[strat61caster]

+1 pay off the student loans early, not seeing that $300 go out the door every month will be more pleasurable than you think IMO.

$30k liquid seems really high to me, typical advice is 6 months of living expenses in case of job loss, you've probably got a year and a half there. That money is ripe to drop $5k into a Roth IRA right now, you'll reap the benefits later.

I also think you should seriously check out a '13-'16 BRZ, you can easily save $10k (vs. a realistic list of $26k + TTL) and you won't be missing much other than the new car smell. Your insurance will likely be cheaper to boot.

You could work it so that you spend down your savings over the next few years to be a debt free BRZ owner instead of waiting 8 years and having a wad of cash just sitting in a low interest account. Not sure how much cash is coming in but say you ramp up student loan payments to $1,000/month and then once that's paid off roll it over into paying off a BRZ early, should be debt free in ~4 years without seriously compromising your safety net.

And we're about the same age, did you have the same priorities at 24 that you do now at 28? What are the odds you've magically stabilized and will exactly the same when you're 32? I think you're right, don't blow nearly $40k on the loan and car next weekend, but I think you're living a bit too conservatively, content to let the interest rack up as a wad of cash rots in a (presumably) low interest savings account.