New Ralliart Owner and board member <-----
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Newbie
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 13
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From: Fayetteville, NC
New Ralliart Owner and board member <-----
What's up people. Last month, I replaced my old '99 Saturn SW2 wagon (auto, DOHC) with an 04' Ralliart from Carmax (16k miles, beautiful condition). It was a conscious decision, albeit sort of a quick, arbitrary one. Don't mind my life-story telling/essay format, as I'm usually long winded for the sake of detail and direction.
I had originally wanted a new WRX (not the STi, though I wish... :Þ), and had actually looked at a few alternate vehicles like the Dodge SRT-4, or the VW Jetta GLi 1.8T and yes, even the Evo. The WRX was still on the top of my list, and ultimately I had decided that if I was going to spent close to $20k for even a decent, used one (no older than '04), then I may as well go with the one I had originally liked and wanted rather than the others.
So I spent about a week milling over the decision and did a crapload of research and forum browsing until I learned that all turbo'd cars require premium gas (disregarding those who pump regular in their forced induction vehicles). Weeeell, I took a look at the gas prices and my driving habits and decided that I should start with a car that takes good old regular gas. Now some people don't mind paying the extra since they have those "job" things I've been hearing about, as well I hear it's only a couple hundred dollars more a year in the budget, but strictly being a full time college student, my only funds come to me by tapping into my father's personal wealth (he paid for the car :Þ). So these things matter to me.
I didn't want an Impreza 2.5 RS, but I remembered something when searching for the Evo's on carmax.com. I've heard of and seen OZ-Rally editions of the Lancer, but not the Ralliart. So I did some research on the car and found that, basically, the OZ-Rally was a "just for looks" package with nothing to help the naturally aspirated 120hp engine, and that the Ralliart was by all of my standards better. All said and done: $14,995 for the car. 16k miles, sun and sound package, I'd have to say it was a pretty good value for the money, particularly with everything you get in the car.
After getting the car, I went about looking for support/community forums for the car, and came across this particular board. I've spent about a good three weeks looking at all of the various posts and am pretty satisfied. Uhhhhhhhh, what else... oh yeah, I should note that this is my first manual-transmission car. I'm pretty comfortable with it now, and have already taken it on a trip into the mountains. Also, while I know a little about cars, my only experience in the modding/tuning scene has been the past several years of reading import tuning magazines. So I hope you guys will welcome me and be nice to me as a newbie to cars, the tuning scene, and these forums.
And now for the obligatory picture for those of you who had the patience to read through that:
I had originally wanted a new WRX (not the STi, though I wish... :Þ), and had actually looked at a few alternate vehicles like the Dodge SRT-4, or the VW Jetta GLi 1.8T and yes, even the Evo. The WRX was still on the top of my list, and ultimately I had decided that if I was going to spent close to $20k for even a decent, used one (no older than '04), then I may as well go with the one I had originally liked and wanted rather than the others.
So I spent about a week milling over the decision and did a crapload of research and forum browsing until I learned that all turbo'd cars require premium gas (disregarding those who pump regular in their forced induction vehicles). Weeeell, I took a look at the gas prices and my driving habits and decided that I should start with a car that takes good old regular gas. Now some people don't mind paying the extra since they have those "job" things I've been hearing about, as well I hear it's only a couple hundred dollars more a year in the budget, but strictly being a full time college student, my only funds come to me by tapping into my father's personal wealth (he paid for the car :Þ). So these things matter to me.
I didn't want an Impreza 2.5 RS, but I remembered something when searching for the Evo's on carmax.com. I've heard of and seen OZ-Rally editions of the Lancer, but not the Ralliart. So I did some research on the car and found that, basically, the OZ-Rally was a "just for looks" package with nothing to help the naturally aspirated 120hp engine, and that the Ralliart was by all of my standards better. All said and done: $14,995 for the car. 16k miles, sun and sound package, I'd have to say it was a pretty good value for the money, particularly with everything you get in the car.
After getting the car, I went about looking for support/community forums for the car, and came across this particular board. I've spent about a good three weeks looking at all of the various posts and am pretty satisfied. Uhhhhhhhh, what else... oh yeah, I should note that this is my first manual-transmission car. I'm pretty comfortable with it now, and have already taken it on a trip into the mountains. Also, while I know a little about cars, my only experience in the modding/tuning scene has been the past several years of reading import tuning magazines. So I hope you guys will welcome me and be nice to me as a newbie to cars, the tuning scene, and these forums.
And now for the obligatory picture for those of you who had the patience to read through that:
Last edited by otter; May 19, 2006 at 06:57 AM.
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Evolving Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 342
Likes: 0
From: Corona, CA
no! your tires are dirty! you better clean those up before the car gets mad at you for letting it get dirty! jk nice car mine is the same but i have the 06 so my front end is a little different.
Evolving Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 150
Likes: 0
From: Moncton, NB, Canada
geez i cant believe i read the whole thing, welcome to evom i hope you find it as useful as i have, its a great community (except the occasional cockey evo owner putting us RA owners down) 
