I used to have "fun-to-drive" at the top of my priority list and, I don't know 5 or 6 years ago, I changed. My last "fun-to-drive" car was a Subaru Legacy 2.5 XT (which was a manual transmission with the turbo and would pin you back in the seat when you stepped on the gas). It was fun, but I also got a lot more speeding tickets and noticed that I had more of a tendency to drive kind of like a jerk, because I was having fun rather than just driving. Hah, so when I got my Element (which appealed to me mainly for capacity to haul bikes around inside the car), that changed completely. You could stand on the gas pedal and it would laughably go about 5% faster than if you were just driving normally, and driving turned into a more relaxing, I'm just getting from A to B experience. Interestingly - I also used to constantly drool on newer/faster/better cars, and since I made this change I truly don't care as long as my car still runs. I get my adrenaline rushes on skis, bikes, skates.... but not driving a car. (If I really needed that for some reason, there is a track that I could go out to...)
So seriously, when I was shopping for my new car, I was mainly looking for excellent gas mileage + AWD, and great gas mileage goes hand in hand with being a bit underpowered, which is what I wanted anyway. DH is horrified every time I say this, but these days I just want my car to be efficient, reliable, solid at getting me up mountains in snow and.... totally boring and fairly slow. (with heated seats) ;)
Hah, I also had to laugh the other day that apparently Crosstreks are getting really popular around here now. I walked out of yoga, hit the unlock button and tried to open my trunk. Only it wouldn't open. I clicked it again and realized that I was trying to open someone elses brand new white Crosstrek that was in the parking spot next to mine. Oops. I think I have a lot of that to look forward to in Utah.