RE: Mitsubishi Evo IX Wagon: Spotted

[Butter Face]

Just my opinion

I’ve never owned either, but I’ve been part of the Japanese car ‘scene’ for an awful long time and that’s my take on the Evo/Impreza battle

[Heaveho]

Haven't owned a Forester, but had both an Impreza and an Evo for 2 years. When it came to the point where one had to go, there was always going to be one winner, and it wasn't the Subaru. That was 13 years ago. I still have the Evo, and it's also outlasted a GT-R, an M5 V10, two Audi R8s and an IS-F, among other things.

They're extraordinary cars. If you can't understand that, you've either never spent time in one, or don't deserve to own one.

[AmosMoses]

Saw this was for sale and wondered if it would end up here. You could make a dog and 3 kids violently ill with on of these and a dirt road. What's not to love?!

[wombleh]

That looks really roomy inside. I had an impreza wagon and it was tiny, there's more space in a polo (sweet or car).

Looks great but not sure about the service intervals!

[Murphy16]

Think I'd take a Legnum VR4 Estate over an Evo estate. V6 engine (nicer noise), twin turbo, 280bhp, more comfortable, can find one with a manual gearbox, still has 4WD AYC for safety and grip.

Edited by Murphy16 on Thursday 19th April 20:12

[JMF894]

My tweaked 2.3 turbo 4 has always had an oil and filter every 6k despite the service intervals being every 12k. It costs peanuts and will save money and grief in the long run on an enthusiastically driven , modified car imho.

[Mackofthejungle]

CooperS said:

Haha 4500 mile or 6 month servicing!

I wonder why these died out....

The trick was to service it once a year like every other car

[Heaveho]

Mackofthejungle said:

The trick was to service it once a year like every other car

Hmm, the trick was and still is to service it at 4500 miles at most. If you ignore that, do 10k a year and service it once a year, you'll invite trouble. If every manufacturer stuck to the guideline of frequent maintenance as rigidly as Mitsubishi did with the Evo, there would be a lot more reliability in the world. It's part of the secret as to why an Evo hangs together so well.

[tril]

Murphy16 said:

Think I'd take a Legnum VR4 Estate over an Evo estate. V6 engine (nicer noise), twin turbo, 280bhp, more comfortable, can find one with a manual gearbox, still has 4WD AYC for safety and grip.

Edited by Murphy16 on Thursday 19th April 20:12

Legnums are juicy but the reliability of those cars is questionable and expensive to put right if things go sound. One of the best looking 'normal' cars ever made though, imo.

[Vimes]

Fastdruid said:

douglasgdmw said:

stuckmojo said:

Oooh I love that. Perfect family car, really. Can a tow bar be attached?

My friend had a removable tow bar attached to his Evo IX to allow him to attach his mountain bikes :
http://www.watling-towbars.co.uk/import_vehicle_to...

Me, I went down the roof bar route with a Thule rack on my Evo VIII. Not a very good idea when the roof rack came dislodged, mountain bikes went skipping down the road in my rear view mirror !!!

A bit of a read up and it seems they fall into a grey area. As an import they are not type approved and so the requirements for the car to be approved for towing don't apply.

So you can fit what you want...but that doesn't make it a good idea as they may not be approved for towing domestically (I really don't know how towing approval is done in the JDM).

I don’t think it’s a grey area at all. Imports are not approved for towing in the UK so cannot legally be used to tow.

It’s a shame as there’s a few imports I quite fancy as a tow car.

[CubanPete]

I keep telling myself I'm not a Japanese car fan, until I remember I have one, and would like loads of others, and then I think that I possibly am.

Would love this one too!

[sledge68]

I looked at this a while ago and nearly bought it, ended up with a Legacy Twin Scroll which is JDM and in the same category. I am glad I bought the Legacy as its so understated yet extremely capable.

These JDM estates have great performance and kudos , mine has full Bilsteins that are as clean as a whistle with STI springs, strut braces, splitter , aero kit full leather and many other factory upgrades, a lot of bang for the buck.

And most people have no idea what they are or how capable they are.

[cib24]

Awesome car. I don't get why everyone always has issues with short service intervals on a car like this? Most of the time it's only an oil change and perhaps every 10,000 miles or so you replace the spark plugs. The oil and the plugs are cheap as chips on cars like these as you don't need to use super expensive Ester Synthetic oil or really expensive long life spark plugs. Put an Evo reg number in Eurocarparts and see what comes up. All really reasonable and easy to service yourself anyway.

Tires are an issue if you track the car a lot and brakes can be depending on how you drive but we are usually just talking replacing pads a little more frequently than on more modern cars.

[Butter Face]

This one looks a hell of a car for the money!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

[Fastdruid]

cib24 said:

Awesome car. I don't get why everyone always has issues with short service intervals on a car like this? Most of the time it's only an oil change and perhaps every 10,000 miles or so you replace the spark plugs. The oil and the plugs are cheap as chips on cars like these as you don't need to use super expensive Ester Synthetic oil or really expensive long life spark plugs. Put an Evo reg number in Eurocarparts and see what comes up. All really reasonable and easy to service yourself anyway.

Tires are an issue if you track the car a lot and brakes can be depending on how you drive but we are usually just talking replacing pads a little more frequently than on more modern cars.

Er, 10k for plugs? Most these days are 40k.

[rodericb]

Fastdruid said:

cib24 said:

Awesome car. I don't get why everyone always has issues with short service intervals on a car like this? Most of the time it's only an oil change and perhaps every 10,000 miles or so you replace the spark plugs. The oil and the plugs are cheap as chips on cars like these as you don't need to use super expensive Ester Synthetic oil or really expensive long life spark plugs. Put an Evo reg number in Eurocarparts and see what comes up. All really reasonable and easy to service yourself anyway.

Tires are an issue if you track the car a lot and brakes can be depending on how you drive but we are usually just talking replacing pads a little more frequently than on more modern cars.

Er, 10k for plugs? Most these days are 40k.

Iron core (aka non-long life) vs platinum/iridium (aka long life)? If the plugs are easy to get at, you don't want to stump up so much in one hit and you want the extra 1hp, the iron core plugs make sense.

[Fastdruid]

rodericb said:

Fastdruid said:

cib24 said:

Awesome car. I don't get why everyone always has issues with short service intervals on a car like this? Most of the time it's only an oil change and perhaps every 10,000 miles or so you replace the spark plugs. The oil and the plugs are cheap as chips on cars like these as you don't need to use super expensive Ester Synthetic oil or really expensive long life spark plugs. Put an Evo reg number in Eurocarparts and see what comes up. All really reasonable and easy to service yourself anyway.

Tires are an issue if you track the car a lot and brakes can be depending on how you drive but we are usually just talking replacing pads a little more frequently than on more modern cars.

Er, 10k for plugs? Most these days are 40k.

Iron core (aka non-long life) vs platinum/iridium (aka long life)? If the plugs are easy to get at, you don't want to stump up so much in one hit and you want the extra 1hp, the iron core plugs make sense.

No idea, just whatever is OEM. I've just checked, the MPS and 2.5T are both every 75k. Not admittedly in as high a state of tune (they're both larger engines but make less power) but still 7 changes to every one is a lot of additional grief and expense.