Well guys speaking of taking a beating, I just traded my Silver MR for a Graphite grey MR.

 

Dude... How much did that cost you?

 

Not a lot. The dealer gave me a reasonable price for my trade.

 

What dealer did you go through in NJ?

 

Freehold Mitsu

 

Interesting, I live about 30m from them. I went there but they would not budge on price too much! But for the most part they are good people there, compared to some other Mitsu dealers I have gone to!

 

Do you have an MR Smokin Evo? If you do it must be a weak one or defective one. You should take it to the dealer and get it checked out. If you don't own one, you prolly need to beg someone who does to let you drive it for a good bit before you post. I don't want to sound critical or to insult you, but it looks like you don't know what you are talking about

 

I think the Evo 9 will be very close in price to the Evo 8...at this point Mitsu can't afford to price the car out of the market. Second, it has already been reported that the Evo 9 will include all of those features as standard as well as a bump in power !

 

Yeah right, I guess that's why the MR sells for the same price as the RS and GSR...

 

I'd venture to guess the IX will be closer in price to the MR than the current GSR if it does get all of those goodies.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the EVO 9 is a bit more expensive than the MR. Same equipment as the MR plus a bump in power. Are we getting the rice tail lights for the 9 or the real EVO tail lights as seen in pictures?

 

I would definitely keep the 2003 evo. These cars are gonna keep getting better and better and if you spend every day and night thinking about the "newest hottest evo" you're gonna lose out on the expirence at hand. Just have fun with the car you've got! As for the evolution IX we really don't know much about any of the interior/exterior of the evo nine as it will appear in our market. There are rumors of it having a new climate control system, but that is just speculation they have had those better climate controls in jdm for a while now, I don't know that we will recieve it because Mitsu is gonna have a hard enough time keeping the price of the IX down in the states as it is. The blacked heads and tails... well what can I say, we were supposed to recieve those on the MR also along with the JDM recaros but once again to keep costs down Mitsu gave the MR the same seats and lights as the regular evo. These are all just creature comforts though and aren't that important. I don't think Mitsu will do very well with the nine here if they exceed the price of the MR by more than 1-2k dollars so let's just be happy Mitsu is continuing to bring us the evo. One thing that is confirmed with the nine which is awesome, is the MIVEC head! I'm looking forward to what the variable valve timing can do for the already awesome 4g63 block as it has proved very useful in the ralliart 4g69 espically when it comes to the aftermarket forced induction for the car. We'll see what happens when we get a release date and some more specs.

 

I purchased the RS new in july and w/ 9400 miles the clutch is gone. Went to the dealer to get an estimate for the clutch install and ended up driving off w/ a w. white MR. Not only do I love it, but my wife loves it. It is a totally different ride, even the clutch feels better. On the RS from the time I test drove it you would have to give it a good amount of gas to go from a stop, the MR barely let off the clutch the car is moving. I do miss hearing my engine though, damn sound deadning crap.

MR is worth the trade to me.

 

^^ True that ... That's very close to my experience too. I took the test drive and I was hooked. I would have probably voted in the camp on "keep your EVO8", but then I had not driven the MR..... I think that once a person really gets the chance to compare, they'll choose the MR right away. It's just a very nicely put together package. It's also a good value for the buck. There is no way that a person can spend the difference in price between the GSR and the MR in mods and equal or even approach the MR

I'm not saying that you could not end up with a more powerful or faster EVO, and perhaps even a better handling car in some applications, but no way can the car equal the sum of the MR parts

 

The hp gain is not minimal, the #'s sound minimal, but I have raced an 04 evo 8 w/ tb, mbc set at 20.5 psi, open filter, and me stock MR pulled him by 3 cars, and in my RS I would barely pull him he would stay on my rear tire and could not pull anymore and had dp, and mbc set @ 20 psi