[thefultonhow]

I went out and test-drove the Legacy 2.5i and the S40 2.4i (FWD) today. I'm not a big fan of the Legacy's shifter, but it seemed to handle pretty well (the roads the salesman had me take didn't really give an accurate representation, though). The S40 handled even better, and the engine was punchier on the low end (we would also be getting the more powerful engine because it's the only one that comes with AWD). The shifter was also very nice, but the brake pedal had a fair amound of travel before it started doing anything. However, it may be vey hard to get an S40 2.5T AWD with cloth seats and no sunroof. There are very few 2005 BMW 235xi's left -- none in the Baltimore area with a stick-shift -- so we would be looking at the 2006, which would end up being more expensive, so the BMW might be out. I didn't get a chance to look at the Audi, but it probably won't stack up well to the Volvo.