installing the rear sway bar kit and find a way to make the low beams brighter (even a 6000K HID kit didn't help much)...