I posted the following over at the 9GLancers forum:

I had to drive 70 miles home from the dealer that I got my Ralliart from. Couple things I noticed during the hour drive that sorta annoyed me:
1) The door is not perfectly sealed (at least the driver side)...when driving on highway you can hear the air flow quite loud.
2) I heard rattle already....something from the passenger side door
3) Just like MotorTrend said, the TC-SST transmission is kinda rough in stop-n-go traffic....shifting sometimes definitely didn't sound too smooth......

and the good things:
1) The FAST key rocks!
2) Man, I became too chicken to floor the gas pedal.
3) The handling is incredible, didn't feel much roll at all even thru Connecticut's windy Merritt Parkway.
4) Standard Bluetooth cell phone interface is awesome.
5) Automatic Transmission has never been this much fun.


more comments to come...

 

nice...sounds sweet.

 

nice. good luck with it.

 

break the engine in first!!!

 

No better way to break the engine in becides gettin in it

 

speaking of breaking in engine.....are new cars suppose to have this horrible burning smell? both mine and the Rallliart that I test drove had this horrible smell coming from the exhaust pipes in the back....when I picked up my 03 tiburon 6 years ago I don't remember this kind of smell....

 

Can you describe the smell? Could be clutch... could be fish oil... it did come from japan.

 

My car had that smell for the first few dozen Km, now its gone (Ive put on like 100 Km or something, smell was gone by 50 or so). I think its just the new (carbon) materials getting broken in. Ill let you know if it comes back, in which case Im taking the care in to get looked at..

 

Its just all excess oil and lubrication from the factory being burnt off. It does stop.

 

Good luck. It looks like it has big potential.

 

The smell is normal. My Ralliart had it when i first picked it up three weeks ago. Now its gone.

 

mine did too! I have a 1000k on it now and only smells a little when driven harder than normal

 

what kinda gas mileage were you seeing when crusing the highway if you dont mind

 

sorry i was too busy looking at the speedometer to restrain myself from going too fast hahhaa....the number was jumping a lot I think....from 15 to as high as 60 mpg.....ill pay more attention next time....

 

That transmission kills the Ralliart for me. I hope next year they put the 5 speed in there