The Evo has landed

I've tried to encourage my wife to learn how to drive a manual. Not getting anywhere with that, and it's not like I haven't tried for close to ten years.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

I'm in the same situation, and I think I'll likely be looking for a well-cared for used Evo in a couple years. So take good care of yours for me Tim! :D

I'll try to, although I'm not planning to sell this one in a couple of years .

BoxheadTim wrote: I've tried to encourage my wife to learn how to drive a manual. Not getting anywhere with that, and it's not like I haven't tried for close to ten years.

If she's anything like my wife or other women I know, they can't learn things like that from people they are emotionally attached to. Had a friend, driving instructor and formula car driver try to teach his daughter in law how to drive stick. They argued constantly. Finally he asked me to help and she was up and running in a couple of quick lessons. I tried to teach my wife once, but much like trying to help her parallel park, it ended in anger and resentment. Just food for thought.

Get a $500 manual transmission anything off CL. As long as it runs. Hand her the keys, give some basic instructions, let her figure it out. Sell car for $500, "needs clutch...."

Just noticed the thread date - I guess you've had this a while, but as new a fellow owner of a Mitsu sports car (okay, another one in my case) I figured I should pay you a compliment. Looks bad ass! Great choice on colour BTW.

Would love an Evo some day (refer to 'weird Japanese sports car bucket list' comment in my FTO thread) but I'm not buying & selling cars nearly as much as I used to anymore so I'll live vicariously through yours here for now. :D

Thanks for the compliments.

We bought it new June last year. I just keep updating the thread whenever I remember .

Dr. Hess wrote: Get a $500 manual transmission anything off CL. As long as it runs. Hand her the keys, give some basic instructions, let her figure it out. Sell car for $500, "needs clutch...."

That's what I would do if she had any interest in learning/practicing. We're good as long as we have two cars with an automatic transmission, so that's what we end up doing.

Looks like I may have just bought mine in time, even though all the stories wandering around the web seem to be referencing the same source:

http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/04/goodbye-evo-fun/

Time for another update. I probably should add a few more pics also since I had to get the wheels refinished. The shop that put the snow tires on last winter managed to damage the finish on all four wheels, then the supposedly best powdercoating shop in town had to admit that they couldn't properly apply the powder coat that would have duplicated the finish, so I ended up with a single color one. Making the wheels a lot darker (basically "Volk Bronze") actually improves the appearance.

After about fourteen months - well, really only 11 months because the car spent almost three months in the shop during the wheel refinishing episode - I have come to the conclusion that it's a brilliant but somewhat flawed car. If I wanted a base car for a time attack racer or had the skill to Auto-X it at a high level, it would have been the perfect choice. As a daily driver, not so much.

Why is that? Probably because using it as a daily driver exposes me more to its flaws and I'm not often able to make use of its strengths. I've mentioned the issues with the audio system before, if you use iDevices and upgraded those to iOS 7 it stopped playing ball, we're on iOS 8 now and AFAIK the issue still hasn't been fixed. The map update for the navigation system that was promised to occur about a year after the purchase hasn't happened either. This wouldn't be a big deal if the original maps hadn't been out of date, but they are and are missing the new main road between Reno and here. Oh, and then we get to the random rattles and other noises that will need investigating under warranty in the hope that they can be fixed. None of these issues on their own would be a big deal, but a bit of poking around on evolutionm.net suggests that I'm only one of a lot of people experiencing them. On a babied $45k car, they're rather annoying.

Oh, and then there is the seating position episode as mentioned in another thread. Basically, this is the last time I buy a car where almost all reviewers complained about the lack of reach adjustment for the steering wheel. During the test sit'n'drive this didn't seem to be that big a deal but by now, with my knee getting worse, the fact that the perfect seating position is just out of reach (yeah, I know, very punny) is becoming a bigger deal.

Over the last weekend, I took the car on a trip to Southern Oregon. It was a lot of fun on the backroads, but the noise levels on this completely stock car and the issues with the seating position essentially meant that my 69 year old mother (who played passenger) ended the trip in better shape than me.

Back when I bought the car, the choice was basically between finding a decent 996 TT with the tiptronic or an Evo MR. Both came in at roughly the same price so we ended up thinking we were making the sensible choice and bought the new car with the warranty. With hindsight, the lack of a local-ish dealer and now the lack of a trusted local mechanic has become a bigger issue than I originally thought. I'm not sure yet if I keep driving it for a while or have a look at how much I can get for this car at Carmax.

Tiptropic? Pee Dee Kay! Pee Dee Kay! Let us live the bad Porsche decisions vicariously through you!

You have seemed to have met the classic, fast car driving slow < slow car driving fast. Not to mention that since it's still in the warranty period discourages you from modifying the car so the flaws are eliminated or reduced.

BoxheadTim wrote: I'm not sure yet if I keep driving it for a while or have a look at how much I can get for this car here on GRM.

Fixed that for you. Seriously. I'm not sure if I'l be shopping when you're selling, or if I'm enough of a glutton to own an Evo, but they're definitely on "the list". So please post it here if you decide to sell.

This is why I've shied away from the Evo/STi's as my daily drivers and always gone with Audi Quattro's instead. The boost buggy twins are wonderful cars to hoon around in, because both manufacturers spent the money on performance vs interior/luxury.

You don't notice that dichotomy on a test drive, you're not in the car long enough and chances are you're trying to hoon around on the test drive to see what it feels like.

I went through this exact problem the one time I stepped away from my usual Audi/BMW DD to get a '06 STi. The car was wonderful on the track, but the seats were rock hard uncomfortable, and inside of 5000 miles the car had more rattles than my 140k mile Audi's had (which had none). I ended up selling the car after only owning it 8 months or so, I just couldn't stand how low rent all the interior panels/carpet/seats/dash etc etc were.

I know you don't like Audi's, if I were you I'd try and find a nice E9x generation 335ix auto. Makes nice power, good steering, very comfy inside, has huge truck space vs the Evo, room for 4 adults, so and so forth.

Or get over your Audi issues and buy a B8 S4 like I have. The car is a gem, beautiful interior, great tech package, supercharged V6 is a beast, good MPG, QUATTRO (!!), comes with the dual clutch DSG...

Mitchell wrote: Tiptropic? Pee Dee Kay! Pee Dee Kay! Let us live the bad Porsche decisions vicariously through you!

Can't afford anything that new that I'd actually want. Not sure the wife will want to drive it either (she doesn't want to drive the Evo) so I'd probably be looking for a three pedal 996TT if I go Evo-replacement shopping.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: You have seemed to have met the classic, fast car driving slow < slow car driving fast. Not to mention that since it's still in the warranty period discourages you from modifying the car so the flaws are eliminated or reduced.

It's not so much the fast car slow issue - I've owned some pretty fast cars in the UK, which has similar-ish speed limits to the US and a lot more speed cameras and speed related enforcement - as it is the non-modification aspect. Even then there are a couple of modifications I simply wouldn't do to the car (like sorting out the seating position by having the steering column modified, which seems to be the only "right" way to get the wheel further away from the pedals) so I end up not being able to address the biggest issue I have with the car.

petegossett wrote:

BoxheadTim wrote: I'm not sure yet if I keep driving it for a while or have a look at how much I can get for this car here on GRM.

Fixed that for you. Seriously. I'm not sure if I'l be shopping when you're selling, or if I'm enough of a glutton to own an Evo, but they're definitely on "the list". So please post it here if you decide to sell.

Well, if any of you lot wants to offer me around $36k-$37k for it, they're welcome to PM me. A 2013 MR with similar mileage (12k) books for $33k so I'm thinking that the above price is fair for a pretty much fully loaded 2014 MR.

In reply to docwyte:

It's not so much that I crave luxury, I'd be perfectly happy with the Evo if the issues mentioned were addressable in a reasonable manner or would've been addressed from the factory. It does seat four adults fine, btw, and the trunk space isn't really an issue for me. The drivetrain and handling are spectacular which is kinda nice as I live in the mountains.

After the experience of owning an A8 (which is the only Audi I've owned that I actually liked) I'll pass on further Audi purchases. One of the good specialist shops in town (well, in Reno...) does BINI, BMW and Porsche, so I think I'll stick to those for a DD - in all three of them also have dealers in town so I'd have a fall back.