Hey now, I do like the Celica. It was the last of the truly great Toyota products, before the bean-counters came in and wrecked the Camry, et al. The Corolla XRS isn't too bad, if only for that insane little four-pot in there, but you would have thought hey would have tried a little harder to make it "cool." In that market, I'm always a bit impartial to the VW GTI/GLI, but the
Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart is a surprisingly good performer that can be had at a very good price.
===
On the Forester: I wouldn't knock it too hard, as the Forester XT was quite the performer. Personally, I'd start with one of the older styles (I think they looked better), but the performance pieces to get it where it should be aren't that expensive, and furthermore, aren't hard to install. Car and Driver did a quick build-up on the latest Subaru Forester XT by throwing
$1700 at it, including higher performance tires, stiffer anti-roll bars, and a re-flashed ECU. It drove better, had a minimal loss in ride quality, furthermore was faster as well.
As some of you may know, I have a soft spot for wagons, and if you can get a Forester that can easily run with most WRXs, well, thats just plain fun.
Here is the full-link to the modification guide.