^^ beat me to it.

Welcome to Perth-WRX.

as the guys have said, you will regret not buying a my99/00 when it comes time to start modding.. plus they get all the ups of upgraded brakes, front end, to name a couple.

Not being funny, but $11k is probably a bit much for a my97 wrx, when a decent my99 will be had for $12k pretty easily.

All the best