Is the RalliArt a limited production vehicle or is it just an uncommon vehicle because its twice the cost of a base lancer? I have the only one in my city that I have seen. There are alot Lancers but just not any RAs.

 

I have to agree with you, the RA's are pretty rare. I think most people either just get the Evo, or go for the lancer and save money to buy an Evo later.

 

neither... u dont see much of them because mitsu hasnt really sold many. The competition in the RA's bracket is very significant. Also, what do base lancers cost because when I bought my evo several months ago, they were selling the RA's for less than 16k.

 

An OZ is about 14k-15k here with the new automatic RA at 23k. There was an MR here for 37k I think... it lasted about a week.

My RA was 18K used.

 

Used? For how long? A week? I wanted a RA but my bank didn't want to finance it for me. Of course when I go into the dealership for maintainance they still try to talk me into trading my ES in for an OZ or RA.

 

They just dont produce the same amonut of RA than other base Lancers. EVOs got a segment of their own and increased demand, thats why they are now increasing EVOs production. Once RA is more known, the demand will increase and so production, thats when we'll see more of them. I dont know if I want to see more RA, I kind of enjoy having one of the only 2 in my town.

 

^^^ nope. Mitsu hasnt sold enough compare to the price and the fact it's still a new vehicle w/ less than 2years on the market. Just because you havent seen much doenst mean there not selling. When I got my RA last septemeber I didnt see much @ all, now Ive being seening alot lately. I don't see that much Evo, sTI or srt4, does that mean there not selling? Once the "ralliart" names gets around and it has lately, people will start looking/buying. Trust me, the competition knows the ralliart, the competition will find out what torque is.

Also the car is rare as in production #. I like having a rare vehicle... tuners pull up next to you and just stare, ask questions, want specs, wanna race etc. Feels good when your only stock competition cost about 6k more, or 10k more on my deal

 

for the first time i saw an RA just driving by yesterday. a white one in South FL with some 30ish balding skinny guy /w glasses. i think they are marketing the wronge crowd again. mitsu is really good at messing that up =)

another problem is that mitsu trains salesmen to sell cars through customer manipulation, not through the product itself. they teach them how to turn bad questions around and use personal things to leverage a sell, but dont require eduation on the products. less than 1/2 of the mitsu sales AND SERVICE! peope i have spoken to even know what the RA was, or even that they made a 2.4L lancer. blame mitsu

 

Aside from the Evo, Mitsubishi really doesn't know who they're selling their cars to. Their North America division CEO (who stepped down this past week) even admitted that they don't have a concrete brand image established yet. They need to apply the ad/marketing campaigns that made the Evo such a runaway success to their other cars. Do you see any commercials for the Ralliart? Didn't think so.

 

Only when they where first coming out. I saw the same ad over and over again. You prob know it; where a (yellow?) RA pulls up to abunch of young street racers (I geuss you would call them), rolls down the window to reveal two 30something year olds asking for directions.

 

THey don't mention the ralliart though they only say the new lancer most people just think of the regular base or OZ lancer.

 

They need to be running a 30 second spot on the car, the same way Nissan is doing with the SpecV. Nobody has heard of the Ralliart, and with it being a limited production car, they could really up its demand and resale value if they'd just advertise the thing.

 

I see two threads talking about mid 30 year olds with the RA... I'm 38.

Is the target market supposed to be 21 year old street racers ? I'm not trying to start trouble, honest... maybe I dont get it(?).

 

Mitsu actually targets older drivers, which is probably part of their problem. It's good in some ways, as older drivers = more money and better credit. However, the younger drivers are usually more interested in a car like the Ralliart. Whereas the older crowd would be more interested in something larger like the Galant.

However, being a 4 door, inexpensive, and powerful, I imagine it appeals to a rather large demographic.

 

According to a USA Today poll the Lancer is the number one car among the 18-24 demographic with 23.1% of the market. Of course this probably includes everything from the ES to Evo. I guess it wouldn't hurt for them to advertise the Lancer models like Toyota's Scion line.