I own a '99 Impreza L with a remote start/alarm and have had absolutely no trouble with it, although I have found its usefulness far more limited than I had thought. I was working at Circuit City in the car audio department when I bought the whole thing, so it didn't cost me much more than $75 and a pizza for the installers.
As far as the previous poster who mentioned taking $1000 off of the trade-in or sale price for a car with a remote starter, we are in the process of trading the car in for a WRX and have been told by more than one dealer that it adds to the value of the trade-in, not detracts.
I wouldn't recommend putting one on a car with a manual transmission though, for all sorts of reasons. A place like Circuit City or Best Buy wouldn't do it, most likely.
Oh, and I would be very surprised if remote starts get "outlawed," considering they are available as options on a lot of cars nowadays.
