im thinking about getting a 03 evo. i watched top gear reviews and read a couple of magazine reviews about evos. i was wondering if some of you guys use your evo as a daily driver and what are the negatives about the car if any?
thanks

 

The Evo is a great car, no matter what you use it for. Just be sure that if your buying an 03, you get it inspected! Most 03's are probably going to be pretty abused.

 

Let me see......
A little bit noisy in the cabin and annoying sounds here and there but overall I cant think of anything else.

I've had a 03 and now I have a 06 mr and loved driviing the 03 and the 06 is no different.

 

Love my 03. If it has low miles you will probably have to change the brake pads and possibly a clutch soon after.

 

How many is low miles?

 

Bought my Evo with 21k in October.

 

smaller turbo hotside, no acd. thats really all i can think of.

 

25,000 miles on my 03 and absolutely no mechanical problems - Same clutch / same brake pads. Mitsu paint isn't the best, but not sure that's just an 03 Evo problem.

 

I would get the VIN and have the dealer run it. Talk to the owner find out what the non dealer service record and mods are since a lot of Evo owners are DIY'ers.

The good news is it will most likely have a some pretty good mods on it since, almost no one leaves them stock. Bad news it might have been someone with no idea what they were doing modding it. It might be best to find someone on here local to you who knows what's what on an Evo and see if they could look it over with you.

 

Some of the early '03's have had transmission issues, but that's about it. It's a solid car.

 

37,000 miles on my 03. Daily driver. Never abused and runs great. Not had a single problem so far. If you can find a car that had been looked after and not abused, I am confident you will be okay.

 

Bought my '03 used with 12k on it. I have 28k now and lovin every minute of it.

Forgot to mention my clutch and turbo were replaced before I bought the car under warranty. The owner had mods but removed them. So, it was probably abused a bit. After I got the car out of the shop I haven't had a problem since. Except brake calipers peeling. Guess this thing can take a beating

 

Almost 50k on my 03 nothing but normal maintenence stuff. I absolutly love the car.

 

some 03's have a CEL (p0300) indicator on all the time. your idle will be kinda fluctuating because of it, but no real threats. some ppl have pretty hardcore problems with this though. also the 03-04 evo's have a weaker transfer case due to the absense of limited slip diffs on the front and center carriers. but you do get the intercooler mister and standard HID lights.

 

thanks guys.. the guy im buying the evo from is really good with evo's. he has two a 06 mr and the 03 gsr both look very good. i drove the 03 and fall in love. i was just wondering if anybody had major problems with these cars since this is a big buy for me.