I will first qualify my opinion by giving my history. I am a ford man, i love v8s RWD and muscle cars (own an XB coupe) but i am also practical. If i could have it, i would like an every day driver that was a wagon, light (like my carona) rwd and under 3L for economy. I will continue to dream.........
I live in a regional centre surrounded by rural area, typically crap roads, lots of wet weather, plenty of long drives as well as urban driving but considerably higher average speeds than someone who lives in a city. My first car i drove was Renault 30, my dads, front wheel drive v6, longitudinally mounted engine in front of the front axle, was an awsome car to drive, great highway cruiser, and not bad on twisty stuff. Then came a camry, 2wd fwd subaru leone, fairly sedate cars terrible understeer in wet or slippery conditions, then a toyota cressida rwd and
irs. Was a boat absolutely ****house in anything other straight lines and dont get me started on driving in the wet. Too premature or a little too heavy with the throttle and out comes the bum no warning not controllable just whack. Then came toyota carona wagon rwd. Great car in town or on the open road not enough power to get you in trouble. Then an XE I6 nice cruiser a little oversteery but felt very controllable when it did come out, next was same car but then 351C you can imagine the rest. Then a fwd magna great engine but torque steered under power and nearly killed me going round a corner at 40km when the bum just stepped out in front of oncoming traffic. I have also driven focuses falcons and crapodores with my work as well as rodeo/isuzu 4wd . The falcon and crapodore both felt very heavy to me although i never drove these with too much spirit as i didn't own them and didn't want to damage them. The focus was noisy but other than that fantastic in all conditions. Then came my 06 subaru outback 2.5. I am yet to find any situations where i have had to deal with an out of control scenario. (I now also have an au tonner ute for the work run which is too light in the bum to try spirited driving). I have not changed my driving style, i am no grandpa but nor do i drive with the intention of finding my limit. I would say i am an average driver, the car gets the family from a to b and i have confidence in its safety and ability to manage all types of road conditions (when not driving like an idiot) As stated any fool in any car configuration can fail when driving stupid. As for fuel consumption, when we were doing lots of highway miles, the average was generally between 6.5-8l / 100km. Now we are generally restricted to town driving (50-60km zones) and that figure is 10L / 100km.
I would not buy the subaru based on its awd if i was living in a city doing the 20km/hr crawl to work each day that isnt going to test anything, a model A ford will cope with that (only an assumption but you get my drift). But if i was doing lots driving on regional roads etc then i would definitely recommend it.
I think the purchase should be prompted by the purpose. What is the car going to be used for. The reality is most of us use cars to get from a to b. Despite our loves, loyalties biases etc most cars don't get used for much else and certainly dont reach their potential driving along Parramatta rd in peak hour. A big rwd V8 in the middle of sydney is not really getting used for its intended purpose is it (unless you are doing hot laps at the creek or running down the 1/4). So do i think AWD is worth it, yes absolutely, is much more stable on the road than any of the other cars i have driven and that gives me peace of mind. But i purchased the car because of the type of driving we were doing at the time and because we were starting a family and wanted safety.
If you want a race car, that requires a different approach. It appears that all of us are providing opinions on different characteristics that may or may not be important but it will depend on how you chose to use the car don't you think?