If you can get the 04 RA. Nothing really changed with the 05 so you'll get almost the exact same car at a significant price difference.

 

id keep it at 17..hell id much rather keep it at 16...but i cant find decent looking 16inch rims..but i like going faster than show..

 

the mazda 3? you gotta be joking. Ralliart would SMOKE it. Oh yeah and i forgot to mention that the specv seats may look better, however they are about as hard as a rock. after all is said and done, GET THE RALLIART

 

I don't know how the Mazda 3 got into this. Unless you are ALL about looks then I'd steer clear of the Mazda. Mazda was all about looking pretty with that car and didn't pay much attention to performance.

 

but for some reason, the Mazda3 smokes the Ralliart when it comes to skidpad numbers. The Mazda3 is a great handler. Sure, it doesn't have a super torquey powerful engine, but it's still pretty quick.

I would steer clear of the spec V b/c of the quality issues.

 

It's because my mom bought one. The one with the 160 motor. So I has thinking how the Ralliart performance would be compared to the Mazda 3.

That's the only thing. I won't buy a Mazda 3. My choice are between the Nissan SPEC V and the Ralliart.

Hope I didn't scare too many of you

 

**Freaks out** ... no ... I"m ok... I swear.... Take them both for a drive... you'll see which one suits you.

 

TIRES, TIRES, TIRES

Both the Spec and the 3 come with summer rubber. The Ralliart comes with All-Season. If you switched rubber, the Ralliart would whip up on everybody. Read the motortrend article, they said it beat everybody in the Figure 8 because the suspension is the best of the group, but failed everything else because of the tires. Better tires would also equate to better times.

 

These roundups kind of bother me. If they wanted to see which car was the best performer, why not put the same rubber on each car? I really dont think its an unreasonable question. The ralliart gets a lot of understeer marks on its bad rubber alone. After I replaced my tires, it was a different car. Yes, stock tires will show you how each car performs stock. I don't know of many of us here who are interested in staying 100% stock however. The money I saved on the ralliart went into the new tires.

regarding the spec V vs the ralliart - I agree that they are very similar in performance. I drove them both and decided on the ralli for numerous reasons:

a) the warranty. I'm sure you're familiar with the differences
b) the ride difference: i liked the ralliart more. I felt the sentra redlined too soon personally. Call me crazy but that few hundred rpm difference really felt like a big one to me. The ralliart felt lower to the ground, and more of an "interactive" drive. The car felt more responsive in how it handled and it seemed to offer "feedback" if that makes sense.
c) ralliart came in dirt cheap after incentives.
d) ABS is a must in a snowy climate for me. I felt like the ralliart also had many more features for the money.

Good luck! Neither would disappoint!

 

I thought the Mazda 3 and the Ralliart both had the same Eagle RS-A tires? (in the Motor Trend comparo with the TC, Mini Cooper S, etc.)

I think the reason they do the comparo with stock tires is to show you what you're getting from the show room floor. Although, SCC usually does their hardcore tests with the same tires. Then again, when they tested the Spec V against the Ralliart, they complained about how bad the understeer of the Ralliart was.

Can anyone say "tires"?

 

I wanted to throw in my 2 cents becuase I was very close to buying a spec V myself. I read the motortrend article and thats what changed my mind.

The Ralliart was faster 0-60. But the Spec V is slightly faster in the 1/4 mile. In other words, a driver's race. They're too close to call.

You had mentioned that you wanted something that was good on gas. That was also a concern with mine since the Spec V takes premium and the Ralliart takes 87 octane.

Heres the Catch 22 with the Spec V. I didn't like the rear end of the Spec V but I loved the "skyline inspired" front end. However, there have been many articles written regarding the torque steer of the Spec V. Nissan fixed the Torque steer issues with the 04 model but along with it, crapified the front end. So you just can't win.

The only downside to the Ralliart is the tires. If you're slick you might be able to work out a deal with your Mitsu Dealer for better tires.

In the end, I went with the New ralliart over the Used Spec V because of the financing. They wanted 19% APR for the Sentra. I was like, are you nuts, over 5 years thats 100% of the sales price! I'm not going to pay $25 K for a $13 K car. Mitsu gave me 5.9%. I'm really glad I did that though. I love my ralliart. I can count on one hand the amount of Ralliarts that I've seen in the past year in my area. Its great to stand out.

 

Yeah I know that there's a lot of SPEC V on the road. It's not that exclusive but it's a good thing on the other hand because there's a lot of aftermarket part that are out.

I know that the Ralliart as been there for only one year. But how many miles you do with one full gas tank???

For the tire I will go with 17 or 18 inch wheels so it doesn't matter if the tires or good or bad.

All in all it depens also what the dealer can give me for a deal. If the interest rates ar not good I won't go with that brand.

It will depends of the dealer and the deal is gonna give me. After that if the deal are close the car will be more important.

 

Ralliart has a small tank (13 gals) but I get about 350 miles out of it.

 

man just get an '03 evo they're "cheap" now

 

^^^ wow another... "I take the time out to reply, but don't take the time out to read the thread"

FOR THE BILLION, GIZZILLION, X100000000000000000000000000000000000 THEY DON'T OFFER THE EVO IN CANADA!!!!