After reading the M3 vs Evo thread I thought, "What would happen if we spent that $20K difference between the two cars all on luxury for the Evo?" That's $20K in interior work for the Evo VIII making it a $50K car. I would also say part of that money would go towards bumping up the power a bit to make up for the added weight. Making the Evo perform equally as well but in complete...style.
What would you want? Comfy leather seats, premium sound system? GPS navigation system, passenger side environment controls maybe? Cruise control for sure. Complete reworking of interior style to match the caliber of say...an Audi. (beautiful interior cars )
$20K (US dollars) is a lot of money. Almost too much to do something with in the interior. But hey, we're just dreaming here.

 

Lets make clear that it does not cost BMW $40k to make the M3. If you actually spent $20k on extra stuff for an Evo to make it "luxury", it better clean my house, and cook me dinner as well.

 

I for one hope they don't. That's what went "wrong" with the E46 M3 is many people's estimation: it became to "fat". Too much sound deadening, too much "comfort", too mach fancy engineering which acts to take the driving experience away from the driver. They even dialed understeer into the handling because they wanted to widen their range of perspecitve buyers to include those who don't know how to drive, and would be scared off by a tail happy suspension setup.

The Evo is cool as it is, a purpose built performance car. If you go add all of the bells and whistles, you'll lose the essence of the car, IMHO. Besides, getting people to spend $30K on a sub-compact Mitsubishi is tough enough, just think how hard a sell $50K would be!

 

Yeah crap_shoot is right. The E46 M3, while it is a fast and great handling performer, it's still not a race car living up to its M designation. BMW stopped making performance cars en masse with the E30 M3.

 

Well I know a $50K Evo won't sell and that's were BMW (opinion) went wrong on the M3's. I'm not saying is or should do this either, we're just fantasizing here. What would it be like? What would you want?

 

In fantasy land, the first thing added to my $50K Luxo-Evo would be a sequential transmission like they have in the rally cars (granted I heard the transmission alone in a STi was $70K, but some form of a sequential tranny is fine). Inside, it should have basically the same interior as a Mercedes. Keep the Recaros but have them signature models covered in leather, Momo steering wheel covered in leather, Bose audio, power seats (although I prefer manual seats, they would never sell in this Luxo-Evo), tone down the styling a bit (yes you'd have to get rid of the huge wing), put some "regular" taillights on and you're in business.

Too bad most people who spend 50K want the status that a Merc or BMW brings along with it. That's really one of the reasons I'm looking to trade my BMW...too many people assume you're "one of those people" when you pull up in a bimmer. Forget that, let them think I'm driving an econobox and we'll see what happens when the light turns green.

 

Perhaps the Evo VII GTA would better suit the luxo crowd.

 

With that $20k, I'd rather make the thing 600 lbs lighter and have about 300 hp...

Honestly, why anyone would want a "luxury" Lancer Evolution is beyond me... It's an ugly car, screams "rice", and is still a no matter how much luxury you slap on it. You'd be better off buying a 330xi and making it fast.

- Leather seats do not belong in a sports car.
- Premium sound: $1000 and I'll have an aftermarket system that is better than any OEM stereo...
- Navigation: Get a Garmin unit that's better and portable between cars... or integrate it with an aftermarket stereo
- Passenger climate control? Screw the passenger.

 

I agree. 20K invested in luxury mods will not even approach the luxury of a BMW. When you build over 100K E46 3-series bmw's a year, there are economies of scale that work in your favor when developing the luxury gear. Items like automatic climate control or a truly integrated telematics system are nearly impossible to engineer or retrofit after the fact, and at the end a custom job looks like exactly that, a custom job. Likewise, the guy at your local shop can't scour the Italian countryside for the perfect Nappa leathers with which to upholster the interior. Spend the 20K on go-fast gear and you'll get a larger bang for your buck. Or trade in your Evo for an M3. The M3 makes a much better 50K sports car than the Evo ever would. The Evo is much more in the spirit of the E30 M3, which was a fairly inexpensive factory homologation special that had very little to do with the base car. Now that thing is pretty basic inside...

 

People need to start dreaming a bit here. I can fully understand someone who would want to get an Evo and then tweak the interior to be more comfortable to their liking. He's just looking for input as to what you would do.

Personally, the interior of my OZ is pretty nice - I'm not too picky. But the stereo needs work and coulkd certainly use some of that 20K. Also, heated power leather seats would be really cool, with multiple drivers memory. An auto-dimming mirror and cruise control should be in there.

Other than that, a million little things. Replacing the plastic dashboard and door panels with vinyl for instance and getting the roof handles from a VW/Audi that retract really slowly and smoothly. Those little details go a long way. And I'm sure they'd add up in cost a bit after a while...
-N

 

...and one of those TV rear view mirrors that doubles as a camera monitor....

 

what's a roof handle?

 

Umm we are talking about a Rally inspired car here if I wanted luxury I would buy a IS300 or GS.

In my fantasy land, I would use the $20k to have Pamela Anderson drive around with me in my EVO and spank BMWs!

 

it's the "oh, sh*t!" handle

 

i think ya missed the point noob.

Yeah, i forgot about heat leather seats. those come in real handy in the winter. The multiple drivers memory is a cool option too. A friend of mine has that on his Volvo S60. There's all kinds of options and settings with the memory thing. Seet settings, air temp, mirrors, dash dim level, radio, outside flood light things(if you haven't seen this it's pretty cool).


...and again I'm not talking aftermarket parts or custom jobs here. Just what it would be like if Mitsu made a lux version in the factory with another 20K.
We're all sports car enthusiasts so it's good to think about the other side every now and then. Ride comfort and style. Things that make a great GT car.