Jheggel

Hey guys, so fair warning I'm completely new to these kinds of cars but I'm dying for a Lancer (preferably with that evo style grill cause I'm in love &#128578. I've found a 2014 Lancer Gt (92k miles) and a 2011 Ralliart (99k miles) both for around 10,000. I know the Ralliart has way more power which would be great but I'm most concerned about maintenance and reliability since it'll be my daily driver. I've heard the Ralliarts and Evos can be a bit more on costly to maintain and I really just wanted to get some advice. What do you guys think? Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks y'all!

Steven Mayfield

I went through a similar situation recently, but mine was between a 2010 Ralliart and a 2010 Sportback GTS, both were priced at 6K, the RalliArt was from a dealer that got it at an auction and the Sportback was at a small independent dealer from a trade in. I really liked both cars for different reasons, the RA for the obvious. I test drove it directly to the bank and put a cash deposit down immediately. I was also not super familiar with Lancers/RA/turbos and wanted to have a mechanic check it out, plus the people selling it were, i dont want to say shifty, but ....shifty. It had a kind of knocking/ticking from the engine and it raised a red flag for me. I always research pretty much everything i buy, but knew i had to act fast, this RA seemed too good to be true. Both right around 110K miles, I think the RA was maybe 120K.
I fell in love with the sportback as soon as I saw it. Ive always wanted a hatchback and always wanted a Lancer, and now i see both in one car?!?! Graphite Grey paint, black leather, couple little dings, but its a CVT, which at the time I had no idea what that even was. I honestly thought it was just like a standard AT with a fancy name. But pretty clean car and right at what my insurance was giving me for my totaled Mazda 3.
I scoured the internet, i pondered, i didnt sleep, i asked friends and random people i saw driving. I called and classified hunted until i was blurry eyed. Now im seeing that theres a RA SPORTBACK??? Oh my this is getting good, but they are all way more $$$ than this RA, another red flag. My mechanic goes down to check out the car and it wont start. The lady selling it says its because the smart key is broken and she on her way with a new one. In the mean time my guy continues his inspection. Ooops looks like the trannys been opened up at some point and whoever put it back together did NOT do a very nice looking job. Theres sealant and crap dripping down it, not looking too good. The carfax checks out, but nothing about tranny service or the like. That kind of sealed it for me. He said the rest of the car was "OK" and basically was telling me to pass without saying it in those words. Before this i was leaning about 70% towards the RA and had to quick drive out 30 miles to get a deposit on the GTS, Everything went great from there and I had my new car within a couple days.
Its been a couple months now and i have to say that im glad things went the way they did. I absolutely love my GTS. I think the RA would have been great if had not needed to be my daily driver. The GTS gets me there comfortably, decent MPG, and since ive gotten it ive only seen ONE other Sportback on the road. Plenty of sedans, no SBs. The CVT was the only thing i didnt really dig, but paddle shifting all day has put a huge smile on my face. I can put it in D when im stuck in traffic and run it high revs when i want to mess around. I absolutely love it and its definitely my favorite car ever. In the end do what makes you happy, but i dont think you could go wrong with either one.