Its a good thing they dont sell the FQ EVOs here cause they would charge damn need $80K for them...LOL

 

Like I stated in my previous post. One of the 2006 ratings is higher than the 2008. One is lower.

Driver front is equal between the two.
Passenger front is better on the 2006 (by one star).
Side front is better on the 2008 (by three stars).
Side rear is equal between the two.

So, a downgrade for your front passenger if you drive a 2008 and are hit in the front. An upgrade for the driver and front passenger if you are hit from the side.

Being a new chassis with all the new safety hardware and requirements, there is no reason this vehicle shouldn't have better ratings. It is marginally safer than the 2006.

 

You forgot to mention that on yearly basis the rating system has more strict criteria. A car that scored 4 stars in 2006 will most likely score less in 2008 due to more strict regulations.

 

Well, now that's simply not true. The star rating system used by NHTSA has been the same system for over 10 years. Only changes that have occurred are they decided a few years ago to include a rollover category. Then, last year, they decided to post safety ratings on Monroney labels. The actual ratings hold the same weight from model year to model year so a consumer can compare the safety of an older car vs. a new car. Like the example of the 2006 Lancer vs. 2008 Lancer.

They have plans to implement more strict safety regulations (e.g., making ESC standard, making side impact airbags standard), but none of those have become law yet.

http://www.safercar.gov/newcarassess...ments-2007.pdf

http://www.safercar.gov/BASC2007/index.htm

 

the difference between 4 and 5 stars is academic IMHO. what i don't like is the fact my evo has a 2 star side impact rating. that's a deficiency, and would imagine took the most weight to fix, likely in the form of larger steel beams running through the doors. so, overall it's safer in a crash on average. what's not considered in these tests is the ASC, which helps you avoid testing out the new safer chassis in the first place. so...the major structural safety deficiency
has been fixed, the average of the other ones have remained the same, and on top of that it will help you avoid accidents in the first place. and that's not significantly safer?

 

0-62 in 4.1 sec equals to about 0-60 in 3.9 sec. Until recently UK manufacturers and magazines used to quote 0-60. Recently they are starting to use 0-62, most likely because that is what rest of the Europe uses (0-100 km/h). So Mitsu claims the same acceleration for IX and X FQ-360's, and as many pointed out 0.2 sec is not a statistically significant difference anyway...

 

Yeah i googled "mitsubishi lancer evolution ix fq360 0-62" and most pages said it does it in 4.1s (same as the X FQ360), although there was one page which said it was 3.9s. regardless, 0.2s is an infinitesimal amount of time to be worrying about...and unless your butt is instrumented you cannot tell the difference when charging down an onramp. anyway, even if the X FQ360 really does take one fifth of one second more to get to freeway speed, that alone shouldn't make a prospective buyer dismiss it out of hand as worthless junk...

 

All this talk about Evo X having a bit more power than Evo IX while being heavier supposedly resulting slower 0-60 times, does anyone take into consideration the fact that Evo X is a brand new animal and maybe a different launching technique than Evo VII-IX is required to get the most out of it? Also, while being heavier, I am more than sure that S-AWC has a better traction control than previous Evos AWD systems making Evo X grip a bit better to the ground. I remember that when Evo VIII came out in US, first magazine reviews had problems making it go any faster than 5.1-5.2 sec to 0-60. Reality is that Evos are one of the trickiest cars to launch, thats why there are such huge discrepancies between 0-60 times posted in car magazines, some got it in 4.5 sec and some around 5 secs. While I am an Evo X fan boy I am not trying to make any excuses for the X, when it's all said and done I still think EVO X will be the best all-around Evo yet. Brand new platform, brand new engine, new AWD system, new transmission, there are some high tech issues still to be optimized/resolved.

EDIT: Also, hypothetically, if Evo X with 360HP can do 0-60 in 4.1 sec. then compared to the new GTR once someone figures out how to mod the hell out of the Evo X and boost it up to GTR levels of about 450HP, then it's easy to see that a 450HP Evo X will be a faster (and probably cheaper car) than base GTR which retails at $70K