I have been reading theards and have come across some posts talking about how expensive it is to keep up an Evo. I suppose I am trying to find out what roughly the costs will be so that I am prepared. Ofcourse there will be the monthly car payment, as well as the insurance, and gas, but what other costs should I be factoring in? Is regular maintence especially high for this car? Thanks for helping me out, either way I don't think it would deter me from wanting an Evo since I am completly obsessed with it.

Jim

 

well, i just put a set of new advans on at 15000 miles (old ones almost completely bald, and i don't race or drive that hard). advans cost me $218 a piece. brake pads are $218 for a pair (replacement with stock brembos on lancershop.com. oil is 25 bucks plus $12 mobil 1 filter, every 5000. i think those three are most commonly used upkeep parts on my evo that get really expensive quick. let alone the gas (2.74 gallon) and insurance and car payment. but i love my car!

 

I think regular maintenance is pretty reasonable for this car when compared to other vehicles with similar performance.

The 'normal wear and tear' items are quite a bit expensive, and wear sooner than most cars because they are gearded towards higher performance at the cost of long life. I had to replace tires at 9,500 miles (figure over $200/piece for stock or similar replacement), around $300 for brake pads (haven't replaced yet, but close @ 15,000 miles). The clutch is also prone to wearing out soon, depending on your driving habits. And don't underestimate gas, this puppy likes to drink the fuel. My car is stock, and I have only seen over 20 mpg once, on a long freeway run. Most of the time, it is around 17-18 mpg, or worse if I use the go pedal more :-)

 

Honestly, unless you're rolling in dough or can live off Ramen noodles, skip on the EVO. Car payments, insurance, premium gas, oil and tranny changes, and tires will run you ~$600-800/month. Obviously there are many factors to change that number, but the point is you don't want to be cheap on any of that stuff either.

See you joined this website, too. That'll be another ~$100/month buying mods. . Now if you get a decent used one and have some cash down. It's a different ballgame.

 

i have less money to screw around with, but I wouldn't have it any other way. well, i would rather have a 964 rs.

 

cost isnt that bad, if you can get good insurance and a good payment with some money down. Its not bad at all...

 

Initial buy in-not too bad

Monthly payments-liveable

Insurance payments-liveable if you have a clean record

Gas-high

Routine maint.-a little pricey

Wear items-pretty expensive. Clutch, tires, brake pads, brake rotors, etc. all within (relatively) short periods of time even without abuse.

Frustration dealing with Mitsu recalls, TSBs, and ignorant tech people, sales people, ect.-NOT WORTH IT!

 

I'm guessing that the "high maintenance" cost on the evo comes more from the cost of quality replacement parts rather than from frequency. By this I mean you're only going to use expensive fuel, fluids, brake pads, tires, etc. but you won't necessarily replace them more often. Of course, if you're racing the car you should, but for normal driving I don't think the cost THAT high. The only other factor is finding someone qualified to work on it if you can't do it yourself.

Of course, I only have 22K on my '03 (still on stock pads and clutch) and I may change my mind when I have to replace either of those. I do my own oil changes and replace the stock plugs with copper ones when I do (not the expensive iridium). I get about 22mpg pretty consistently and the car is mildly modified. I think the performance to dollar ratio is fantastic and I think you would be hard pressed to find better anywhere else.

As for actual dollar figures, it's hard to guess. Each oil change costs $35-$40 bucks for oil, filter and plugs. If you do that every two months, it's $20/month (in my case it's closer to every 4 months). Factor in a clutch every two years at $1200 (clutch + labor) and you're looking at a total of $70/month + fuel and I haven't included tires, brakes, tranny fluid, etc. I'm going to estimate around $100/month after all those things are factored in. As you can see the clutch and then tires are the big ticket items and how long they last is really up to you and how you choose to drive.

Then there is the cost of mods, but I'll just leave that out of these equations.

 

Are you serious?!! I have never had worse than 22mpg even when I've been driving it "hard" which is probably nothing like most of you drive, but still.

I got 16K miles on the OEM Advans. I've got 10K on the current tires (T1-S) with at least half their life left.

Still taking advantage of the factory free service. So other than monthly payment and insurance, I'm only worrying about fuel cost.

 

Thanks for the feed back guys, my dad just bought a new vette so the maintence costs for an Evo are not that shocking after what I saw my dad will be spending on his vette ($2000 for tires).

Jim

 

I get an avg or 17mpg mix city and highway.

 

seems like i'm filling up every other day

 

Well I have an Explorer right now with the V8, I get about 12mpg, so anything better is golden!

 

im comign from a lightly modded v8 jeep so the gas mileage in the evo wont shock you or at all trust me. it seems like it can get expensive, but then again its a high performance car so you should know what youre getting into. for the price range of the car its expensive but when you rememeber that it can run with cars that cost a whole lot more it really seems pretty reasonable. just buy it already youll love it, especially coming from a pig like an exploder

 

Dam..I just picked up this car this weekend...is the milage this bad on the Evo?
I guess i'll find out when i fill this baby up.