Monday 1st May 2017

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX wagon: PH Carpool

What do you do when you need estate practicality but want a super sharp drive? Evo estate!

---

Name: David Harrison
Car: Mitsubishi Evolution IX Wagon
Owned since: 2016
Previously owned: Mercedes 190E 2.5-16, Ford Racing Puma, Subaru Impreza WRX, BMW 335d Touring and MG ZS 180 are the interesting ones.

It's an Evo, just not how you know it

Why I bought it:
"I had been driving the 335d for a while and even though it had a Quaife limited-slip diff and a remap, I just didn't like it. The gearbox was slow, the steering was indirect; what I needed was Touring practicality in something a bit sharper. I came across the Evo wagon on a blog and thought it would be a reasonable investment and a whole lot of fun. A few phone calls to Tom at AT Performance and a deal was done."

What I wish I'd known:
"The service intervals are chronic at 4,500 miles or six months. I do around 20K a year so we're talking a lot of servicing here! I've had to replace it for daily running as the costs were just too much, so the Evo is now in limited use."

Blue wrap in case it was too subtle...

Thing I love:
"The power delivery! It is rabid on boost. I've driven cars of similar outright speed, but the way this thing goes when you hit the turbo is just mad! I can't imagine what this would be like at the 600bhp that some people run in these. 380hp is more than enough for me.

"The handling is so direct, and it grips like a limpet. It is so exploitable with the RS diff too, oversteer easily available on roundabouts and greasy roads. The Ohlins coilovers must help here too, as they're a great compromise of comfort and attack. I had to raise the whole setup by 10mm for regular road use, but this was an easy job..

"The driving position, seats and practicality are ideal for me; I can get the skis and the kids in the back but enjoy the journey too (as long as Mrs H isn't there...).

"I love the rarity too - you never really see another one, and the wrap makes it even more so!"

Servicing every 4,500 miles is costly!

Things I hate:
"The aforementioned servicing costs and turning up at clients' houses in it. The car doesn't fit our business image. For these reasons, it is now up for sale - boo hoo!"

Costs:
"Servicing! Super unleaded. But nothing scary has happened."

Where I've been:
"I've had a few trips up the A93 from Blairgowrie across Glenshee through Braemar and onwards all the way to Banchory and beyond. Beautiful roads and some great scenery."

What next?
"I've got a car to run just now, so I think I will wait for the right time to get a weekend car. Preferably British and definitely manual; Lotus maybe? Or a TVR? Let's see!"

 

[mnx42]

That looks awesome. Love the wrap too!

[tjlees]

Wow!

Yep those service intervals and love of super ended my relationship with the Evo Jap turbo nutter firecracker.

Great on track as well with lots of reliable tuning options.

[Witchfinder]

A former colleague of mine had an Evo estate in silver with an automatic gearbox! A rarity indeed! The auto really blunted the performance, to the point where my 2.5T S-Max was actually quicker in-gear!

Great car though, such an unusual thing. Sadly got written off after a little too much faith was placed in AYC.

[Bencolem]

To be fair, it's been a while since the CarPool was used as a sales advert...

I'm sure I remember seeing this in a £100,000 garage recently.

I think the OP has captured the issue with this car. As great as it looks as an estate, it's such a highly strung, focused car that it just can't be used as a wagon is traditionally designed to be (daily, family, distance etc.). Makes far more sense to have such a focused car as a weekend toy and in that case might as well have the saloon (and one of its many variants). Or an Elise or Caterham.

[adingley84]

[quote]
I think the OP has captured the issue with this car. As great as it looks as an estate, it's such a highly strung, focused car that it just can't be used as a wagon is traditionally designed to be (daily, family, distance etc.). Makes far more sense to have such a focused car as a weekend toy and in that case might as well have the saloon.
[/quote]

You've hit the nail on the head.

At least you can get a set of 4 tyres in the boot for some track day hooning!

[don logan]

Somehow I stumbled upon a picture of your car on the internet somewhere before this thread, WHAT A THING and the wheels are probably my favourite and suit the car as they are super plain but have a motorsport background rather than being a bit lairy!

[anonymous-user]

A shrewd idea doing this while it is for sale. Awesome car!

[TomScrut]

adingley84 said:

[quote]
I think the OP has captured the issue with this car. As great as it looks as an estate, it's such a highly strung, focused car that it just can't be used as a wagon is traditionally designed to be (daily, family, distance etc.). Makes far more sense to have such a focused car as a weekend toy and in that case might as well have the saloon.

You've hit the nail on the head.

At least you can get a set of 4 tyres in the boot for some track day hooning!

I agree. I like the fast estates/saloons etc but the servicing is a tad too far IMO. I know it's a lot newer but my new S5 at present is telling me 17000 miles to service/oil change. Yes it will probably come down in time but it's still for me a decent amount of time. My Golf R (which was my previous car, also avail in estate form) has a 9000 mile oil change gap.

I don't have an issue with the car, I like evos, but these are things the owners choose to put up with, like we all put up with the downsides our cars present, but if the car cannot do what it was bought for because of its characteristics then they are doing right selling it and thinking about something more suitable. And good on them for acknowledging that.

Edited by TomScrut on Tuesday 2nd May 07:43

[Bladedancer]

Fantastic car.
Shame Mitsu never bothered to offer these outside Japan officially.

[culpz]

Lovely car and very rare as far as i know. You really don't see too many of these cropping up for sale. Not sure i'd consider one as a fast wagon though if i'm being honest. There are many others out there that i'd probably go for over one of these.

However, minimal info makes for a minimal read and a blatant advertisement of the car. The whole thing seems very rushed and pointless. I'm sorry to be "that guy" but this really is a pathetic attempt of a PH Carpool.

[Cheapskate]

Not that blatant, given one-third of the article is critical of the running costs and image.

Or perhaps blatant, but at least not hyperbolic.

[Chapppers]

I briefly considered buying one of these recently but aren't they now, thanks to the progress of engineering, about as fast as/slower than a current gen hot hatch?

They're cool, no doubt about that but for the driving experience vs the hassle of owning it I decided it probably wasn't worth it.

[cib24]

When you refer to running costs what does that entail? Simply oil changes every 4,000-5,000 miles and spark plugs every 10,000 miles? If so, that's not really that bad. Oil is cheap to buy and it makes sense to change it frequently to ensure you don't end up with too much fuel dilution in the mix. A semi-synthetic ought to be enough if you are changing it so often, no need to pony up for the fancy ester synthetics with that kind of frequency. Spark plugs are also cheap and no need to get anything but copper plugs if you are changing them that often, and the plugs are at the top of the motor so it's a 15 minute job, if that.

[anonymous-user]

Classic PHer!

Doesn't like diesel estate car because it's too everyday, so buys ridiculous, hard to drive, garage queen and then finds they can't drive it everyday and so has to sell it..


Have you thought about a 335d Tourer OP? I have a nice one for sale...... (complete with "slow steering and gearbox" but you can hear yourself think at 75mph, and you can do 20k miles without doing anything other than putting fuel in it) ;-)

[Onehp]

Max_Torque said:

Classic PHer!
Have you thought about a 335d Tourer OP?

Yes, if you read the article properly you know that was the car before.
Double classic

Edited by Onehp on Tuesday 2nd May 15:21

[Onehp]

Great car, sadly was never available with LHD. But for the daily grind, need for space, customer presentability and the odd blast, I assume a recent hot hatch based estate is more suitable. I do wish the same was available with an advanced 4wd system with real locking diffs without weighing 1800kg+ but realistically that isn't going to happen anymore in the future.

Edited by Onehp on Tuesday 2nd May 15:19

[HedgeyGedgey]

cib24 said:

When you refer to running costs what does that entail? Simply oil changes every 4,000-5,000 miles and spark plugs every 10,000 miles? If so, that's not really that bad. Oil is cheap to buy and it makes sense to change it frequently to ensure you don't end up with too much fuel dilution in the mix. A semi-synthetic ought to be enough if you are changing it so often, no need to pony up for the fancy ester synthetics with that kind of frequency. Spark plugs are also cheap and no need to get anything but copper plugs if you are changing them that often, and the plugs are at the top of the motor so it's a 15 minute job, if that.

Pretty much what this guy says, running costs really aren't as bad as people make out. They love a set of cheap plugs these do, even the guys pushing 650bhp+ use the cheapest ones available! You'll get change from £10 put it that way

Edited by HedgeyGedgey on Tuesday 2nd May 16:45

[cib24]

Exactly. I don't know why everyone gets so worried about running costs, particularly on older cars like an Evo where surely aside from special 30,000, 60,000, 80,000, or 100,000 miles services (or whatever is equivalent) it's literally just about changing oil, oil filters, spark plugs, and the air filter. And because the technology on older cars like this is more standard you don't need to buy super special spark plugs, coil packs, injectors, oil filters, oil, etc. every time there is a service like you do on some of the modern cars when they hit their 10,000-20,000 service intervals.

Sure, if you modify the car more things are likely to break but an Evo pushing 380 wtq or less should be fine so long as you have a decent tune and ensure you have the right fuel in it.

[Heaveho]

There's also the argument to be had that if everything was as regularly serviced as often as Mitsubishi require the Evo to be, the world would be full of cars that were just as reliable. People seem to completely miss the point that changing oil and filter, etc, at shorter intervals is almost certainly ensuring fewer potentially more expensive issues as the mileage creeps up.

[cib24]

For sure. Call me old school but I don't trust the crazy 10,000-20,000 mile service intervals that are becoming more and more common nowadays, in particular when you consider that the majority of cars in this country are driven under very harsh stop/go conditions which has a detrimental effect on oil (if it is a strict motorway cruiser covering many miles per day then that's different because it causes much less wear and tear on a drivetrain). Fuel dilution is a real thing and oil itself just breaks down over time and its better to change it sooner rather than later given how cheap it is to buy oil and filters.

But hey, no matter what car I own I change it before 5,000 miles maximum because oil is cheap, although I often change it every 2,000-3,000 miles since I track my car a few times per year and it sits a lot as it is a certain weekends only vehicle so a normal person wouldn't do that. It equates to a change about every 6 months for me anyhow.