PA38 bad ?
I have much difficulty understanding the attitude shown above to the PA38 after over 500 hours training on the type I class it as one of the best trainers to come out of the USA and from a pure training point of view was far better than the C152.
A combination of Piper having financial difficultys and the aircraft arriving at the market just as the American lawyers abused the product liability laws prevented it getting developed in the way the C150 grew into the C152.
Lack of product support has made the PA38 an unrealistic trainer now from a financial point of view and no one is going to put money into an aging airframe that must be nearing its wing fatigue life, so all the examples you will find are now going to be very tatty.
As an instrument platform it was a little on the lively side for beginners but most could cope with it, I did most of my basic IF training on it but as the club only had a VOR fitted to the PA38's I had to change to a PA28 for all the NDB & ILS stuff.
That brings us back to the permit IF requirements, I expect the LAA will set a stability standard for IF approval at just below that of the PA38 as this would be the minimum safe place for the average PPL/IMC.
Like most practically minded people I welcome this new move on the part of the CAA/LAA but would warn that some on this forum are going to be disappointed as the types that get the IF approval are going to be the more conventional and therefore more expensive and well equipped aircraft. So in terms of cost saving I don't see the financial savings being as large as some might think.