Hey there, I currently have an 07 GTI and unfortunately I am too addicted to cars, and have been interested in EVO's for years, but never saw myself being able to afford it. Now I'm a bit older, and I think I'm ready to try to find a used 06 low milage IX. I made a thraed on GOLFMKV.COM because there's a few GTI owners who are ex/current EVO owners also, but is there anything else I should know? How reliable they are, any faults to avoid when looking etc?

That and my other question is what made you choose an EVO over an STI. Im close to being in the middle on these two cars, but I simply like EVO's more, but what made you guys make the plunge? Any helps apprecaited, and thanks in advance.

 

I love my Evo. For most of us, we choose the Evo over the STi because the Evo pretty consistently outperforms the STi stock, and generally responds better to modifications as well. It is a more hardcore car. The STi is more comfortable and easier to live with by a little bit, so a better daily driver for some people.

 

evo>sti to work on, good luck finding someone to work on that Flat4 :P

 

they have pretty much told you the truth and your gonna get more bang for your buck with the evo it does out do the sti in just about every performance aspect but there is things you might miss like cruise control and such id say test drive them both.

 

The evo is a dumbed down race car, the sti is a modded family car.

But seriously, I've owned both and I prefer the evo. They are almost too close to call in performance, and unless your a professional driver your never going to be able to push the limits to that fraction of an inch difference.

The sti is a bit more livable as a daily driver as it has things like cruise control. Its interior generally looks better as well, especially the limited edition. That does NOT mean the interior is better made. My STI's interior rattled like crazy, and while it looked better the plastic was thinner and not very solid. My evo's interior looks like a cheap lancer interior it was based on, but its very solidly put together and doesn't rattle at all.

The steering on the evo is crisper and communicates better than the sti's. The sti can turn just as well, but the it doesn't communicate the road back to the driver nearly as good.

If I was going to get an sti, I'd get the limited edition. I hated those neoprene blue seats in my sti, the evo recaro's are more comfortable for me.

The boxer engine in the sti is a great motor, but it can be difficult to work on especially with the intercooler sitting on top. A lot of work can't be done on the motor without pulling the intercooler, and you need to be gumby to replace the spark plugs.

The sti's tranny is notchy and not very smooth, but its built like a brick and you can beat on it all day and it just keeps on going. The tranny in the sti is probably the best built thing on the car, its just amazing how much abuse it can handle. There are guys who have hundreds of clutch drops on those things.

The Evo on the other hand has a spottier record. The MR's like to shed teeth on 4th to 6th, and all of them are capable of demolishing the ACD in record time if you drop the clutch. I think there are guys on here who killed their acd's after only 2 or 3 clutch drops, though they are the exception.

Modding, the evo is cheaper and easier to mod. Almost any power number you can do (until you get over 600whp) on the evo is doable on the sti, it'll just cost a little more. The parts tend to be a little more expensive, and the install a little harder. On my sti, they had to remove the top mount intercooler to put in a turboback, took them 1.5 hours (I was in the bay watching ). These guys work on sti's all day so they know what they are doing. It took the same guys 45 minutes on the evo to install a turboback even though they'd never seen that particular exhaust before and it took a little bit to figure out which piece connected to what.

Basically figure out what you need out of your car. If its going to be a daily driver with a lot of miles get a sti limited. If its daily driver but only 30-40 a day, get the evo.

If you want to mod the crap out of it, get the evo. The sti isn't bad either, just a bigger pain.

 

wow, thank you so much for such an amazing answer. This will be my daily driver, and I typically drive around 50 miles a day I'd say. And I am a full time student, but I work alot, and do video side jobs so my income for a student is pretty good, plus I live at home which is fine by me cause I'm close to school. But with that said, I dont want to do any serious modding until I'm out of school, for example my GTI has a downpipe and APR Stage 2 software, everything else is suspension. $1000 worth of power mods and made it quite a bit quicker(185 whp stock to about 230 whp). So that was good for me, but if I got an evo/STI I'd probably go the same route, just a simple reliable upgrade software/bolt on wise to where its still dependable, but that wouldn't be for a while because I'm still looking to have some sort of factory warranty while I own this car, and being a student that's a BIG factor so modding wont be at the top of my list at first.

And as far as which evo, looking into models which I had no idea there was until I started reading this forum(other than MR), I think I'd be best with the SE since the tranny's stronger. Because although I wont be modding it like crazy, I did about 8 autox events this year in my GTI, and no matter what car I get this winter, I'll probably give it the same treatment next spring.

 

I had a GTi also, a 91 pretty well modded, thing was a go kart!! Go with a IX you will NOT regret it!!

 

Welcome,i too went from v-dub-subaru-and now the much better of the three,EVO..I also had APR software,upgraded intercooler,turboback exhaust,etc,etc..Very fun car..Then i went to the WRX..Not sure why now that i look back,im guessing for the AWD..Put alot of money into it,and it never really impressed me for the amount of cash i threw away..The STI,on the other hand..Whole different animal all together..I have to agree about the tranny in the sti..I like it a tad better,actually..But, i love every aspect of my evo..I havent stopped smiling yet..And ive had it for a few months now..If you are looking at the evo's,get the 9 for sure..Or if you have to get an 8,adleast an 05..Totally my oppinion though..Good luck,and welcome aboard..Justin

 

since you don't plan on doing serious modding for a while, you'll probably be happier with the evo for the first few years of ownership. the evo feels more lively and athletic that the perception of having a greater car will make you feel like it was money better spent.

it's generally accepted that the absolute abilities of the two cars are very similar, but that the evo can go further with the basic bolt ons and a tune. going back to what you mentioned, that $1000 bucks you spent on the VW, if it were sent on an evo 9, gets you an exhaust and tune and 330whp or better (dynojet) which is better than the same money spent on an STI. the stock MR suspension is good too. and you'll be modding whatever car you get, guaranteed, so the evo 9's abilities match your criteria better. that and i can't stand that blue STI interior.

 

The funny thing is, before I got my Evo, I was considering an '06 VW GTI. Had the four-door hatchbacks been available at launch, then there is a good chance that I would've ended up with one since the price range was just about right, but I knew I wanted four doors so I got the Evo and just ante'd up the rest of the money. No regrets.

Kind of like what s2kguy said, obviously I ended up preferring the Evo in the long run. For one thing, I was able to find a dealership that let me test drive one, whereas the Subaru dealerships in my area didn't allow test drives in the STi. However, I had ridden in an '04 before. But after buying my Evo, another one of my friends had purchased a used '04 STi, and when we lived near each other, he used to let me drive it when it had Cobb springs and the Cobb AccessPort.

The first time I got to drive my friend's STi was on a round trip from Newport Beach to Las Vegas. I did notice that even with springs, the car wasn't nearly as responsive in terms of steering input. And even with his car being at Cobb's stage one (basically an off-the-shelf ECU reflash from the AccessPort), my car still felt more responsive to throttle input. The STi definitely had more bottom-end torque, allowing me to stay in the same gear when traffic slowed down then picked up (whereas the same situation in an Evo may have required me to drop down a gear), but the Evo definitely had better throttle response.

While the Evo's Recaros are better than the STi's seats already in pretty much every way, the STi's ride is a little more comfortable, even with springs (though this might not apply to every single set). Driving 260+ miles from Vegas really made me appreciate the STi's cruise control, as I'm sure it would've been a pain to pin down the Evo's gas pedal down at 85+ mph for several hours. The digital thermometer showing the exterior temperature was neat, since it was cool to know that we were staying cool despite it being 110+ degrees outside. But the interior is a tad bit smaller than the Evo's, though luckily if I wasn't driving then I was riding shotgun, so it didn't really matter to me that the backseat is a little tighter.

The shifter doesn't seem as precise as an Evo's, since the first time I drove the car, I went from 2nd to 5th gear since it seems like the gears are so close together, but after that, it never happened again, possibly because I consciously tried to upshift into 3rd more carefully during driving.

If you want to keep the car stock, then you can't really go wrong with either car, as their performance out of the box is different only slightly (when you break it down to the numbers), though the way they both feel is more different... the STi's power delivery is more linear, the Evo's power delivery is a tad weaker in the lower revs but is more explosive from the mid-range and beyond; the STi understeers (unless you fling the car sideways) while the Evo goes exactly where you point the steering wheel. But if you want to mod, then the Evo is MUCH easier to coax more power out of in terms of price and required mods. Generally speaking, the IX is hard to beat with an STi.

If you do end up choosing an Evo, the IX SE seems to be the most logical choice, as it's the lightest model (excluding the RS, of course) while keeping the 5-speed and being about $3k less than an MR (based on MSRP).

 

man this has been incredibly helpful everyone. Im pretty excited about finding one, and oddly enough insurance is about $140 cheaper a year than my GTI. So I think in January Im going to put my GTI up for sale, and start searchin for the perfect EVO most likely. But anymore info is still appreciated, so I know as much going into this as possible. Such as a good reliable software reflash or anything like that. Reliability will be the name of the game with this car.

 

^ Sounds good. That time frame may work out for you, since the Evo X should start arriving by then, and I'm sure there are a few Evo owners who will feel compelled to upgrade.

 

I picked the Evo over the STi only because of looks, that is it...
I picked them both as a catergory I liked of well performing 4 door AWD sedans...

3 years later I realized I didn't really use the sedan part, and would rather something more comfortable at the sacrifice of a little bit of performance.

 

Coming from 2 VWs (16v and VR6) and also having looked at the STI/WRX I can say that the Evo's handling is what made me choose it over the Subaru offerings. The Evo to me feels much nimbler on it's feet and feels lighter than it actually is. The turn in is razor sharp and very communicative for a stock car. While I know the STI can perform as well as the EVO to me it was not as pleasurable to drive. On the flip side the Subaru is the one I would count on lasting in the long run. The build materials are nicer, esp in the interior. Also, Subaru has a limited lifetime drivetrain warranty while Mitsu's is 10yr/100k. I guess that can be taken as one indicator of robustness.

I liken the EVO to a scalpel and an STI to a sledgehammer. Both would run circles around the way front heavy VW imho. Don't know which engine you had in the GTI but you will miss the low end grunt if you're used to an engine like the VR6 I had. You will forget all of that once the boost comes on however! In the end depends on what character of car you want...I don't think you can go wrong either way!

 

^ Subaru doesn't have a lifetime warranty (except for the seatbelts), I just checked their website. I don't know where you're getting your info from.

And your analogy is pretty off, as a sledgehammer is kind of the wrong object. Automobile Magazine's first comparison called the Evo a scalpel while the STI is a paring knife. Perhaps that is a more suitable analogy.