Hey everyone,


I live in Queensland, Australia and am looking at buying an Evo 8 MR from another state (NSW). Everything looks pretty good but it's a fresh import from Japan and I'll be the first owner in Australia so I can't do the usual history checks, or at least I don't know how.


This is the car sales listing:


https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/2004-mitsubishi-lancer-evolution-viii-mr-ct-manual-4wd/OAG-AD-20285411?DistFromLoc=4208&pageSource=details&id=OA G-AD-20285411


I just want to double check it's VIN number as I've read that an 8 MR should have a vin that ends in 0030XXXX, where as this one's is 6U9000CT9A0303357. The other thing I noticed is that it doesn't have a vortex generator which i thought was something that came with it, but this could have been removed. I'll attach a photo of the tag too:


https://postimg.cc/mP32R6jC


I don't think there's anything dodgy going on but I just want to do my due diligence given the cost. I've got a mechanic looking over it tomorrow so I've got that side of things covered, I'm just concerned that it's maybe not the genuine article I guess, so if anyone can offer me any sort of reassurance or reason to avoid this one that'd be amazing.


Thanks in advance for any help!

Ant.


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@Antman88

Try the decoder here: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/vindecoder.php

 

I've tried a different decoder, and now that one too, and the VIN on the carsales ad (6U9000CT9A0303357) was returned as invalid.

The other thing that is confusing me is that the picture of the plate that the dealer sent me (the one i linked above) doesn't have the "6U9000" part anywhere on that plate. I can see the CT9A0303357 part listed under Chassis No. - but i'm not sure where the first 6 digits came from.

I tried replacing those first six digits with the model code on the plate, making GHCT9ACT9A0303357 as the full 17 digit VIN but that comes out of the decoder saying there's no information for that VIN - not that it's invalid, just no information. I'm just not sure if this is me being a noob with having to do this much research on a car before, or if something dodgy is going on here.

 

Yes, i saw the same invalid come up on my search as well. Certainly possible that VIN was typed incorrectly?

And that chassis tag is certainly not a portion of the VIN, correct? The VIN plate is always mounted on the dashboard or door / fender / hood, trunk decals

 

Yeah, I'll double check tomorrow, 2AM for me at the moment.

I guess I have two concerns; has it been in any serious accidents and is it really JDM and not USDM/ADM (not that i would mind ADM). The first one my mechanic should be able to pick up on, but the second probably not. Any USDM Evo 8 would be left hand drive, and apparently the ADM doesn't have a rear wiper and the one I'm looking at buying does. It also has the circle in the right of the cluster that says Evolution rather than Lancer, which is another difference apparently. So I think as long as the mechanic doesn't find anything scary tomorrow I'll probably go ahead with the purchase, as long as I can get some clarification about the VIN.

Also, almost all of the information I've found while doing my research has been from your forums, including the differences about ADM/JDM. So yeah I can't thank you guys enough, been an enormous help already.

Cheers!

 

Very nice looking evo! I'm not sure if the vin check would even work in Australia or the USA since it's a jdm vin and has no history in the import country? I could be wrong but it definitley looks like a jdm model. Trunk badge placement is jdm and as you said the rear wiper. Not uk since it's missing the rear fog light. The vortex gen could have easily been removed and the wheels swapped.

 

Update: Inspection revealed it was absolutely riddled with rust. The hunt continues.... Thanks again for the replies everyone.