Test drive experiences today

waaaasabi

SRM on upshifts is kind of tricky - you still need to apply throttle, but not every time or on every shift. You really just need to get a feel for the car and the momentum of the car... I know it sounds weird, but I think that's pretty much how driving manual generally is: it's a lot more about the driver's feel and intuition, than it is about the mechanical aspects (i.e. having to shift at a specific RPM or exactly how many centimeters the clutch catch point is from the ground).

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That's SOOOO not Raven!

fusionchicken

Having owned an 08 Evo X and having driven the 6mt 370z and a 6mt (with the 3.42 rear diff) 5.0 mustang, here are some thoughts:

First if you are in socal and are interested in driving/purchasing an Evo, look up Sam at Huntington Beach Mitsubishi. The guy is plain crazy (in a good way) and will beat other dealers' price by a ton. I got my IX and X brand new from him - the X was an 08 with nav and was IIRC 31,000 out the door with LA county tax rate. Look up socalevo.net and you will find him relatively easily.

The X is very fun, though much less raw and more civilized than the IX. One major downfall in the X is the trunk size, it's ridiculously tiny for a 4 door sedan. Turbo lag is improved in the X but it's still a huge pain especially in LA traffic, and ESPECIALLY in summer heat. Basically everything will rip you a new one off the line unless you are doing a full launch which is just ridiculous. The gearing is very short so expect to shift a lot though that was a plus for me

Interior is definitely quite cheap and WILL rattle - it was much better than my IX but it's still pretty bad. I owned both my Evos from 4 and 7 miles, respectively, to about 30,000 miles. Both my Evos had basic bolt-ons and custom tune making around 320whp and was very fun up to about 110mph (top of 4th gear), after which most performance cars like the 370z and especially the 5.0 will walk away from the Evo relatively easily. If freeway runs are your thing the Evo is NOT a good car IMHO because it was never designed for it. Combining its brick-like aerodynamics and its super long 5th gear there are many other better freeway bombers to choose from. Sure you can slap on a huge turbo and deal with massive turbo lag and try to find better fuel than the 91 piss we get here in cali but that's just not my cup of tea, even after having owned 2 Evos in 4 years and having had different cars in between.

The Evo is based off of a rally car and is geared towards tight road courses with very short gearing with a peaky power output. It's mad fun carving canyon roads and that's what I loved about the car. The steering feel is excellent but the car understeers quite a bit esp. compared to a wider and shorter F/R (front engine RWD) car like the 370. The grip is insane but it does not feel as "natural" as a FR car would going around bends. At some point it becomes relying on the car's silly grip (until the sticky factory tires run out, which mine did after 8,000 miles) rather than the car's balance/center of gravity/etc. to achieve crazy performance figures. YYMV but after owning 3 turbo AWD cars I am ready to move on to an n/a RWD car - no turbo lag, much more natural handling, and going sideways at normal speeds are all things I am looking forward to in the 370z.

The mustang surprisingly did not have much low end torque IMHO, though i'm sure the 3.73 (iirc) rear diff. probably would have transformed the car. The car sounded good, but the vague steering and boat-like handling feel (i'm aware it's very competent around bends as it posted similar lap times as the e9x m3) and the interior - the interior was the deal-breaker as I just couldn't get over its design and layout. The coyote motor responds very well to mods and basically the Mustang's appeal to me was that it's a 30k M3 in terms of performance. However, the driving FEEL is a much different story as the few e92 M3's I drove (DCT and 6mt) just offer an other-worldly driving experience that a car like the Mustang, even with matching performance figures, cannot begin to compete with IMHO.

To me the 370z offered the best driver involvement and driving experience among these 3 cars. I would have opted for a 370 back in 08 if I did not need the Evo's 4 doors and if Sam did not give me a great deal with 0% apr.

If you are serious about the Evos look up Sam, you can also just call or text him 714 493 4163 - I don't get anything out of this, he's just one of the rare dealership guys that actually don't pull any tricks on you. I was out with my IX and X in less than 30 minutes after talking to him on the phone, and have purchased 2 used cars from him as well.

Good luck

Edit: sorry for the horrific grammar as it's quite late here and I'm supposed to be working

NYBladeZ

If I did it all over again I'd still take the Z over the Stang and Evo X. The Z looks the best and feels like a genuine sports car, sure the Mustang makes significantly more power and will respond way better to bolt ons (as well the Evo X) the Stang and Evo don't look good. When you sit in the Z you know you're in a sports car, personally the center tach was one of my favorite parts.

If you don't plan on really modifying the car get the Z, if you want to build a bolt-on monster go with the Evo or Stang. Warning, I don't care what instructions you follow, the Z is one of the worst feeling manual transmissions I have ever driven but the rest of the cars pros will get you to look past that, temporarily.

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2009 Carbon Fiber/Red 370z aka Trish: Sports Package, Meisterschaft full catback, Fast Intentions Longtube Headers, Injen Long Tube Intakes, UpRev Tune: Sold
2008 Lotus Exige S Club Racer aka Bella, always leaves me smiling

Strangler

How come the dealer didn't let you test drive the Evo? What did they say?

dP3NGU1N

I believe the exact quote would be something along the lines of "If I let you test drive the car then I have to let every other 18 year old test drive it". This is also after I showed them my credit score and got handed off between 3 different sales people. Just completely unreasonable response to someone who was interested in the car. (For reference: I'm 24, have steady full-time employment, and a credit score of 800)

This single act of the dealership has turned me off to Mitsubishi as a company completely. And to think I was a big fan of the 5th series evo since primary school.

Fabio88

Its a good thing you didn't drive frs because it would have scared you for life driving cars. The frs is overpriced, slow and very cheaply made for the same price you can get a brand new 2012 genesis coupe with 306 hp which is great quality for the price.

NYBladeZ

Um FR-S > Genesis all day everyday. Don't fall for the magazine numbers when you get her home you'll discover it wasn't worth it. OP if the FR-S is a choice AND you plan on modifying the car that would be my way to go. The aftermarket for the FR-S is blowing up and the car just came out. That will lead to way more parts available, a large amount of choice and cheaper parts because of more competition amongst vendors.

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2009 Carbon Fiber/Red 370z aka Trish: Sports Package, Meisterschaft full catback, Fast Intentions Longtube Headers, Injen Long Tube Intakes, UpRev Tune: Sold
2008 Lotus Exige S Club Racer aka Bella, always leaves me smiling

Z_ealot

i dont know about you, but my response would have been to laugh in that guys face and then calm down and quietly say "you just lost a sale buddy", then go down the street pick up whatever car you so choose and show back up at said salesmans dealership and flaunt your new ride in his and his sale managers face while you quietly look on as his sale manager fires his douchebag of a salesman

Snakes709

Some dealerships are like that. The one where i bought my EvoX didnt have any GSR's but they let me take a MR out for a drive, no questions asked. Told them i defently wanted a Evo but not a MR. Did the deal and found out they were getting my GSR from another dealership in the city. So i got the VIN and went to look at the car at the other dealership. Asked to test drive it before i sign off on the dotted line (seeing as how i never driven a GSR at this point and i wanna make sure its what i want) They said no, unless i put down a $1000 non-refundable deposit. I laughed in their face and said "you expect me to give you $1000 to test drive a car that will be mine in 3 days?"

Then he tried to tell me "oh you will love this car, we have Rota rims on there a boost controller and turned the boost up to 45psi" I laughed and asked for the paperwork for the work done to it and he asked why. I said "because when a rod goes flying through the block, i want a brand new engine and you guys will be paying for it" He claims it was safe, blah blah blah. I asked to look under the hood and he said no! Like WTF? seriously? I left and found a different sales guy and asked for the keys to the car and he gave them to me...nothing done to the car.

All that being said. I went from a Cobalt SS/SC - 370z - SRT-10 Ram - EvoX....if i could have done it all over i would have went from the Cobalt to the EvoX.

Thats exactly what i did with a Dodge dealership. When i was looking at trading my 370z in for the SRT-10 i went to a dealership and test drove one. There was a issue with the brakes and a few other minor little things. I asked the dealer to knock off $5000. They said no. So i said ill think about it and left. A day later the dealership calls me and said they will lower it $2000. I told them no, i want 5000 lower. They replied "well we have a guy interested in it and he isnt asking for a lower price, only reason im trying to get you in it, is because you are in the military and we support our troops." I said "well thanks for that, but let the other guy have it." 2 weeks later i found another SRT-10 at another dealership, bought it and went back to the first dealership to grab something (cant remember what) talked to the sales guy and said "yea i got a different srt-10, lower km's, lower price and nothing wrong with it" He just walked away right pissed off. Funny thing is that SRT-10 on their lot was there for 6 more months.

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2011 Evo-GSR AMS 2.4 stroker/ bore, FP Black build in progress.
Sponsor: DSG Performance

dP3NGU1N

That's almost exactly what I did. I stopped laughing once I realized he was serious and told him, "look, if your sales are so strong that you don't need my business then that's alright with me." and I left.

boomee

Still a toss up for me right now STI hatch, Z, 5.0( or 04 cobra) and challanger for various reasons

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Ackrite

I thought about doing that with mine. My local dealership (look at my location and you can probably figure out which one it was) wouldn't work with me so I ended up getting the same car from a dealer about an hour away and in total I ended up saving almost $16k. I don't want to be an ******* and rub it in though because I go there for parts and will probably be going there for service if I don't end up doing it myself.

bigsix

The Mustang is a car I'd really like to test-drive in the near future> It has gotten so many good reviews in magazines in the past few years.
Do you think you gotta have Rear wheel drive ? If so, you can leave out the Mitsubishi Evo. I drove an early 90's Mitsubishi Lancer that my Dad's girlfriend owned for awhile. The interior build was SO bad, pieces of trim would fall off nearly every week ! lol . . . The new Lancer is a bit better, but that's something that sticks in my mind about Lancers.
I think Nissan has very good reliability, if not the best, out of the group of cars you test drove.

I'd say wait and test drive the Scion FR-S/Subaru BR-Z and a Mazda MX-5. That could give you some contrast to the large muscle-car feel===

cossie1600

The Z I bought sat at dealer #A for 5 months. They were being dicks about it with the price and everything. I ended up buying that very same car through dealer #B, who transferred their loaded 370Z to swap it. I have a windows sticker that says who they shipped the car to.....

fusionchicken

if you do end up with an Evo make sure to drive it back there and make him regret his stupid decision

Edit: just read that you are turned off to Mitsu as a company completely, can't really blame you considering their product offerings and honestly horrible customer service in the past 2 Evo's I've owned.

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2000 4runner | 1998 5mt accord sedan | 2000 integra gs-r | 1991 mr2 turbo | 2006 Evolution IX | 2003 s2000 | 2000 Subaru RSTi | 2008 Evolution X | 2007 Civic Si | 2007 Z4M | 2006 FX35 RWD