It seems like The Madsen guys are pretty cool about light-medium modding on most cars, as long as it's not something drastic. You should be fine with most bolt-ons.

 

It stays way more clean then white, and an ECU will void the warrenty (but you can always remvove the piggyback and reset the ecu defore taking it in for service).

 

I'd avoid Max Madsen like the plague when it comes to servicing your vehicle. I've heard enough horror stories from here and the ChicagoDSM list to keep me from ever going there. If they give you a good price on the car, that's fine, but take the car somewhere else for service.

That said, my Lab Black is a motherf*cker to keep clean, and the paint shows ALL the swirl marks and light scratches. If I had to make the choice again, I'd probably go with the Thunder Gray. I also have the S&S package and MT. It's nice.

ewsang, where in Chicago are you? I work down by O'Hare.

 

I'm in the Northwest Suburbs about 25 minutes from O'Hare in light traffic. But let's not get off-topic, are there any people on their forums that have gotten their Ralliarts in Chicago that can drop me some more advice?

 

which suburb are you from, man?

I agree that Madsen is bad for service. They just don't seem the most professional there. I've been getting all my service done at Schaumburg Mitsubishi. Those guys are awesome; I have had NO problems there whatsoever.

 

Skokie/Morton Grove. Also, does anyone know if there are any used '04 Ralliarts out there? I know of one with 4250 miles going for 14.5 out of Iowa or something.

 

I have lab black and i personally think it is the best looking color on a car....WHEN ITS CLEAN. That is a job in itself to keep it looking halfway decent. I have the sun and sound also, too lazy to install a newer sound system and as stated previously in another post, it looks clean (no wires sticking out from under stuff), plus it sounds REALLY nice. As far as tranny, i have AUTO. Ive been in a manual and an auto and i have to admit that the manual is more fun, but I do ALL city driving so it was auto for me, but the auto still has its share of get up and go.

 

There were 2 or 3 on ebay. One used to belong to a former evom member I.I.N.M.

 

OKAY EVERYONE! HUGE NEWS! I found a new '04 Diamond White Pearl Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart MT with a sticker price of 14,595 (they inlcude the $2500 cash back BEFORE tax)! Now is there anyone who'd think I shouldn't jump at this and negotiate payments right away? I'm thinking of dropping 7 grand on the down payment to save myself a little hassle in the future, but this is probably the best deal I'll find!

 

That sounds like a pretty good deal. I'd go for it. Don't let them know you are putting any money down until you have finalized the price though. If they know you are going to be financing less they will be more inclined to push you into buying more and more extras.

As far as the color goes that wouldn't be my first choice, but get it if you like it. I usually only like my cars in grey, silver or blue. The rest aren't to my liking. I have the TG and I love it. I recommend the S&S package for all of the reasons everyone else has given. It is really good for a manufacturer set up. Plenty of power and balanced sound from the lows to highs. The sub enclosure is what I love the most. I'm still trying to get the exact same enclosure for the other wheel well. Having 2 woofers in the trunk and hardly using any trunk space is priceless. The only negative I can say about getting sunroof is that you wont have a dome light on the middle of the roof. I can't see jack in the back seat when it's dark. But the positive is that you get the 2 map lights instead which are pretty nice. As far as the sunroof rattling goes, I haven't experienced any. The only rattling I get is from the door handles and even that wasn't that bad until I installed my grounding wire kit.

Good luck.

 

Took the words out my mouth..

 

Thanks for the tips, I plan on putting a lot down, so I'm gonna try to spring it on them after we have some numbers worked out, I don't want them to try to leak out a dime from me.

 

Talk to Brian Steward in Normal, Illinois @ Obrien Mitsubishi. He has given me and my friends some awesome deals. Tell him Joe with the EVO sent you.

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On this S&S topic, after hearing my girl's RA the Sound is unbelieveable. I mean it is no Lexus stereo but it is very good. If you price this stuff out to compare to the Infinity system here is where you would come up:

Decent CD Player $200
Wiring harness and amp wiring $50
New front and Rear Infinity Kappa speakers $250
Tweeters and modification of stock A-pillars (to make it 6 speakers) $75
Infinity 4 channel amp $200
Infinity Basslink integrated subwoofer and amplifier $225

Total $1000 and thats if you DIY, not including labor.


Now of course this system may sound better, but the Sound is designed for those that listen to the system at the dealer and are satisified with it. If you are a car audio person you will be satisifed for about 2 minutes...and I used to be a car audio person, but personally I have better time to spend messing with my EVO than trying to make a better system.

I dumped off my Audiobahn subs, Sony CD Player, Lanzar amps, and Power Acoustik capacitor to simplify my car. I have sourced a stock Infinity amp, a Basslink, better 6 3/4" speakers and tweeters just so I can try to make my car as good as the sotck RA sound system. I will be using the stock deck for this, and I expect perfect sound. I will keep you all posted.


Best of luck with your RA purchase, you will not regret it.