looking at 2 evo's. which one would YOU buy?
 

well i want to get the opinion from people who know evo's well on which one of these they would buy. my s2000 will be sold tomorrow, and i will be buying an evo. so let me know out of these 2 which you think is a smarter buy. keep in mind my price range for an evo is 16,500.

car #1: 2006 EVO SE. 24,000 miles. salvaged (front end collision set the airbags off) i went and looked at the car and it looks like it has been repaired very nicely. it was clean inside and out, drove and ran well, i had a friend follow me to see if it drove crooked or anything and it all seemed good.
he will sell it for 16,000 and give me a yakima snowboard rack with it which i will get some good use out of.....
he said i can take the car to any shop and have it checked for any type of damage, and also have the motor compression tested and tested for boost leakes or anything i want.

car #2: 2005 EVO MR. 74,000 miles. clean title. looks like it has been very well taken care of, no damage at all. its all stock except it has a filter and a boost controller that he claims has never been over 20psi (kind of scares me)
he even said he will have the timing belt replaced on it before i buy it. he wants $15,500


the low miles and the fact that its a evo IX make the first car attractive to me, i like the evo IX interior and front end a lot better then the evo VIII. but of course the salvage is scary, which is why i like the 05 MR, and its way under bluebook price so seems like a good deal. but the miles are kind of high, and its also had 4 owners already. so i really dont know which one i would rather have at this point.

any pics of the 2 cars ?

Those are two different cars, yet it is a tough decision. What plans do you have for the car in terms of modifying?

I like the fact that the IX is low miles and repairs seem to have been done correctly. I would look into it more and have those tests performed by an evo specific shop or mitsubishi.

The VIII can simply be tuned which I suggest you have done since those mods are on it. With your own custom tune you know the car will be running good. Spend $100 for a Walbro 255 fuel pump and about $400 for a tune and you are set. 74k miles is nothing, and there are now two other evos on this forum at 200k+ miles on their evo VIII's. It also is good that the owner will take care of the 60k mile maintenance before the car is sold.

I would choose the VIII because the IX scares me with the accident reported.

Post up internet links or photos of the two if you can. Also, get photos of the IX from the accident.

Best of luck in your decision.

no sorry the IX went off craigslist and the VIII was taken off by the owner cause hes out of town untill september 4th

nothing to really see anyway, they are stock and no damage can be seen in the pics. except the IX has DEFI gauges

i would get an MR just because of the clean title. down in the future you will have a problem with savaged car.

I would go with the IX SE for sure. As long as the body repairs are legit it's all good.

My .02; the VIII has 4 owners. Stay away. The current owner may be great, but the 3 previous owners could have been douche-waffles. Not going over 20psi is great, that is just a tick higher than stock. However, he can't vouch for the other 3 owners.

The IX sounds like a good deal, but definitely take it to a good shop, possibly one that specializes in these cars. Maybe even a dealer, though you may not be able to trust their techs, honestly. Also something to consider is how a lender will look at this. If you are paying out of pocket then sounds good; I'd maybe even see about going lower, but whatever works for you.

However, what if you decide to sell it in a year and someone else has to finance it. Lenders don't look at salvaged titles lightly, and in fact a lot of them won't touch them. Maybe see if you can get it inspected by someone to have the salvaged title removed (I think you can do this if I'm not mistaken).

Best of luck!

thanks guys! the IX is my top choice right now, but i just found a new car posted for sale today!!!
its a white 03, says its in excellent condition and has all the service records. asking 14,9!
it doesnt list the miles or if its clean title, but im gonna find out. white is my favorite color so this might be the car for me if its clean title!

I would be careful with the salvaged tittle IX. You dont n
know where it was repaired at and the extent of the damage that caused. Im a tech and see some bad stuff roll in to the shop that was half assed repaired some where else. 72k is nothing it is a jap car. They run for ever. (pending the previous owners have taking care of the oil changes and maintenance's regularly) There is always the option to keep looking too.

Good luck in your search. It took me a while to find mine.

Clean > Salvaged Title

in CA you cannot have full coverage on a vehicle w/ a salvaged title. So this means if you crash a modded car forget about getting back anything more than blue book. If your car is stolen & stripped, forget about them fixing it beyond stock even if they agree to fix it, nothing past blue book value will be received there either.

-Joel

i would get the mr. Clean title no problems later on like you would have with a salvage

^+1000000000 salvage bad news I own a ix my self and would suggest that one but I would stay in the clear title area due to not getting screwed in the end!

I would choose neither. Be smart when purchasing, but more importantly be patient. Just because your car sells tomorrow doesn't mean you have to buy the first Evo you find in your price range. If selling the S2000 leaves you without a vehicle, I would still try and find a way to search a while longer, even if it means purchasing from out-of-state. I know buying an Evo is exciting, but don't be careless. Good luck.

Go for the VIII. No wrecks=great success.