Ike

Here you go man, in case you haven't read it yet, this should make your day...


From C&D last year:

"Yes, there will be an Evo X, insist the company execs milling around at Okazaki, even though Mitsubishi Motors has lost almost $9 billion over the past five years and was hemorrhaging at the rate of $12.5 million per day back in February, according to Automotive News. Mitsubishi sold a piddling 12,500 Evos worldwide last year (4497 of them in the U.S.), but it's a profitable business, says Hideyuki Iwata, Mitsubishi's product manager for the Lancer line. Besides, he adds, Mitsubishi dealers routinely accept a Porsche or Mercedes in trade for an Evo. That's a brand polisher for a company chin-deep in tarnish.

But where will the Evolution evolve next? "A wider power range, a softer ride, and quieter. This is our direction," Iwata says. Then he points to a Mitsubishi-owned Volkswagen R32 fitted with VW's silky-shifting Direct Shift Gearbox and asks, "What do you think of this transmission? It is very interesting to us." To some people, an Evo with paddle shifters and a mellow ride, an Evo that doesn't explode forward at 3000 rpm but merely wafts to higher velocities like a piano pushed off a skyscraper-well, that's just no Evo at all.

But we'll worry about that later."

VikingDJ

Wow, the STI is outselling the EVO pretty nicely. I know in 2004, 7210 STIS were sold in US, and it appears like 05 may have surpassed that. If that is correct, Mitsubishi is doing the right thing, and need to make a change. That has to irk them that the STI is selling better. It's nice for enthusiasts though. The STI is starting to become very common, especially where I live. This is Subaru land, as I cannot go a single day without seeing one of the five Imprezas, but I don't see Lancers very often. I have seen several of those slow ricer looking FWD OZ rally ones though.

Japan8

Ike... that is just not what I wanted to hear. Softer and quieter... fine. NO biggie. BUt DSG?! That's an interesting transmission to them?! Aw hell... damn POS. They'd better also offer a clutch and double-H tranny or I could care less what the car can do.

sti_eric

Do you have a link for official sales figures for the STi?

VikingDJ

It's been posted all over various forums and links. If you search 2004 STi 7210 units, you'll find it all over the place. I initially found it on a thread created on the nasioc forum. I remember seeing a link to an email response from SOA. It's really all there is go on, and seems accurate, barring that the person from SOA didn't just make up numbers. The email also stated that the response to this car became so big, they continued production to meet the demand, hence the great deal I found on mine ($29k) of the 2004 model. I have a November of 2003 build date on mine. I'd love to see the sales figures for the 2005 model, to see how it compares to the 2004. It seems like the 2005 sold more, which would make sense, but who knows. This has definitely turned into a much higher volume car then Subaru anticipated, so it makes sense why they kept making the 04, so it would be in showrooms til the 05 models came out, which were released very early.

VikingDJ

It's been posted all over various forums and links. If you search 2004 STi 7210 units, you'll find it all over the place. I initially found it on a thread created on the nasioc forum. I remember seeing a link to an email response from SOA. It's really all there is go on, and seems accurate, barring that the person from SOA didn't just make up numbers. The email also stated that the response to this car became so big, they continued production to meet the demand, hence the great deal I found on mine ($29k) of the 2004 model. I have a November of 2003 build date on mine, and by that time many 04s had already been sold. I'd love to see the sales figures for the 2005 model, to see how it compares to the 2004. It seems like the 2005 sold more, which would make sense, but who knows. This has definitely turned into a much higher volume car then Subaru anticipated, so it makes sense why they kept making the 04, so it would be in showrooms til the 05 models came out, which were released very early.

Deslock

I drove the Mazdaspeed6 today; I was underwhelmed.

Steering feedback was better than I expected, but no where near the Miata's or RX8's.

Handling was better than its curb weight would imply, but that's not saying much. I won't call it a boat as it would make a competent daily driver, but the MS6 wasn't poised at all. On the plus side, the ride was actually reasonably comfortable; I thought it'd be stiffer based on the reviews I've read. Also, the chassis was noticeably better than the Mazda6 (I've driven the 2.3L and 3.0L).

Acceleration was good around 3500-4500 RPM, but (as expected) it did not come close to touching cars like the STI. Turbo lag was noticeable (significantly worse than the STI, but not as bad as my old 2.0L WRX). High RPM power was astonishingly disappointing... there wasn't anything north of ~5500 RPM. Throttle response was poor, making the car feel even less energetic. It probably has a slightly faster 1/4 mile than the RX8 thanks to its low-end pull/AWD launch advantage, but it was slower than the RX8 at highway passing.

Also, the shifter wasn't much fun to use and the engine revved slow. That combined with its disappointing throttle response made double-clutching seem like work... where's the fun in that?

Frankly, I enjoyed driving a couple GTIs last week more than the MS6. That doesn't speak well of the MS6 given that I didn't find the GTIs to be especially impressive. So, these recent test drives just made me appreciate the RX8 even more.

Without getting involved in the flamewars from earlier in the thread, I will say that I prefer RWD to AWD and manual to SMG/DSG, regardless of which is faster around the track. The GTI's DSG is the best auto I've ever used; it probably shifted faster than I could with the manual. But the manual was still more fun (even compared to the paddles, though they were pretty sweet). Likewise, AWD has competitive advantages over RWD, but I find RWD to be more fun (on pavement, anyway).