Let me start off with full disclosure… some people consider here consider me an EvoX hater. Nevertheless I tried to be as impartial as I possibly could when I visited People’s Mitsubishi today in Las Vegas to test drive the X. To begin with, the salesmen were sleazy as always, although for sleazy Las Vegas I suppose that could be considered normal. They had “just received shipment” of 5 GSRs, and they were sitting in the lot all parked next to each other. If memory serves 2 were silver, one white, one blue, and one gray. None had the aero package. I test drove the gray one.

From the exterior, the car looks very good. For my taste it looks too much like a regular Lancer, but it is a significant styling improvement over my IX for sure… the brakes are huge, the spoiler smaller, the lines flow better, the car is less boxy, the hood scoops look aggressive. The engine bay looks very clean, there is PLENTY of room to work behind the engine. Inside the cabin the width seems smaller, probably because of the more angular sides. There also seems to be less rear leg room, although that may technically not be so because the front seats lean back quite a bit even fully proclined. The trunk is a LOT smaller. The interior cabin was, having seen the concept, a HUGE disappointment. The only thing reminiscent of the concept is the steering wheel, which has nice imbedded controls (cruise of course!). The gauges are very small, the numbers on them even smaller, and I had a hard time seeing the speedo because the steering wheel arms blocked the gauges consistently. That is a trade off for the on-the-wheel controls I suppose, but it was annoying nonetheless. The temp/fan controls are finally digital, but the dials look like they’d snap off if you looked at them wrong. Which brings me to the major problem of the interior: it looks cheap. The dash looks cheap, what was fake CF in the IX is now some sort of plastic with white criss-cross lines painted on. The seats (cloth, I’m used to my SSL leather) were comfortable but again the plastic trim, which could easily have been made of CF, seems to be made of cheap plastic. The seats aren’t any narrower than my IX seats. The shifter is oddly misplaced, it seems too high, too far forward, and too far too the right. I actually liked the shifter knob unlike some others here. The stereo sounds good. The car didn’t have the Nav package.

On to the drive. Once the KeyFOB thing is near the car, no key is necessary. It seemed rather gimmicky to put one button on the outside of the door, and have the keyhole for backup. I would have preferred a regular key design. I turned the…key?..., revved the engine… VERY quiet indeed. Slowly dropped the clutch… and over revved a bit because the clutch grabs high. Ok, time to adjust the seat further back! Turning out of the parking lot it becomes instantly apparent that the tight steering is very much GONE. The feel is much more uncommunicative, much more BMW or Audi. I head to the highway. I hammer the gas on the onramp and pop through the gears. It shifts fine…IF IT ONLY WENT SOMEWHERE. I have driven a lot of fast and not so fast cars in my life, and there is no way the car I drove would ever go below 13.5 in the quarter mile. It was very very slow. If I had to guess I’d say at best a 14.0. Vegas is at ~2500ft elevation so I can’t fathom altitude making much difference. The good news is the engine barely can be heard and the car feels solid under acceleration… if boat like. I get off the highway and push hard on the exit ramp. The suspension is much softer than the IX, and the car starts to understeer. But the super-AYC kicks in solidly and straightens out the car. Not exactly predictable but certainly functional. It reminds me very much of my S4 with ESP. I slalom around some cones close to the dealership and it feels very odd to swerve from side to side. Almost like it fights you, then catches up with where you want to go. The car stops hard on braking but lurches quite a bit. It seemed heavy.

Let me conclude the review by stating that I loved the IX when I first test drove it, and I bought one very soon after that test drive. After test driving the X I feel like test driving the 335xi, and if I like it, maybe buying that. The X was very underwhelming to me. It reminded me of my Audi S4, except it had a cheap interior and wasn’t as quiet. I see absolutely no market segment for this car. The dealer wouldn’t move off retail for the car, which was $35,600 according to them but sounded real high to me.

 

So was the Evo X everything you thought it was, or was it worst?

edit: To me, I think it is good that it drove like a 335xi. A compliment in my mind.

 

Hmm.. I'll have to head to the dealer one day and see if I can get a test drive myself.

 

Your reviews do seem a bit biased, but then that's your experience.
I thought the X was WAY better then I had imagined in my mind. Very solid initial torque and the steering felt very solid and not as soft as you described.
I was impressed but then I would not buy the car for 40+ grand...

 

who was the salesman???

I test drove the white one saturday with Elvis!!!

 

If it had been Elvis I would have understood how slow it felt... he gained a couple of pounds in the 70s!

 

The evo X is dissapointing.

 

another reason for why i would never buy a car off the lot... i want my car to come right off the truck and i drive it... ppl push the car when it hasn't passed its break in period... or drive it like they stole it... shoot when i was test driving my lancer they salesperson was like dude you can push it...

 

the little button on the door handle is the outside lock so you dont have to reach in your pocket to lock the car when you get out. I really like this since you just push it when you close the door and not hunt your remote, Just different. Maybe the auto lock feature when you walk away from you car would be cool . Your points are well noted but I think you are missing the point. This was not supposed to be the EVO IX only better . This is the New EVO X . Quieter, smoother, better handling, more refined to mimic the higher cost BMW, Lexus, sport crowd,hence the price jump from Mistu. I think the car is as fast as the VIII stock without the Turbo lag. Its not as fast as the XI stock. I dont think the they were shooting for the GO fast crowd like they did before. Believe me I like the Go fast crowd cars but at 48,000 for the BMW 335xi this is more car than I like to leave parked at walmart for an hour while I shop. I think everyone here understands the power issue will be made with simole bolt on mods and a tune. wait 2 months then drive you friends EVO X with mods and see what you think. just my .02 .

 

No matter your experience w/ other cars, that is an asinine statement to make. It seems well established now that the X is FAR from slow.

That's like me saying a Veyron is "very very slow" because I'm used to flying SR-71s.

KiL

 

I really do NOT like the X's at all...

 

I guess if you're saying that the IX is an SR-71 and the X is a Veyron... ok, I'd agree they are about that far apart.

I'm sorry the car was turd slow. I'm sure it can be made to go faster. I was just sharing my experience with the stock car. If you don't like it, fine, drive it yourself and let me know what you think. I'm just voicing my own impressions.

 

I don't think anyone is foolish enough to think that the car can't be made fast. Every car can be made fast.

I think some of the concerns is the fact that you spend $40k on a car and drive it off the lot knowing full well that you aren't happy with the performance and you are forced to modify the stock car which will cost at least another 2k. On top of that - with the mods - you risk voiding your warranty when you've got 5 or so years left to pay it off. I'm glad that nothing serious went wrong when I was paying my car off or I would've been stuck between a rock and a hard place financially.

 

I had a different experience when i test drove the X. I didnt think the steering was soft at all, though not as raw as the IX. Also, I guess it was a tad bit slower than the IX but definitely not slow as you may have described. But I guess if thats your experience, to each his own.

 

Whatever. Road and track, motor trend, car and driver, edmunds, automobile magazine, 0-60, and every other magazine disagrees with you. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Biased, crap review...go away. And btw, the x makes more power mod for mod than the 9 does, so once the cars are modified the difference in straight line speed evens out even with the added weight, and there's no disputing the superior handling and braking of the X, so you can say what you want, it matters not. Oh and thanks for beating on someone's car that hasn't been broken in yet, very respectful.