That year has the 7bolt engine in it thats notorious for crankwalk. I looked at a 1995 Talon TSI AWD and it had a new engine put in the car since the old one blew, and the new one was pissing oil within a year - my mechanic told me he HATED the motors "in those things" and would never buy one.
I'll admit that just today driving to work in the WRX I was thinking about how I would like to have a '95ish TSi AWD/GSX because I enjoy how the car looks, I love how you sit in the car which is sportier than the WRX, the interior when you get top of the line models is classier with leather and a sunroof and they're dirt cheap, plus I could work on it without worrying about it like I do with the WRX. Years down the road I'll probably get one as my project car.
Downsides; reliability issues, crankwalk, burning oil (even the Evo has oil burning issues if the car isn't broken in just as described, this was reported as late as the Evo 9) and a pig of a car. Its a heavy and bulky car, which hinders handling but also makes for a nice highway cruiser. Now all of the eclipses are getting kind of old and have passed through many kids hands which is another negative aspect.
Personally for the performance oriented, you can't go wrong with the 1st generation but they were ugly as sin. First gens are cheap as dirt, the lightest, and depending on the year they came stock with 6bolts.
