Late to the party - I blame Netflix... Most recently House of Cards - but I digress.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Congrats on the car! My 00V70R has the first year 5sp auto and it's a damn nice transmission. I did a lot of research and have gone with AMSOIL ATF (meets 3309 spec) in 40k ish change intervals since purchase at 120k and the car shifts better than most new cars I've driven. Key I believe being quality oil and regular fluid flushes.
Ditto to all the other things mentioned, and the jobber brand shocks to look for are Monroe's at Rock Auto. Monroe made the OEM ones so they're OEM quality. 04's are the easiest of all cars to fool if you want to replace with non adjustable shocks - I believe it's just a resistor that's needed. I personally moved the strut accelerators from the strut to the body on the front on my 06V70R and I have been absolutely impressed with the stock adjustable suspension. Themove made a huge difference on my car. Car has 108k miles on it and records only show 1 rear strut was replaced under warranty, and my front driver has started to leak - but I found a guy selling new struts and mounts online for considerable savings so those will go in this summer.
Another thing to mention (although not positive the sedans were affected), was the rear hop experienced when hitting a sharp bump. My car used to have a pretty severe side hop with the Hankook Evo performance tires when I first got it. After a ton of research and looking at suspension fixes - winter came and the 215-55-17 tires fixed all the side hop. When the summer tires wore out the following summer, I installed Michelin AS3's and they've all but eliminated the side hop. Running theory being the car likes a little more sidewall compliance and then the suspension works well - too stiff and the bushings deflect and the car hops on impact.
Oh - if you need to do brakes, I installed Hawk HPS pads thinking they'd be even better than OEM, but not so much. I liked the bite the stock Jurid pads had - made the brakes seem touchy, but when you get used to them other cars just seem bad. HPS are OK - and the brakes still make other cars feel bad, but I'd go back to stock pads again next time.
Have fun with the new car!
Rabin