2009vs2010vs2011?
 

I'm thinking of getting a used Lancer.
Maybe ES or GTS
Can someone tell me which year is best
and which year is a NO NO or what changes
were made? I will be going into the dealer
tomorrow at 9am. Really need your help guys.
I saw a 2009 ES sports and a 2010 GTS...
09?10?11?

This is probably too late but here you go

Things you want to avoid are cvt transmissions if you plan on having any sort of a power build. They are finicky and have ALOT of drivetrain loss. But if all you have available to you is cvt's then make sure it has a external cvt cooler. All GTS's and GT's have them but some DE's and ES's do not have them. Look through the driver side foglight cover and see if there is a small cooler near the wheel well splash guard. If all you see is just black plastic splash guard, then there is no external cvt cooler.

all 2008 lancers had a 2.0L engine. 2009+ gts's and gt's came standard with the 2.4L but the es and de kept the 2.0L.

In 2008, 2009, and 2010, mitsubish did not skimp on the suspension for the gts. Similar to the RALLIART, the GTS had thick front and rear sway bars and a front upper strut tower bar. I think once mitsu rolled out the GT, they started cutting back on the suspension as to not step on the RALLIART's toes. (or they were just making it more cost effective) They out a smaller rear sway bar (An ES sport rear sway bar) and took out the front upper strut tower bar.

SO BEST YEAR AND TRIM?
2009-2010 GTS with a manual transmission IMO
Since you are buying used try to find one way under 60k miles. 2nd owners do get a factory warranty but it ends at 60k. 2nd best would go to a 2008 GTS with a manual tranny. You get the mpg's of the 2.0L but with no loss of sporty handling

I CAN'T FIND ANY MANUALS
If you have to buy a CVT for one reason or another, again make sure it has a cvt cooler and it's under 60k miles. A 2009 ES sport would be great. It has the GTS front airdams, side skirts, and rear spoiler. It also comes with 16in alloys, rear disk brakes and a rear sway bar. If you plan on making it quick know that it will be an up hill climb to get anything over 180whp for a 2.4 and anything over 150whp for a 2.0. The CVT's drivetrain loss put a huge handicap on the motor and gains from mods will be small. BUT, if you're just looking for a DD with no interest in mods then a ES with a CVT will be fine. (as long as it has a cvt cooler) It won't make any big numbers but it'll get great gas mileage, look nice doing it, and it'll be cheaper than a GTS

I got a 2012 ES under 30K mileage... I didn't know they had CVT cooler... now I'm going to have to check it. I'm not planning to buff up the engine, it a DD and it seems like enough power for me now. I live in LA and LA has bad traffic and even worse... BAD DRIVERS! If it doesn't have a CVT then????
Also I wanted to swap out the chrome grille with the DE grille, it seems
that the 2008-2011 DE grille doesn't fit the 2012 ES. I got the parts #
7450A609(2008-2011) and 7450780(2012-2014?). Seems like the 609
cost under 100.00($80.00?) and the 780 is over 100($110.00)... can
anyone verify it? Direct fit? changed tabs?

You would honestly be better off plasti-dipping your grille black. That's what I did to my GTS. It cost less than $15 for a roll of painter's tape and a can of black plasti-dip. If you don't know what plasti-dip is, it's basically removable spray paint.

This is a pretty decent how-to video:

Yea I saw that too, but I'm very picky. I don't want to re-do it every once a while and what about car wash? Would it come off if it was rubbed too hard? Also I'm afraid when I peel the tape it would mess up the edges...

I've had my plasti-dip on the car for going on 4 months. I've had ZERO issues with car washes. And I didn't even prep properly before I sprayed it on the car (bumper was dirty). The only issue I had was where it bubbled up in a tiny spot on the left side. (again, because I didn't do any prep work to clean the bumper) I've had no issues with it on the actual chrome though. The stuff is designed to be relatively durable. I've seen videos where a whole plastidipped car was sprayed with a pressure washer and it did nothing to the plasti-dip.

With regards to the rubbing, it won't really come off from rubbing it if you apply enough coats for it to be thick. However, if you rub at the edge of it or rub it REALLY hard, it will most likely start to peel.

Removing tape from a plasti-dip job can be a bit of a pain, but it's really not that difficult to do. If you are doing JUST the chrome on the grille, you shouldn't have any issues with the tape pulling up the plasti-dip. This video has a pretty good video example of how to remove painter's tape without damaging the edge: It should work the same for plasti-dip.

By the way, I'd advise against doing it to a set of wheels. Unless it's just to get an idea for how it looks before you have them powder coated. Plasti-dip tends to come off of wheels rather easily sometimes and also tends to get damaged from debris on the road flying up and hitting them.

I'm going to give it a try, I will probably be doing it on Xmas day as that the only day I have completely off from work or anything else. I will be doing the chrome and the middle bumper, there is a circle on the front bumper and 2 holes for my plate, on the circle there is a small gap do I just spray over it? Also the hole for my plate, I plan on putting the plate back in and not going with the EVO plate look, should plug the holes so that I won't ruin the plastic-dip when I put the screw back in or should I just poke a hole after? Why do these guys never show the pulling of the tapeeeeee???!!!

Okay so I did it on New Years and it looks good if I did it perfectly but I didn't
but it still looks okay. I did 4 coats and took over 3 hours, It was my first time so I didn't
expect it to look amazing and there were flaws(I'm picky). It dried up and I was removing the tape
and paper and some parts wouldn't come off without damaging the dip, so I had to tear off
some of the edges. Overall I feel like it just a temp and might come off if I took it to one of
those hand car wash which I do every 2 weeks. I'll leave it on for now but I think the best
route to go is to purchase the DE grille($100+) and have the middle pillar vinyl wrapped and
not worry about it coming off or having to re-do it.

Had my first car wash since the plastic-dip and a part of the lower chrome peeled a little. It probably come off more with a few washes. I would go with the DE grill and Vinyl next time when I have time but would cost way more, maybe $200.00+(2012 DE grill cost like 113.00).