Nine Lives: Mitsubishi Unveils "Final Enhancement" to Lancer Evo

[mikeyb]

CYPRESS, Calif. Mitsubishi unveiled the Lancer Evolution SE on Monday, describing the new trim level as the final enhancement to the body style that has been on the market since 2003. A new Lancer Evo is expected sometime next year.

Mitsubishi said the Lancer Evo SE would start at $33,249. The new trim level includes red-stitched Recaro seats, a front airdam extension designed to reduce front-end lift, a lightweight aluminum roof panel that controls body roll by lowering the vehicle's center of gravity and 17-inch forged BBS alloy wheels in a new "Diamond Black" finish.

The SE also includes HID headlights with halogen foglamps. Available exterior colors are apex silver, graphite gray and tarmac black.

The SE is powered by a 2.0-liter I4 DOHC intercooled turbocharged engine mated to a 5-speed transmission.

The revised airdam, Recaro seats with red stitching, and forged BBS wheels in diamond black are also available on the MR trim level as a $500 appearance package, the company said.

What this means to you: The Lancer Evo gets a new appearance package to maintain your interest in the vehicle while they put the finishing touches on the upcoming model.

source:http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=116362#2
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[JOS3]

diamond black BBS wheels? i want to see!

 

[mikeyb]

diamond black BBS wheels? i want to see!

So do I, I'm looking for a picture of them.

 

[JOS3]

i followed the link but found nothing

 

[mikeyb]

i followed the link but found nothing

Its only the picture I posted. Hopefully one of the EVO converts here will know where to look for it. Where is jred321 when you need him?

 

[jred321]

lol, give me a minute, i'll see what i can find. i'd imagine they look a lot like the fq-400 wheels, i think the finish on those is "diamond black"

 

[jred321]

here are some pics. i was wrong about the diamond black, i thought they'd be darker. i like how they look though

giant seat pics
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h295/lznk41/SANY0146.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h295/lznk41/SANY0148.jpg

 

[jmv]

i'd take one.... looks nice.

 

[altspace]

Ah...Available exterior colors are apex silver, graphite gray and tarmac black. The yellow pic is not correct.

 

[Pirana]

Mitsubishi is going to kill the Evolution series car, like Mazda killed the RX-7 in the U.S. By uping the price more and more, they will be out of their core buyer pretty soon.

 

[FlipandFunk]

thats part of it and also that insurence is pretty high for them. Last year they were #2 most expensive insurence claimed car. Crazy feat considering they are low production.

 

[jred321]

i can't say i totally agree, but they do keep pricing up. the way i look at it is it's not too hard to get a car into the low 30s in pricing nowadays, accords, camrys, tsx, etc..., and the evo is in the same range, just instead of nice amenities and OK performance you get good performance and OK amenities. different strokes. i know if i HAD to have a 4 door because of families, a camry would not appeal to me, but an evo would

also looking at it from mitsu's point of view, the demand is strongest for the MR, which is also the most expensive, so people are obviously willing to pay for it. so they'll keep pushing bit by bit until that demand dies out

 

[jred321]

thats part of it and also that insurence is pretty high for them. Last year they were #2 most expensive insurence claimed car. Crazy feat considering they are low production.

that's not true. they were the #2 most stolen car per 1000 sold at 11.9 per 1000. they only sell ~5000 per year, so that means like 60 of them are stolen every year. nothing to do with most expensive claimed car, i'd imagine the car that costs insurance companies the most is a civic or something that is sold in the hundreds of thousands. their percent will be lower per 1000 sold though but i'd imagine the claims on the civic vs evo is much much higher on the civic side

insurance isn't that bad for them. it's on the expensive side, but still not terrible. were i on my own policy, i'd be around $200-250/month with good coverages and $100 deductibles and i'm a 22 year old male. expensive, but not the end of the world

 

[FlipandFunk]

Cadillac Escalade and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution top the list of highest insurance claims for theft

ARLINGTON, VA Versions of the 2003-05 Cadillac Escalade, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and Dodge Ram 1500 quad cab pickup have the highest rates of insurance theft claims. The 3 vehicles have claim rates 4 to 5 times the average for all vehicles. These are the latest theft loss results for passenger vehicles 1 to 3 years old published by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Overall losses for pickups have increased sharply since 1999. This is mainly because of high theft claims for the Dodge Ram and Ford F-250/350. In contrast, losses for cars and SUVs increased slightly in 2003-04 but declined in 2005. The rate of theft of pickups in 2005 was nearly twice as high as for cars or SUVs.

This is the fourth year in a row that the Escalade has topped the list of vehicles most likely to have a theft claim. In fact, 4 versions of the Escalade (EXT, a specialty pickup, plus 2- and 4-wheel-drive versions of the short- and long-wheelbase Escalade SUVs) head the list of the worst overall insurance losses for theft among all passenger vehicles. The EXT has overall theft losses that are 16 times higher than the average.

"The overall results show the Escalade has not only the highest rate of claims but also very expensive claims when they are filed," says Kim Hazelbaker, HLDI senior vice president. "In fact, almost one-quarter of theft claims for the Escalade are for $40,000 or more, indicating that thieves often are stealing the whole vehicles and not just their parts."

The Escalade's theft losses have been the highest in recent years even though this vehicle is equipped with a standard antitheft ignition immobilizer. An immobilizer is built into a vehicle's electronic ignition system. It's supposed to prevent the vehicle from being started without the proper key.

Cadillac redesigned the Escalade for 2007 and upgraded its antitheft system. It's too soon to know if the new model will have a lower theft rate than the previous ones.

The high-performance Lancer Evolution is new this year to the list of vehicles with the highest theft losses. Investigators say this model may be attracting the attention of thieves because its parts can be used to customize standard Lancers.

YOu think 300bux a month is good for insurence on a car?? lol. I pay 600 for my msp a YEAR.

 

[jmv]

i went to the mitsu website, and optioned an evo IX like i would if i could just buy one cost no matter, and it came out to like 33K. Woulda been 37K if it was the MR. Thats alot of money.... but they are very capable cars. i dunno.

 

[jred321]

This is the fourth year in a row that the Escalade has topped the list of vehicles most likely to have a theft claim.

i think there is just a difference in how i'm interpretting what you're saying. there are two main elements to rank when talking about a claim: frequency and severity. the rankings in this article are based solely on frequency (though there are mentions of total loss) at a rate per 1000 vehicles. what it sounded like you were saying was the total cost of claims, i.e. frequency times severity. there's no way a car produced in such small quantities is going to win that battle. even at $30k per car, it's only costing the insurance industry $180k per year if 12 of every 1000 are stolen given they sell 5000 vehicles. say 3 of every 1000 civics is stolen, so 1/4 as many as the evo based on the per 1000 rank mentioned in the article. but say they sell 200,000 civics per year (guessing). that means 600 civics will be stolen for a total cost of $12,000,000.

The high-performance Lancer Evolution is new this year to the list of vehicles with the highest theft losses. Investigators say this model may be attracting the attention of thieves because its parts can be used to customize standard Lancers.

i always laugh when i see this part of the article. nice research guys.

YOu think 300bux a month is good for insurence on a car?? lol. I pay 600 for my msp a YEAR.

there are a lot of factors that go into an insurance premium. comparing yours to mine doesn't really tell much (age, location, credit score, married, children, deductibles, limits, optional coverages, just to name a few). my premium on the MSP was a bit shy of $200/month vs. closer to $300/month for the evo (will be less now, this was a year ago). so yes the insurance is more, but it's not much more, especially given the performance difference. go do an online quote using the same coverages you use for your $600 premium for an evo, see what the difference is. there's no doubt it'll be a difference, but (depending on what company your insurance is through) it won't be astronomical

 

[jred321]

i went to the mitsu website, and optioned an evo IX like i would if i could just buy one cost no matter, and it came out to like 33K. Woulda been 37K if it was the MR. Thats alot of money.... but they are very capable cars. i dunno.

i view it as the ultimate daily driver. how many other cars can run 12s, be fun on the track, drive through feet of snow (yes i've done it, front was a plow), take you to and from work every day, and haul 5 people + groceries around? there aren't a whole lot. there are some sacrifices obviously (crappy interior and high maintenance cost mostly) but for some people it's worth it

 

[1sty]

i view it as the ultimate daily driver. how many other cars can run 12s, be fun on the track, drive through feet of snow (yes i've done it, front was a plow), take you to and from work every day, and haul 5 people + groceries around? there aren't a whole lot. there are some sacrifices obviously (crappy interior and high maintenance cost mostly) but for some people it's worth it

STI (poke)
SRT/4
Possibly Mazdaspeed 3

All of the cars need snow tires and are fione with them in bad weather

 

[Fede_italiano]

i think there is just a difference in how i'm interpretting what you're saying. there are two main elements to rank when talking about a claim: frequency and severity. the rankings in this article are based solely on frequency (though there are mentions of total loss) at a rate per 1000 vehicles. what it sounded like you were saying was the total cost of claims, i.e. frequency times severity. there's no way a car produced in such small quantities is going to win that battle. even at $30k per car, it's only costing the insurance industry $180k per year if 12 of every 1000 are stolen given they sell 5000 vehicles. say 3 of every 1000 civics is stolen, so 1/4 as many as the evo based on the per 1000 rank mentioned in the article. but say they sell 200,000 civics per year (guessing). that means 600 civics will be stolen for a total cost of $12,000,000.


i always laugh when i see this part of the article. nice research guys.

there are a lot of factors that go into an insurance premium. comparing yours to mine doesn't really tell much (age, location, credit score, married, children, deductibles, limits, optional coverages, just to name a few). my premium on the MSP was a bit shy of $200/month vs. closer to $300/month for the evo (will be less now, this was a year ago). so yes the insurance is more, but it's not much more, especially given the performance difference. go do an online quote using the same coverages you use for your $600 premium for an evo, see what the difference is. there's no doubt it'll be a difference, but (depending on what company your insurance is through) it won't be astronomical

I pay 1600 a year for my MSP.
I love EVO but the only complaint I have is that for the price (let's say $37000 for an MR) I wish they had a better interior. Just so that when I sit on the car I do not feel like i am driving a cheap car.
Btw,wasn't the MR $33000 not to long ago?

 

[jmv]

i view it as the ultimate daily driver. how many other cars can run 12s, be fun on the track, drive through feet of snow (yes i've done it, front was a plow), take you to and from work every day, and haul 5 people + groceries around? there aren't a whole lot. there are some sacrifices obviously (crappy interior and high maintenance cost mostly) but for some people it's worth it

very fair point. Several times i've considered possible future cars for myself (this will be down the road a bit), and i could see myself buying an evo. They are impressive, but thats still alot of money....