S&S doesn't include the changer.

Which is fine by me. Changers in cars never have worked well for me.

 

Hey not including the changer works fine for me. It leaves me the room for the nice sport gagues available from Mitsu.

 

It's fact, they do look great...

 

I like the way this guy thinks!

 

you are right, I prefer the gauges more than the CD changer.

 

After looking at the new RA at my local dealership I like some things they did. Nobody mentions how much nicer the new seats are. They are closer to the EVO seat now with much more lateral support.

The front bumper is an excellent design decision because it brings a more civic like appearence which is where this car needs to start taking back market share. The side air bags are a BIG deal and having this standard in a base 13k Lancer is awesome and unheard of by other brands. You will never feel the 40lbs anyways and you won't care after you are sitting in those seats. It also has a new sportier steering wheel and the interior seems to have a better feel to it. The HVAC knobs do not click into place, rather they are smooth. It now includes the Immobilizer key which is a good step forward too.

Other than that I think a wheel change was needed and they failed to address that. Although with the Employee Pricing for Everyone you can pick up a base RA for around 17k. Not too shabby of a price if you ask me. Look at the downsides, they could have dropped the RA. The more of these cars out there the more parts that will be available!

 

I didn't see a difference appart from the color... but I didn't actually sit on them either. I thought they were the same seats... they looked exactly the same. I will have to go there and try them on...

As for the rest, I guess it's a question of tastes... and where our opinions differ greatly.

Did you say the base Lancer now comes with side airbags? If so, that ES is even more of a steal than it was originally... and BTW, that's one front end they didn't mess up. The chrome grill looks great (especially on an economy car). That's probably why they then had to vinf somthing to put on that big hole for the RA... and I can't say I'm impressed by what they jerry-riged.

-

 

I got a chance to hop inside of the '06 last night...

SHOCK. Basically the same interior, same seats (as far as I could tell, I do have the side airbag seats tho, so maybe I'm used to them...) w/darker color fabrics, new steering wheel, shiny pedals (nice!) and airbag indicators with the "exciting new" hazard light button.

I miss the red or blue accents in the interior of years past. It looks alot... duller... now.

I like the new RA grille, and I think the ES one looks good too, with the chrome and whatnot.

 

Since the car had a two-star side impact rating, among the worst in the class, something had to be done. It was hurting sales of the car. I have heard of people being killed or injured by front air bags, never by side ones - could you elaborate?

So you think MR gray is dull? It is the same color.

The Vortex Genorator is designed to work in conjunction with the EVO wing. On a Ralliart it probably is just for style, or its effects negligible.

 

I'm curious too why you think side airbags hurt more often than they help. As for front airbags, they help much more often than they hurt (about 8/9 or 9/10 times they make any difference at all, IIRC). I'm pretty damn sure side airbags help much more often than they hurt too, but I don't think I've ever read any numbers on them, just crash test results.

You mostly hear about front airbags hurting people much more often than helping because when they help they're just working as expected, whereas when they hurt that's not the intended and expected behavior.



I dunno about him, but I'd say so. It's pretty boring as grays go. It still looks good on the Evo though because the Evo has enough going on with its body panels that it doesn't need a particularly exciting color.

 

I love the Graphite Grey. It's smooth and sophisticated looking, dark, but shiny. I was dead set on a Lab Black or Phoenix Red Ralliart, but when I saw the Graphite, I had to make it mine!

 

Are you sure your car is graphite gray and not thunder gray? I'm pretty sure thunder gray was the only gray offered in the 05's (definately in the 04's), and from your small avatar pic it looks a little dark to be graphite gray, though that could just be the lighting.

I do think thunder gray is a pretty damn nice looking gray btw

 

It's Graphite Gray Pearl, according to the build sheet. And yes, it was the only gray offered on a Lancer in 2005.

It doesn't look a whole lot different than the Thunder Gray... to me, the TG looks maybe a little lighter.

 

Really? Looks a little lighter then TG to me., but then again I've never lined up a TG and GG Ralliart beside each other and compared them before. I wish someone here had a TG Ralliart, hahah.

 

Hrmm...maybe they just renamed thunder gray to graphite gray for the 2005 non-Evo Lancers. If you think your graphite gray is at least as dark as thunder gray then there's no way it's the same graphite gray the Evo MR gets. Which I think is a good thing.