Admittedly, the MSRP on the MR is on the high side. But when you think carefully about it... Mitsubishi accomplishes some interesting things by doing so.

First off, it raises their public image. As much as some people complain about the price, people are buying them. People have been waiting with money in hand for months to get this car. There's really no other japanese car on the market with this type of demand. While $34,999 is undoubtably a lot of money, there's reports of people paying over MSRP by several thousands of dollars, so obviously this car is worth its MSRP to enough people. The MR is Mitsubishi's way to get people back into the showrooms and rekindle interest in Mitsubishi for 05'.

Secondly, to all the people whom the MR doesn't appeal to pricewise or featurewise, it makes the GSR an outstanding value when compared. It's really hard to argue the worthiness of the GSR's MSRP when the MR is $5000 more for slightly more performance.

Simply put it... Mitsubishi has no problem selling the MR for is MSRP even though it's slightly overpriced. The MR helps sell the GSR not only by bringing people into the showrooms, but also by providing percieved value.

When people are shopping, I don't know why they really necessarily need to compare the STi to the MR. A better comparison would be the STi and the GSR. They are both similar in performance, are regular mass produced vehicles, similar price, ect. And in that case the GSR wins hands down, no need to even compare it to an MR.

 

woo hoo. i like that i chose the GSR over the MR because of the money issue, but I'm not really that upset, although I will be a bit jealous when I see that gray color flying by me. glad there's someone that isn't *****ing about the price of the MR.

 

Give the man a cigar! I agree I mean, telling my family I am going to pay nearly $40,000 for an MR OTD has made them rethink Mitsubishi as a car company. (Or in the alternative rethink my sanity...)

 

the 05' gsr is a sick car too! if the MR was any higher in price I'd definately be in a 05' gsr.

 

I'll enlighten you - because they are both 6 speed - and Motor Trend Nov 04 pg 162 reports in 1 yr update on GRS 1 main complaint - no 6th gear.

In addition to this "EVO8MR" just defected to Subaru and got his white Sti for $33G out the door. That's $5G less than MR at MSRP out the door.

If you assume everyone is a loyalist - then I can see where you might be confused as to why anyonewould want to compare the Sti, but for anyone who is still comparing cars with an open mind and want a 6 speed, I think should find the Sti a worthy candidate for the line up.

 

Well, I'm not going to try and convince anyone looking to buy an STi to buy an Evo. People can buy what they want. But my personal experience is that I've driven an 05' STi back to back w/ an 03' EVO... And even w/o all the 05' upgrades I liked the EVO's handling characteristics better. I was initially going to buy an STi back in summer just due to the fact that it was readily available, but after my EVO test drive I understood why the EVO always bests the STi in comparative articles.

In the past, before the introduction of the MR, people didn't have any problems comparing the GSR w/ the STi. Now suddenly the GSR isn't worthy of comparison because it has a 5-speed tranny? All I'm saying is since the introduction of the MR its always been MR vs STi. How about STi vs GSR? I'd like to see a magazine comparison article on that. Just because the MR is too expensive for some people doesn't necessarily mean people have to jump ship for an STi.

 

I know people are going to hack up my opinion so here it goes *Flame Suit On*

With what we got in the MR, they should have kept the pricing competative to the STI, to take potential subaru customers. I think now since the MR's price is a few thousand more than the STI, and the STI offers equally of what the MR offers (in overall features, I personally think it offers more), people are more driven to buy an STI, after hearing official '05 pricing.

Mitsubishi should have lowered the price on the base GSR to around what their asking for an RS, and just knock the RS right out of the picture. This would ensure more performance for the buck over the base WRX with offering somewhat of the same levels of comfort as the base WRX comes with, taking potential sales for WRX'es.

Im no marketing major by any means, I just think it all comes down to the mightly dollar.

 

what you say does make sense to an extent. But if the MR was lowered to prices that match the STi, then the perceived value of the GSR is decreased significantly. How many people would buy a GSR if the MR was only one or two thousand more? Mitsubishi would essentially be shooting itself in the foot because the MR is limited edition and would surely sell out at the lower price (i wouldn't be surprised if they were sold out at current MSRP). Then how many people would settle for a GSR when the MR was only a little more. With no more MRs available that would make more people go STi than anything.

So, the solution to that is lower the price of the GSR to be more competitive pricewise w/ the WRX, like you said. But I don't think that's realistic at all, unless you also lower the performance & cost to manufacture of the GSR to reflect it its new price. If mitsubishi could have offered current levels of performance at WRX price originally, it would have. Performance wise, the EVO is head and shoulders above the WRX. In fact, GSR 04' Evos beat out STi's in comparison articles. And the current MSRP of the GSR reflects so. You can't sell a 13 sec car w/ its associated maintanace needs at that low of a price w/o making sacrifices. The RS is as close as they could get to that sacrifice. Even then its probably a loss leader for the company and probably why they don't make many.

 

The 0 3s were bad either priced below 30k.

 

I agree that Mitsu pricing the limited production MR almost 35k msrp does make the GSR a better value if one can't afford the MR. The only thing that troubles me is that Mitsu took away the HIDs std. on the GSR and making us pay 3 grand for a whole package. I personally don't want leather or a sunroof, but i would like to have HIDs.

 

no hid's on a $30 grand car does suck.

 

Hey Mitsu if you are reading this, put back the HIDs on the GSR!!!!

 

I just got my sti yesterday morning and i couldnt be happier, i refunded my downpayment on the MR and just bought the subie. I am very satisfied with the car and i love the interior. The car has a lot of little things the evo does not have, but it is true that the evo is a better handling car, stock vs stock, handsdown. I still love the evo my brother had an 03 and hes buying an MR edition, so im not disapointed whats so ever. Goodluck on the price for future MR edition owners.

 

^ You won't notice the difference between the STi and the MR. You really won't. Enjoy your purchase.

 

The other half of that would be please take away the Torsen and ACD on the '05s.