Welcome ... my wife and I have had 6 Foci wagons and I can recommend them as excellent driving cars and fantastic for hauling stuff. I personally prefer the 5-speed, and this is one of the few affordable wagons available with manual.
Having said that, I would also recommend avoiding the '00 model year. I had two and they were okay, but the '01, '02 and the '04's I've had definitely seemed screwed together better.
For your budget of $8k (in TO) you could get a low-mileage '01 or '02 - I even saw an '02 Street Edition Wagon on Autotrader for $8300 - I owner, 87k - nice car , relatively low volume model.
If you think you like the idea of 16" wheels or a moonroof or leather, you need to move up to a ZTW, but that's doable within your budget range and IMO is definitely the better used car value.
Just my .02. Good luck.
talked to a guy in pickering about a sedan, mentioned interest in the 4 door hatch, now he keeps calling me about civic hatch's...ryan, i'm lookin for a 4 door hatch!
some dealers are just meatheads!
oh and for the updates, i officially passed on the wagen. my gf said it was ugly, and i'd like to get into something a lil smaller...like a 4 door hatch.