Hey guys,

Had my AP1 for around 3.5 years now. It is an unbeleivable car and everytime I drive it I smile. Lately though, the lack of any practicality is making me annoyed. Thinking of an evo or a toyota tacoma. Evo as in non-mr 9. Tacoma I chose as candidate in terms of its practicality and reliability. Here is the key information:

1. I snowboard lots, mountain bike, kayak, hiking, fly-fishing etc. I love the outdoors and the S2000 just doesnt fit the bill. With a rack would an evo be a decent daily that can handle the aformentioned activities?

2. I live in Calgary AB. It was -23C yesterday! The biggest reason for thinkin evo is the AWD. Tired of being scared driving to the mountains in my fwd 2200lb beater. Is this a good winter car? I will have winter tires on it.

3. I love working on my own cars but I also don't like spending the whole weekend doing that. Is this car fairly reliable? It will be relatively stock save a flash and filter maybe.

4. Will I miss my S2000? Man I love the rawness of that car.

5. Should I just keep saving for an X? I love the way the 9s look but the reliability factor is getting to me. From what I have read Xs seem to be worry free so that is big to me too.

6. Only one car, can't afford to have 2 sitting around.

7. I should also say that I am at around 3200ft altitude. N/A cars here are duds. When I drove the S2K up from cali, you could feel the difference in pull. Hence why something turboed would be better.

8. What is the mpg like anyway? Not too worried about that but just a baseline.

Thanks!

 

You'll love the Evo. S2000 was a great car but like you said it's impractical.
3. It is fairly reliable if you keep up with the services I failed and spun a bearing on mine and its sitting in the garage now.
4. I previous owned the S2000. Both are great cars and it's different in their own ways. I however am selling my Evo and going back to the S2000.
5. I would say newer would be better but, i always had a thing for Evo 8/9.
8. Mpg is semi okay considering this is a turbocharged sports sedan.

 

I think the Evo is a perfect choice for what you want to do. I live in Colorado and and am interested in most of what you listed. The car handles awesome in the snow, rain, dry, etc. It's a great all around car. Plus with 4 doors and AWD you can't go wrong.

 

Yes the Evo is quite reliable...buying a used IX at this point may be a crap shoot, but if you luck out and get a good used one (like I did), it's just as reliable as any honda I've owned. You could probably get a nice one from the US west coast??? SoCal is far but no snow and strict police = no rust and a car that probably isn't modded to high hell

Cold weather/high altitude sucks...You can deal with the sub-freezing temp by altering your antifreeze to water ratio and will probably want to investigate a good cold weather motor oil to use. There's a great shop/tuner out in WA state...English Racing (englishracing.net)...they could help u deal with high altitude tuning. (Also email tuning is big here, which has proven to be just as good as dyno tuning....Mellon and VRSF are some top notch email tuners)

There are countless owners on here who DD their Evo all year round...rain, shine, snow etc. The Evo AWD is more than capable in a variety settings...there's plenty on here with roof racks that see lots of use.

I've never driven an s2k, but its VERY difficult to beat the "rawness" of the CT9A evo. I've driven the X and it feels more like an Audi than an Evo....still fast, but lacks that raw, connected feeling that many love, and wouldn't trade for the world.

Above all, the IX makes amazing power on the stock turbo...a drop in filter and a good flash will get you close to 300whp...no kidding.

Is the Evo more relaible than a nice tacoma? Probably not. But if ur asking us which to buy???? That's a no brainer. If you're any kind of car enthusiast, that tacoma isn't gonna float ur boat. I'm a honda lover from birth, and I went 4g63 4 yrs ago and haven't looked back. Hondas are my DDs now lol. I do love the s2k tho...it will most likely be my next project car!!!

Hope this helps you out...EvoM is calling you

 

S2k's are wonderful cars for summer or as a second vehicle!


1. I do half this and don't have a rack. With rack, easy.

2. Awesome winter car. Just had an ice storm here. My all-seasons did well.

3. If you don't go overboard it'll be fine. Make wise/proven mod choices. Most who get fed up with the car love it stock then go overboard/never get a good full-spectrum tune.

4. In a month it'll be what S2k!

5. Your call. 8-9 is easier to work on in my opinion.

6. --

7. Airplanes do the same thing! Turbo's rock (though planes often only put out standard pressure at altitude).

8. I see 20ish, half highway, half stoplight to stoplight, spirited driving.

 

1. Yes
2. Yes, but if you live in Calgary, remember that the pre-X Evos weren't sold there, so I don't know how easy/difficult it will be to get a IX.
3. Yes, there is a guy with a 2003 VIII with almost 230k miles and another guy with a 2006 IX with almost 170k miles. It seems like following the maintenance schedules and not driving like a lunatic helps.
4. In some ways, yes. But the overall performance and practicality of it will win you over. I've never owned an S2000 but I had beaten on an AP2 on more than one occasion, and while I loved how it handled and shifted, it felt I was walking. The grunt was anemic and I got tired of shifting at redline pretty quickly, as it's necessary to shift very high just to be moving.
5. Get a IX if you can. A lot of people who have owned IXs and switched to Xs obviously note its better handling, but they do miss how the IXs felt from behind the wheel. I know what they mean, as I drove a X several times and felt its better cornering but didn't have as much fun doing it. There are a few things that I don't like about them though.
6. Okay
7. Okay
8. I've owned two Evos and documented their mpg very thoroughly. On both, I usually averaged around 22 mpg overall, though on my current one, I've seen as high as 30.4 mpg, though if I'm doing all highway miles, it'll usually be somewhere between 24-26 mpg on the highway (though it'll drop down to 23 or lower if you're going 85+) while city will get you 18-19 if you can refrain from flooring it.

 

im sure 90% of the people on here will tell u to dump that ap1 lol.evo's are awsome cars.but there raw. And by raw i dont mean like cool raw.There loud,,clanky,ull hear random grinds and noises but thats just the nature of the beast with them. I wouldnt buy a 9 but thats just me. 8"s are more simpler to tune and whatnot.but gl finding something theres only a thousand cars for sale right now on this forum lol.

 

Get the Toyota Tacoma.

 

s2ks are nice. i had one and sold it to get an EVO. I have no regrets at all. I love my evo. no more worrying about when it rains or snow. Just pure power at all times no matter what the weather conditions are. The only thing u might miss is the 9k redline shifting but the boost will make up for that. There is no greater feeling when that turbo spools n pushes u back in the seat.

 

get the truck
your in canada anyway...they dont have evo ix's

 

Well I can import one quite easily. That's what I did with the S2K three and a half years ago when our currencies were at par. The US dollar isn't doing so great lately, so it might be time for a road trip .

I should also mention I'll probably be tuning it myself. I love this aspect of the evo. The S2K has a non reprogramable ECU (MY 2001) and you can't alter anything short of a standalone which becomes hard to DD.

The tacoma is just a no nonsense point A-B transportation. I am just not sure if I have grown up enough for it. Something inside me keeps itching for something fast.

Thanks for the replies!

 

My dad has a Tacoma that he uses as a DD while the Mercedes sits in the garage and stays pretty. I've driven it on many occasions to places near and far, and while it's among the more practical pickup trucks available, I wouldn't really want to drive it everyday and would rarely use it for what it is or what it can do. I'd miss driving in a fun manner too much.

 

i'm selling my ix se. I'm the 2nd owner it has only had basic mods intake,exhaust, licp and tune i'm in Oregon and it has an English racing tune. 69k miles clean title. hwy miles 27. 352awhp 330awtq.

 

I Got out of a 500hp fully built Miata for my evo, loved the Miata to death, fun car to build and drive, but evo's are such awesome freaking cars man. I didnt daily drive the miata and i dont daily drive my evo but it so much more user friendly than a small roadster type car. Once you get some decent suspension and a little power into an evo, you'll forget about the S2K in a heart beat.

 

you dont buy a tacoma to go fast
and you dont buy a evo to haul stuff...