Another option to consider is to pick up someone's lease. I can tell you for sure that my brother wants out of his lease on his CX7. I believe it ends in March/April & he doesn't want to deal with making payments on it anymore while he has another car.
Newer car means no problems, dealer warranty, creature comforts, easy. Plus, it'll probably (er... hopefully) keep you from throwing money into modding yet another car.
Something to think about.