My nephew just sold his Speed3 but it wasn't because he didn't like the car. He got tired of a new car payment on a car with 55k miles that was a few years old. It was the economics of it that prompted the sale. I think he should have kept it but that's because I'm tired of working on cars. New is nice.
Tell me about it. My payment is low, but I've put enough in repairs on this car (currently 110K mi) that I could have bought another one of my other car. The other car (also a Suby, but normally aspirated) has had to have a number of age related repairs too, but it has no payments. I drove the MS3 before I bought my WRX because I was pretty set on buying one. Power and handling was awesome on that car, but it was still FWD. One drive in the WRX and I was sold. AWD isn't quite as fun as RWD, but it is pretty close
Yes, he should have kept it, but all turbos will require more work than a N/A car, and yes, gas is a potential hole in your pocket. "You know you drive a turbo when you spend more in a week on gas than food." I get ~27-28mpg on the freeway, except that I am only on the freeway on the weekends

In traffic in town: ~18mpg
Not a big fan of white because I've owned a white car before, but I've also owned black cars. White cars are easier to keep clean than black because black shows
every spec of dirt

I really do like all variants of the 3 and was pretty impressed with the MS3's handling in stock form.