Benefits: SAYC handling that is out of this world, brilliant chassis, the death of understeer, asinine grip, great steering and brakes, the best OEM seats ever, nifty fuel/data computer, HIDs have a better height rotation range, vastly improved stereo system.

Challenges: Area behind front wheels not protected and causes rock chips on side of car, extremely notchy transmission during 2nd and 3rd gear upshifts, clutch that burns and smells when it should not, curb weight that is too heavy, factory fuel mapping is cylinder-wash-rich, gearing too short makes for a buzzy interstate experience and lackluster fuel economy.

Conclusion: The best Evo I've had yet.

I can't believe I have almost 5000 miles on this car! Mind you, half of that came from the cross country trip home and in the first 3 days of ownership. In this time, its had one oil change, one baby seat placed in the back, zero launches, zero street races, and zero trips to any kind of track so far.

My feelings for this car have been a mixed bag, but the good things outweigh the bad. I've already written a review in the past, but the things above really solidify what I have experienced in the past two months/5k miles.

To potential new owners, there are two things you need to do:
1) Test drive the car and make sure the transmission is not overly notchy into second and/or third gears in normal driving.
2) Buy front mud flaps (if you don't get the aero kit) ASAP to prevent rock spray damage from the front tires.

 

Just get the Aero kit It looks awesome, and prevents rock chips. However, the problem with the Aero Kit, and the reason I am getting the mud flaps, is it catches all the rocks the tires throw up. And that sticky compound throws EVERYTHING up!

 

good read. im a future owner of the X. Looks like i need to test drive to find out about this notchy gearing.

 

$200 mud flaps < $2000 aero kit.
I wanted SSS, and couldn't justify another 2k for this car, even at invoice, because I had "135i, 135i, 135i!!!!!" in the back of my head.

 

yeah i agree with everything you said except the seats friggin SUCK. i hate these seats sooo much. the caliber srt-4 on the other hand has the best seats i have sat in. i think i will see what base lancer seats would cost, these recaro seats need to go. i cant stand the extra side bolsters, makes me feel like a high school idiot in a civic trying to be fast and furious.


the trans i can live with but the short gearing is very bad.

 

It really does need a 6th gear in the manual trans.

However, in the great world of marketing, this would have taken away from the sales of the MR.

Decisions, decisions. The bean counters won.

 

Next time that happens, just say GRAVEL, SNOW, GRAVEL. You will quickly change your tune And really, how can you put a price on looks?

 

Oh man, I drove one yesterday. I loved it. Can you say thunderous torque at 1500rpm? I knew you could! https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...5&postcount=14

 

Man, just like me. I was deciding between the X and the 135i. Though personally after some consideration the 135i began to look like a chick car to me. The 4 wheel drive also became something stuck in the back of my mind. With the mind numbing handling. I realized I would be going with the 135i simply because of the name and that just isn't me. Got the EVO X.

 

frggin' 5k already? damn. That's probably all I'm going drive in first year...well tha't's what my insurance company thinks . I've got an extra vehicle that I use most of the time for work and stuff. Have you tried a differnt gearbox fluid. I'm definitely going to experiment with other stuff. All the subies I drove reacted differently to different fluids. Best was the 'Scotty's Cocktail'> 1 qt Valvoline 80-90, 1 quart Penzoil Synchromax and 1 quart of Redline Syn Liteweight shockproof. I had Royal Puss' in there and it was so notchy. just miserable..sucked. Put in the cocktail' and like magic most of the notchy crap was G O N E

 

^^^ Somebody need's to find the Mitsu version of Scotty's cocktail in a bad way...

The tranny/clutch is one of these biggest reasons I don't have an X yet. I was grinding gearing and having issues on 2 different X test drives... Miss my '05 STi...

 

i have 6500, going on my 3rd oil change.

a new air filter and some bg synchroshift II will make a world of difference.

PS bg synchroshift II is that magical coctail for mitsu

 

Man...and I thought we were bad for putting over 25k on the IX in 8 months...

 

lol Noize you now have more mileage on your X then I have on my IX. But your having fun!

 

when I bought my car it was kind of notchy but its getting worse, now 80% of the time I shift into 2nd it grinds. when I wait .5-1 sec it doesn't grind but still feels notchy. Just want to know if this happened to you...I mean did get better or worse for you?