Deltarider99

But is it a car in high demand? I haven't seen sales figures so far for the RA....and I never see any around here. Granted, it's a limited-run car...but he may be right...especially considering Mitsu's current financial woes...

Khobin~

well, the dealer's in town here don't seem to be able to keep them in stock...in manual anyways...they always seem to have autos...

and what's this about mitsu in financial problems?...aka, are they going under?

mitsumichael7

iTrader: (1)

apparently Mitsu is in BIG money trouble. I dont think we have to worry about Mitsu going away, but we are probably going to witness new ownership and redesign in the near future. Someone will step up and bring $$$, too many cars, too much advanced technology, too much $$$ to be made. Supposedly Mitsu has taken a big hit with people buying cars with the whole 0 down, 0 interest, 0 payments, thing because people left with cars, ran em into the ground, then didnt pay for them. That and I would speculate the Outlander and Endevour both suck. Mitsu is also kicking itself for not offering a V8 in the U.S. by now also. IMO, the Diamante should be a V8, and the Montero Limited should be a V8, but thats a different topic of conversation all together. (lets not forget a V8 sports car by Mitsubishi???)

mitsumichael7

iTrader: (1)

oh yeah the RA...(point of thread)...hehe, I dont know if they arent going to make it or not, but if they dont we should all be happy cuz that just pretty much gauranteed resale for a Mitsu compact car, thats something that they havent been able to say for a LONG TIME!!! (if you dont consider the Eclipse a compact car)

ralliart86

im so glad i got my RA last week it really is an awesome car. There were only two in the northeast at dealers in my Pheonix Red... thats another thing i love... not only being a sweet ride, no one else in my whole city has one

Croix

I think it was Car and Driver or Motorweek who were reviewing the Ralliart and the Ralliart Sportback, said Mitsubishi was THINKING about bringing Ralliart versions of other cars.

ralliart86

a ralliart gallant would be like off the hizzay

LDB

Maybe the RA Sportback is going away... maybe Sportbacks are all going away since they aren't selling. I can't see the RA sedan going away though.

I'd love to see the 2 door version of the Montero they race Dakar in come to the states. That would be a KILLER vehicle.

Luke1294

My pap works in the Mitsu plant in Normal, IL as part of managment, he says sales are just in the ****ter. I dont know if its stillt he case, but for a while, they didnt run at all for like 2 weeks, and then they stopped prroduction one day a every couple weeks or something. Theyre bringing people in from other companies like Ford to help run the plant too...its all just no good. I guess they hinged alot on the production of the Endevor and its just not doing too hot. But i love that SUV, its the only one ive ever liked driving. Its built on a car chasis, apparently, so it drives more like a car than the montero does.

Go figure.

raelic

good luck on the resale value...at the auctions they sell for anywhere from 11k us to 14k us which means they will give you less ...I got quoted at between 12k-13k to trade in (getting a house and need $) now they have 2,000 rebates etc...so the value goes down further...I like the car but hate to say it's like a hyundai ...they make nice cars but hold no value...the EVO holds a little but still not what it should. Example : I bought my mr2 spyder 2001 black with leather and carbon fiber sport/dash package for 19,500 and 10,000 miles later sold it for the ralliart. I sold it to them for 19,300. How often can you say you put 10,000 miles on a car and only lost 200.00 dollars on the trade in. Wish our cars would hold the value better but they don't ...oh well.

CoronaLancer

iTrader: (6)

I believe it, IMO Ralliarts are the main reason the Lancer OZ's trade in value has gone up. People are coming to the lots looking for the Lancer and are presented with the new "Sleek front" Lancers and are not digging it. Demand is just not there for 04's.

Dealers are starting to improve incentives for 02-03 Lancer owners to bring in their Lancers to trade in for Galants, Monteros, etc...except the Evo...they are still hard to budge on that Evo price...all this on account that 0 mile OZ's are hard to find..dealers are willing to sell used...excuse me...certified pre-owned OZ's because people are asking for them.

Anyway, when the Evo MR comes to the states they are going to Ralli badge it. Thats going to be the flag holder of the Ralliart logo for Mitsu's now. So I believe that 05 or 06 is the end of the road for the current version of the RalliArt.

mitsumichael7

iTrader: (1)

Sorry bro but you have NO IDEA what you are talking about. The demand for the 04 is fine. The demand for the Lancer in general still hasnt peaked as a whole, the car is still relatively young and the first Lancers were weak, other than the Evo. Dealers arent trying to get their hands on older OZ's. There was a thread recently that made that suggestion that they were out searching for older Lancers, and that was crap. They werent out trying to buy old Lancers, they were blowing out 03 mitsu's and they were hoping that older lancer owners were ready to upgrade from a lower level car to something nicer. They made it look good to the customer cuz they have a lot of room in the late model cars to blwo em out, so it has NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING to do with demand for the older Lancer. And over the last 3 weeks, I have seen the 04 lancer popping up EVERYWHERE! No other Ralliarts yet (which is a little odd), but the Lancer is getting out there. Tax time didnt hurt I am sure.

realic, you had a great experience with your mr2, great, but not all mitsu have poor resale. All new car purchases loose money. You can buy used properly and never truly eat **** in the deal. Example, I bought my 97 Eclipse GST spyder fpr $14K exactly. 8 months later I had put 20K miles on it, took off the rims, spoiler, FMIC, AFC and sold the car for $14,300. I MADE MONEY! Its all about buying the car right to begin with. But in defense of your statement, Mitsu does resale like a hyundai for their small cars. (ie Mirage, Lancer, and non turbo Eclipses except from 97-99, those still hold value a little even in the RS/GS form)

raelic

It's ashame that they don't hold that much value like that.

I think also in your situation though, the car you had was before they did the huge knockoffs on price (sales rebates low financing..etc). I can't remember them doing it too much in the mid to late nineties but I remember it starting in the beginning of 2000...also that bodystyle is more sought after than the new ones because unlike the new ones it came with a warantied turbo and imop looked better (even though I had a 2002 I can admit that one..LOL). People found those more desirable...not too mention after the fast and furious movies..most of those cars became in more demand. Look at the rx7 for example...after those movies the prices and demand skyrocketted to the point you still can't find a mid to late 90's for under 7k even with 100+ thousand miles on it. Every joe sam and tom wanted to have the green eclipse and the other cars (haven't seen in a few years) which made it more marketable. Too bad the second one did not have the same effect in the sense of raising the value of the car. The movie was pretty bad actually.

There just isn't the demand for the newer vehicles...(hint hint mitsu....make it more appealing to all crowds...) the problem as someone pointed out in a similar discussion on another board I read is that the old eclipses had nice looking design and still had nice performance vs the new ones they traded out the performance more for the design. They are nice cars but for the money the old ones were better and attracted more people because they were more car enthusiast orientated. The new ones are pretty nice but most people who were into eclipses back in the 90's for performance left the boat for other cars when these came out. They just weren't the same.

Nothing wrong with our car either but mitsu has kinda gotten that stigma lately. I went to a dealer to trade in my ralliart (decided to keep by the way) and was told he could give me no more than 13k for it and then I was thinking it was because of no kbb value so people thought it was an oz but then I went to the same dealer I got it from and they offered me 12k ....I payed 17,999 so I ofcourse said like hell with that. The problem is all the rebates and incentives they offer lower the value of the car...the end of year savings kill the value when they blow them out like that. Nothing you really can do but be happy with what ya got or as you said find a great deal and turn it around at the right time to make some money back. Congrats on that one by the way...there aren't too many people who make money back without dropping more money into it!

- Matt

95TsiAWD

Talked to my buddy at the local dealership, they already have some 2005 Ralliarts on order so the Lancer Ralliart is not dead for 2005. Expect them out in July.

Deltarider99

cool...any changes between that and the '04?