not a fan of the celica, aren't they due for a model change in less than 2 years? They have had this body style since 2000. With Mitsu selling VIII's. MR's and RS models it seems like they are bringing plenty of Evos over here (US), and I don't think thy would be doing this if this was the end of the US Evo as we know it.

But competition is getting heafty, everybody's getting into the game, and who can blame them? AWD Focus mentioned above, how about the AWD Mazda 6 with 276 HP, that sounds hot! Mitsu better step it up is all I can say!

 

The Celica will not be produced anymore after either the 2004 or 2005 model.

 

Check out coming competition out!!!!

http://demo.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=100447


Mazda is prepping its own entry for the Subie-Mitsu rally wars—a 276-hp, 265-lb-ft Mazda 6 scheduled for a mid-2005 world debut. Spotted during hot-weather tests in the California desert, this sizzling prototype gets a twin-turbocharged and intercooled 2.3-liter four that is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and sends power via all-wheel drive to 18-inch tires.

 

Who said that was official, seems like more rumors to me, I've also heard plenty of other rumors on the EVO, so nothing is official yet.

 

It's already been announced that the Celica will be discontinued...

 

That Mazda does look pretty clean. I had heard power in the 230-245hp range, but maybe that's dated. Wonder how much psi it's going to push?

A local tuner told me to look out for the new Mazda, as it will be severly detuned. I assume this is the vehicle he was referring to. Interesting! Put an aggressive body kit, maybe some groud effects and it'll look sharp to our crowd! Gotta love competition!

 

this autoweek story is very new. Autoweek is usually on target with spec they print on future models.

I remember reading about the Evo a year before it got here talking about 275 hp turbo AWD coming to US, that's when I got excitied about the car. 1 1/2 later it was in my driveway, non-watered down just like autoweek said.... Mazda has a couple of ideas about how to build fast cars, so if they can keep this new 6 from the meddling conseravtive OLD FARTS of the company arm , we should get something HOT!

 

Did it really? Wow, I wonder why?!?! How horrible!

Besides, the Celica is more competition for the Lancer than the EVO.

 

This may have happened to the Alltrac but it definately has not happened to the Supra or the 3000GT. Hopefully it wont happen to the Evo, assuming production is stopped.

 

I have the inside scoop with MMC. They are making composite sketches for an evo 9. I am talking whole new front end, susp,eng, and interior. So keep your hopes up cause they are coming. It wont be soon, but it will be sooner than later. i am talking sping 2006

 

OOO! Get a GT with the action package! Sweet *** 17's show off those rear drums, and you can finally get an automatic so your left leg gets a break in traffic. The awesome body kit lets you make the most of that 140 hp and 124 lb/ft of torque.

Believe it or not I actually saw a car like this in the parking lot of my gym. It's sad, really. I used to own the best celica ever (1990 All-Trac Turbo) and was sad to see the marque in the US go downhill from there. Then again, Toyota Motor Company has a market cap well in excess of Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler COMBINED, so I guess they know what's good for the business. Another reason why these specialty products will continue to be made by the niche players, there's no reason for Toyota to build these high cost, low volume, low profit cars when they can sell a half million camrys at a healthy profit year after year.

 

Good point above! Although every car manufacturer can use a Halo car to build excitement and to draw in traffic/hype. Maybe someone sees a commercial for the New Twin-turbo Supra (one can hope!) and head down to their local Toyota delaership to catch a glimpse. They love it but realize their budget isn't up to par so the salesman shifts their view to the Celica GTS (or whatever replcement) and mentions that cars abilities and components shared with the "Halo" Supra... Bam a sale is made!

 

I guess the point I was trying to make was that Toyota makes more money by not developing the halo cars, since they're already getting customers in droves. I just don't think the trade off is there, because they definitely make more on each camry than they did on the supra. Remember that the 1996 supra cost almost $10,000 less than the 1995 which they claim is mainly due to repackaging the car to reduce the number of available combinations (and therefore cost), but I also think they were probably losing money on those 1996 Supras. To paraphrase an ice cream analogy that Toyota themselves have used, why offer rocky road when vanilla sells the best, and you have the best vanilla on the market? It costs a lot to develop a supercar, and I think that Toyota has realized that the business case isn't there right now. At Ford, the GT was developed in part to raise the morale of employees in the face of tire controversies and dwindling profits. Toyota has no such problems.

OTOH, a halo car like the STi makes terrific sense for Subaru, which has a relatively small market share and a product lineup that is all awd, all abs, and all comparatively nimble and high performance (no car with less than 165 hp). If a owner can't buy an STi, they have the Legacy GT, STi, and even 2.5 RS to consider, either at lower price points or higher luxury/practicality.

 

Quote:

[I]OOO! Get a GT with the action package! Sweet *** 17's show off those rear drums, and you can finally get an automatic so your left leg gets a break in traffic. The awesome body kit lets you make the most of that 140 hp and 124 lb/ft of torque. [/I]

I didn't think that the celica is better than the Evo in anyway, it just that it look kindda cool. In my opinion, the celica with action package looks better than the Evo. However, the performance wise, Evo is among the bests. Also, what lead me to consider the celica is that the Evo is really demanding. The tire have to be change quite often cause there're really soft. The car also have a lot of high-performance stuff that are especially made for the car, so most of the services need to be done at the dealer. Beside I'm really picky with the car, everything has to be perfect....so I go to the dealer really often for interior noises and services. I do the oil like ever 1,000 mile cause I don't need to drive long distance, that why i'm whining about the maintainance.

I know that this car will be high-maintainance before I bought it, but after having the car for a little bit over a year...I got bore of it. After you keep up with the maintainance for a while, you just got tire of it.

F.Y.I, I won't modified the celica if i really got it. I like the way it looks, eventhough the wheels are a bit small.

 

I actually thought you were joking. I say sell the car. Obviously you bought the wrong car if you are bringing it in for interior noises and you're cross-shopping the Celica. From what you said, I agree that the Celica is the best car for you, but I would also argue that you are not a car guy in any way.

The maintenance is not that bad, I would argue that it's easier than any car I've owned before because there's just so much info online on how to do it yourself, for instance my write up on the rear diff fluid change and runny_yolk's tranny/transfer case fluid change write up saves motivated owners hundreds of dollars on the 15K maintenance. The oil change is laughably easy, I put on a Fumoto Valve and can do the whole thing including filter without even jacking up my car.

The tires are soft, but you can put Lincoln Town Car tires on the thing and it would kill a Celica while getting 80K miles per set of tires. The ride would also be more Lincoln like, which would probably be more to your liking. New tires are cheaper than a trade in on the Evo... so stop making excuses and trade in your car, but don't expect us to understand your decision.