Since growing up in Greece in the 80s and 90s I wanted to own an EVO. The WRC is big in Europe - I have attended the famous rally Acropolis more times than I remember.

I *want* to love the X, but its interior won't let me. I went to the Mitsu dealer yesterday for a 2nd look at the interior, I thought maybe the first time my impressions were wrong, unfortunately they weren't

What's up with the cardboard like roofliner? I run my finger at the back where it meats the rear windshield, and it felt like something that doesn't deserve to be on a yugo never mind an evo. That thing will fall apart after few years. Add the reported problems with rattles, falling pedals/hand brake... not looking good.

The plastic dash looked lame, and generated rattles when I pressed on it.

The seats were incredible, but that's about it. I realize the Evo is targeted to the young generation and must be priced accordingly, but personally I wished Mitsu would spend $5 to $10K more than the announced MR price to offer a good interior (like the GT-R). Or perhaps have a package option for an upgraded interior.

So Mitsu, consider offering the following:

an FQ-400 all out package ($5K - 10K?)
an upgraded interior package ($5k?)

How many people would bite at $50-55k for such monster? I would. As it is I am waiting for the MR, and if it doesn't have much difference than the X (interior wise) I am going to go with a 2010 GT-R (as much as I like evo's wrc heritage).

KG

 

You gotta take the good with the bad. I'm fine with my X though.

 

$50-55 K for an EVO would never fly in the US. Especially for the type of demographic that Mitsubishi is trying to appeal to. Lets try to remember what happened in the 90s with the Supra, RX-7, 3000GT, and 300ZX. They were all awesome cars and had a bang for the buck factor when they initially came out, then towards the end of their life cycles they priced themselves out of the market. Now we have the RX-8 and 350Z, both nothing like the cars that they replaced.

The only cars that really make me excited in the current market place are the Evo X, the STi, and the BMW 135 for the money. I don't like the hatch back look of the ST-i, and in my opinion it's what the new Focus should have looked like , the BMW has the performance and nice interior, but I hate the lines of the car and once you spec it out it's almost 40g's, which leaves the Evo X. I love the way it looks, and performs and I can deal with the interior and you are 100% correct about the seats. Anyway that's just my 2 cents.

Good luck with the GT-R if and when you get it. I work for Nissan corp and helped move out the cars at the Atlanta Autoshow a couple of weeks ago. I had the chance to sit in the GT-R for the first time. The fit and finish is a step up for a Nissan product and the thing sounds great, but the seats sucked and the car is HUGE, plus I can't afford the 70k price tag as well as +10k dealer mark up

 

i dont mind my interior too much... it gets all dirty and stuff when i go offroad... id hate it if it was leather or something cuz then i would HAVE to clean it when it gets dirty

 

spend the $5-10k yourself on custom interior done the way you want after you buy the car

 

It seems you haven't noticed that many people are *****in about the MR being a whole 38k you really think people would like a 50-55k car?

 

I would never pay $40k for a 4 cylinder car. A base GSR is about $31k invoice.

Additionally, $55k is pushing into Z06 (not the newest one) vette and CTS-V territory.

 

Dude the interior isn't that bad! Does the interior determine how the car performs? People need to get with it or join a BMW/Lexus message board so they can brag about their high class interior that only weights the car down more. Come on, you call yourself a fan of the EVO and all you do is gripe about it's interior!

 

+100000

 

$50k for an Evo? Are you crazy? You could get a Corvette for a loaded 335i for that. Hell, that's almost getting into the territory of the new M3, CTS-V, and C63!

 

what does 4cylinder have anything to do it? so you would over spend over 40k if it was a slow v6 or v8? where do you people come from.

 

Is it possible to be fan of the evo's AWD handling wizardry and dislike it's interior?

I am in the tiny minority on this, but if they added $5k for a nice alcantara/leather (like the X MR's seats) on the dash & roofliner, and upgraded the controls dials and instruments to better quality I'd happily drop 45 big ones for a fully loaded MR. I'd even be happy to drop another 5k for a factory performance option like the FQ360 or FQ400.

As it is, it's hard to pull the trigger on one. Although I will recheck when the MR is out, maybe they interior is substantially upgraded like one review on this site suggests.

KG

 

I want a performer with legitimate racing pedigree for the occasional track day. That excludes all but the EVO, GTR, and Z06. The M3 has been watered down handling-wise since the E36 days in my opinion, plus I could not live with the iDrive monstrosity (test drove an M6 with it). If I compromise a little on absolute performance I could include the Lexus IS-F, but I can't seem to get over the fake tail pipes. I sat in the car 2 weeks ago at the dealership, it's amazing inside - if a factory evo X had 400hp and an interior like that, I'd pay a pretty penny. Well, that's why I dropped by the Nissan dealer on Friday. The more I think about it, the GT-R satisfies all my requirements.

KG

 

I really don't understand the interior disgust everyone has. All the folks that have ridden in and/or checked out my X usually comment on "How nice the interior is" right out of the box. I mean, look at all cars post 1970, its plastic, deal with it. And its a Japanese car. I mean really, how many Japanese cars have these "luxury" interiors you want? I drive around 100 cars a month of varying make model and price. They ALL feel "cheap" to me. Anything plastic is "cheap". The only car I can actually give the nod to in having a luxury interior is an AMG mercedes, thats it. I have not a single issue with the interior except the ridiculous shift boot, but I'm not calling for a 5k overhaul because of it. I can fully spend the $5 on fabric and make my own. And for 55k im buying a used escalade, haha.

PS - I checked out a Evo 8 real close last week. I thought its interior was far cheaper and weak looking. The X is most def a massive upgrade over it. Just MHO I guess. Flame me now. Rock on X.

 

I'm not aware of any 4 cylinder cars that can do 175 mph plus. You can get the "regular" 430 hp C6 vette for well under $50k. It's really a matter of comparison. I'm not the typical import guy either-I'm coming from the realm or n/a v8's and other non japanese imports. I stand by my claim that a $40k 4-cylinder car won't do well in the US.