I just meant that I'm surprised you were blowing out spark with stock coils at less than 700whp. But it's fixed so, that's awesome.

 

Gray one is mine and I’m the original owner. Silver one is my son’s and he’s the second owner. Both are no longer stock but we both have all original parts.

 

gorgeous

 

Original owner of my 2005 TB 8 with 65k miles on the odometer/chasis

 

I haven't been on here in a while, but I still have my 03 Evo that i bought in June of 2003. Other cars have come and gone, but I could never part with it. It's been pretty reliable for a car making twice the hp it came with from the factory. It has winter tires on it that rarely come off now, and I generally just drive it when there is snow, or it's just too cold for the summer tires on my other cars. Every time I get in it, I'm reminded how it fit me like a glove...although it's a little loud for me now that I'm 20 years older, lol! It's my favorite car I've ever owned.

 

Undoubtedly more original owner evo 8:9s left than 04-07 STIs even with Subaru producing 3x as many cars

 

agreed

just some OG owners cashing in - in this economy

i love mine

 

Don't forget subaru recycled the exact same chassis from the standard impreza for sti so it's practically the same car rebadged. Not to mention we also got them for Canadian markets so we have a ton in Canada. The number is likely 8-10x more than ct9a.

I wouldn't even compare subarus and evos anymore. No idea why people started. Not trying to say ommmggg evos are so much better. There are just too many differences to compare these cars anymore.

 

I haven't posted in a few years... stumbled upon EvoM again, looking for some part numbers.

Original Evo IX SE owner here, still 100% bone stock. Daily-driven with 138k miles. Best car I've ever owned. I'll be 40 this year and don't see myself ever getting rid of it.

EDIT: After making that last post, I just realized that I'm also one month away from having been a forum member for 20 years. Time flies.

 

love an OG owner with stock car

tell us about some maintenance, any issues? and some photos!!

 

I'll try to post some photos this weekend, after I wash the car.

I don't think there's a lot to say that probably hasn't already been said time and time again, but I'm happy to repeat it.

Maintenance has always been said to be difficult, but even in my early 20s when I first got it, it really didn't seem like that big of a deal. It's more expensive than most other cars in its price range, including the STI, but it's not too bad at all, considering the performance you're getting, and the types of cars that you'd cross-shop with it, for that same kind of overall ability. I've stuck with the "severe" maintenance schedule pretty religiously through the last 16 years of ownership. I got the oil changed at 1,000 miles (as suggested, due to the breaking-in of the engine) and then at every 3,750 miles, though of course it helped that when I bought mine from South Coast Mitsubishi (back when for a string of years they were selling Evos at below-invoice pricing to EvoM and SoCalEvo forum members), it included free oil changes, though they pulled the plug on that offer officially a number of years ago, though it ironically coincided with when I hit 100k miles, so I got a couple grand worth of them. I always had a shop change the driveline fluids every 15k miles, the serpentine belt every 30k and the timing belt, water pump and spark plugs every 60k.

I've never really had any issues. The only thing that comes to mind was around 2016, I noticed one day after getting home and shutting the car off that there was a fizzing sound, and looking under the hood, there was a small leak on the top of the intercooler (and thankfully not the bottom), so at operating temperatures, there was some bubbling going on where the leak was (where the metal meets the plastic) so I'd lose a little bit of coolant, but I just had the radiator replaced and everything was fine. Also, I remember a year or two ago, my reverse lights were always on (which I didn't know about until my dad pointed it out one time when I visited him and we were driving in separate cars), but it was a quick repair at the shop. Again, nothing ever really major, thankfully. The 1995 Honda Accord EX coupe that I had in high school and throughout most of college gave me more problems (though to be fair, we bought it used and with 104k miles already on it, and I'm sure I could've done some things better as the owner, especially since I was more concerned with modding it, which in the end just made the car less reliable in every way except as a cop magnet).

And on the topic of cop magnets, I was expecting to get hassled, but I rarely did. The times I did get pulled over were for valid reasons, and I almost always got cut a break. I got pulled and ticketed once at night for doing 85 on the freeway, though I fought it... I lost the written Trial By Declaration but then did the Trial De Novo to fight it again but in court and won, because the highway patrol officer didn't show up (though if he did, I was just going to request traffic school to not get the point on my record). Then another time I got pulled over for doing 80 on the freeway in the morning, but the highway patrol officer was cool and was purposely looking for something else instead, and luckily for me, the address on my license was outdated, so he said he would just cite me for that instead. Then another time, I got pulled over for doing 75 in a 45 on PCH (ironically very close to Neptune's Net in Malibu, where the orange Supra pulled into in the first Fast and Furious movie). The cop was an older guy and presumably not the type to cut me a break, but he took interest in my car and asked if I put the seats in myself, and I said they were the stock seats, which was one of the several reasons why I bought this particular car, because I didn't have to change anything. Then he said, "Help me out here, I don't want to give you a speeding ticket, though I've think I've seen these cars before -- these and those Subarus -- and I know a lot of them don't have front plates," then while winking, he continued, "I haven't looked at the front of your car, but if you tell me that you don't have a front plate, I'll take your word for it, and give you that ticket instead." I said I don't have a front plate, so I instead had a $25 fix-it ticket instead of a $280 speeding ticket. And the ticket itself actually did say speeding but he clearly crossed it out to replace it with the front plate. Then we went our separate ways and waved as we went in opposite directions. But I'm always respectful (pull over immediately, turn hazards on, put all windows down, shut off engine, put key on dashboard, sunglasses off, hands on the steering wheel, tell the cop where my license and registration are placed then ask for permission to get them), and that obviously goes a long way, which is helpful in a loud car with a big wing.

Gas mileage isn't great, but I've had some high peaks. There was a two-year stretch maybe a decade ago where my mom's health was declining, so I was making the drive from where I lived in Orange County to where my family was in Ventura County, which is around a 100-mile trip each way, so I was doing a decent amount of highway driving on the weekends, and I'd always see how high I could get the fuel economy. It wasn't hard to break 25 mpg on that drive on a somewhat regular basis and with some restraint, but there was this one day where I had a random goal to hit 31 mpg (as I had once hit 30 mpg before), and when I gassed up, I did the math and was shocked not just to have done it but got 31.89 mpg. So the problem to me in my head was that I was so close to 32, that I felt like I should be able to do it. And sure enough, the following week, I managed 32.24 mpg, and called it a day and pretty much stopped trying to hyper-mile in the car since I figured that's probably the best it's going to get. I still have my Fuelly account where I logged them, so you can see that peak number, though it looks like it's been around five years since last updating it:

https://www.fuelly.com/car/mitsubish...uuuts83/213105

I think all of those weekend trips over those two years bumped up my then-average still showing on my Fuelly account (which was probably helped by be having less aggressive Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2 tires, since I consciously chose those to replace my then-worn Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs since I knew I wasn't going to have time to go out on fun drives but would be doing a lot of those longer drives regularly to be with my family), but these days, my average is probably something like 18 mpg mixed driving, or 23 mpg highway (but driving regularly and not hyper-miling like I used to), which I believe coincides with the EPA ratings anyway.

It's just been such a great experience, and I've always considered myself fortunate to have been in a position to get one new when they were out, and am glad that I never got rid of it. The closest I came to doing that was in 2008, when the Evo X first came out. I was at the dealership (who quoted my trade-in at "maybe $23k at most" for my IX SE that at that time had something like 9-10k miles at that time) at night and told an old college fraternity buddy of mine who was also into cars and liked Evos that if he drove down from LA to get one, that I would also buy one with him too. And I very likely would've. But thankfully he said he'd have to pass on it (not because he didn't want to, but it was still a bigger expense for him coming from his 2003 Civic and then having to drive an hour from LA, plus insurance was going to be expensive for him because at the time we were maybe 24 years old, and he was the guy who would get speeding tickets in an automatic Civic, because he drove like an idiot and had those Altezza-style tail lights and a cheap aftermarket exhaust that was too buzzy for his own good. I still remember that test drive, it clearly cornered quicker than my car (which I noticed right away and was my immediate takeaway), though I remember when I left the dealership and drove my car home, it just felt more raw and more visceral. And frankly there's not a lot that's come out since then (at least not anywhere near this price range) that feels like that.

Over the years, there were a few new cars that caught my attention not as replacements (because by then, I had decided I would never get rid of the car, but maybe just drive it less) but as daily drivers. Off the top of my head, there was the current A3 where the design came out a few months before COVID hit and then Audi delayed the release by a full year as a result (though I decided against it, because once you spec it to have the features that you expect, I felt like you might as well just get the S3), then the current S3 (though I again decided against it, because even though the "base" Premium model is pretty well-equipped, especially coming from an Evo IX, the fact that it had AWD, a ~300 hp turbo I-4 and four doors just made me feel like it was dynamically not that different from the Evo, but just new, nicer and with better gas mileage), then the current 330i (though I decided against it, because the 330e wasn't much more but had a nice ~$6k tax credit), then the current 330e (though I decided against it, because its maximum range was something like 290 miles even in its most efficient hybrid mode, which would probably work for me logistically speaking but was lower than my expectations for what was a nearly $50k PHEV, while my brother's 2015 320i has hit around 500 miles on a tank once or twice).

Even here in Orange County, I still get a lot of love. Some random waves and thumbs-ups, and an occasional offer. I remember being followed by a guy in a Tesla, and he eventually pulled up next to me at a night and asked if I wanted to sell it. Another time, I was biking back from the beach and through the gated entrance of where I live, and a guy followed me into my gated community then asked if the Evo in the driveway was my car, and if I was selling. It was weird, because he said earlier in the day, he saw my car parked on the driveway from outside of the gates, and by coincidence he was walking by from having eaten lunch with some friends he was with when I opened the main driveway gate, and he walked in after I biked through, hoping it was my car, otherwise he'd have knocked on the door and just asked whoever answered the door if they were selling the Evo. The only time I ever felt weird about it was a few years back when one of my friends rented a massive house in Temecula for her 30th birthday for all of us to stay in. A lot of her friends were smoking hot blondes but also very successful (as I know a few of them were lawyers and some were in real estate), and I remember when we were all heading out to the wineries (but obviously getting into Ubers and not driving ourselves), one of them saw my car among the ten or so parked on the driveway and snarkily said, "Somebody here drives a Mitsubishi?"

 

You: You want to know who it is?

Her: Yea, wh...

You: "shouts username"

 

As funny as that would’ve been, it probably wouldn’t have put me in their good graces.

 

original 06 gsr owner, ssl trim, however, the top part of the original leather steering wheel peeled after a few years, so I did a warranty claim on it... so the new steering wheel is not the original black anodized black leather steering anymore.. =(

 

If you like the OEM steering wheel but want to change the color a bit, you could get one of these covers. I got the Suede but would probably fork up the extra 100 for Alcantara when mine eventually wears out. I'm not a fan of the lack of airbag and use of a detachable steering wheel on my DD.
https://www.autointeriortechnic.com