Why doesn't mitsibishi compare the Evo to the STI?

im sure a few of your have seen the commercials.. first was the camry vs the galant dodging stuff getting thrown out of trucks.. second one was the galant vs the accord on braking distance.. and now they have the endeavour against the pilot and the highlander on handling.. BUT

they haven't made a commercial about the EVO yet.. i mean thats their rally inspired sports sedan.. WHY NOT MAKE A COMMERCIAL? put the EVO against the direct competition.. which is the STI.. if they did who do you think would win?

WHY NOT MAKE A COMMERCIAL? put the EVO against the direct competition.. which is the STI.. if they did who do you think would win?


Well considering it would be a mitsu comercial i would hope the EVO would win;)

On a serious note while the evo is a direct competitor to the STI, EVO comercials seem rather rare. I guess since its such a low series of cars mitsu doesn't make enough profit out of it to justify extra comercials. plus they might consider the EVO as a niche car designed for a market that knows already all there is to know about the EVOs, making comercials redundant.

Why market a car that they can't make enough of anyway?

You only market things you want to sell more of, and every EVO generation has suffered from demand that far out stipped supply, even the EVO 8 with its unlimited build numbers is selling faster than Mitsi can make them.

There also the small matter of the adds your refering to being USDM spefic.
Its unforunate, but in the US the EVO is not on the same level as the EVO sold to the rest of the world, and the current model WRX STi is the faster car. (although there is apprently an EVO RS in the US that makes up the differnce).

Yeah there haven't been any EVO or STI commercials that I have seen, these cars have no advertisement backing at all. I believe they sell from test drives, word of mouth, and reputations. I mean the 350Z is a hella of a car, but can anybody remember the huge advertising campaign for the 350Z when it was first introduced. I can.

Also the 2005 EVO GSR and RS will have the same engine power as the JDM version, the RS and MR version are really going to be bad ass. Don't get me wrong STI is dope ass car, but it's a couple of tenths faster, but the EVO is an all around better performance car. Don't take my word for it, just take Road and Track, Car and Driver, and Edmunds who all picked the EVO over the STI in comparisons.

http://roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=592&page_number=1

http://caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=15&article_id=6640&page_number=1

http://edmunds.com/reviews/comparison/articles/100430/article.html

I think that both subaru and mitsu need to be careful not to flood the market with their top shelf sprort sedans. I have been noticing alot more evos lately and as a result have lost the desire to own one. Remember, car manufacturers have to think well into the future if they want to survive.

Mitsubishi had an Evo commercial sometime last year. I only saw it once myself. It was so-so. Just showed a bunch of video footage of 'hip' people with Evos, and I think there was some motorsport footage too.

Why market a car that they can't make enough of anyway?

You only market things you want to sell more of, and every EVO generation has suffered from demand that far out stipped supply, even the EVO 8 with its unlimited build numbers is selling faster than Mitsi can make them.

There also the small matter of the adds your refering to being USDM spefic.
Its unforunate, but in the US the EVO is not on the same level as the EVO sold to the rest of the world, and the current model WRX STi is the faster car. (although there is apprently an EVO RS in the US that makes up the differnce).


Actually the EVOs are not selling that well in the US. You can easily get a new one at around 27K USD when its msrp is 29K. It seems that mitsubishi got quite a bad rep nowadays. If you go to the evo us forums 90% of the guys swear they will never touch another mitsu again. It seems the dealer service is quite bad and that the USDM evo loves to blow clutches and the 5th gear syncro.

Not to mention that mitsu is going out of their way to void warranties. A guy in my local autox chapter is in litigation with them because aparently mitsu is activelly searching local racing clubs web sites to black list cars for warranty work. And this guy's son went only once and got blacklisted.

Good think I don't have a mitsu since I am listed on the same SCCA website. :uhoh:

On the handling grounds the USDM evo is still better than the USDM STI though. it seems that subaru messed up by using the same suspension specs for the USDM sti wich has a heavier engine and therefore a different ballance. Also I belive that subi is using a clutch type diff on the front axle which in my book is a big WTF...for the front the best choice imo is a torsen like on the USDM evo RS or just non USMD evos.

If you go to the evo us forums 90% of the guys swear they will never touch another mitsu again. It seems the dealer service is quite bad and that the USDM evo loves to blow clutches and the 5th gear syncro.

Holy shit, you just described my friend Paul PERFECTLY. His clutch died at 3,000 miles, and he never launched the car, he didn't even do stoplight races because he was afraid of hurting it. Mitsubishi refused to replace the clutch, so he is now a sworn enemy of them, and he's selling the Evo to buy a WRX. :)

Actually the EVOs are not selling that well in the US. You can easily get a new one at around 27K USD when its msrp is 29K. It seems that mitsubishi got quite a bad rep nowadays. If you go to the evo us forums 90% of the guys swear they will never touch another mitsu again. It seems the dealer service is quite bad and that the USDM evo loves to blow clutches and the 5th gear syncro.



Here I go again, to the EVOs defense, honestly I just don't like it when the wrong information is put out. Still you are correct on many points, such as the bad dealership service and I'm not gonna sit here and tell you Mitsubishi reliability is the best, because I know it's not. Still 90%, come on, that is not correct. Most EVO owners haven't had any major problems, here is the most recent poll on this on this issue-

http://forums.evolutionm.net/showthread.php?t=80643

As far as sells, the EVO has been one of the bright spots for Mitsubishi, they don't import many here to began with. They are not selling absolutely wonderful, just ok, but that's not too bad, when you consider most people don't even know what an EVO is or think it is just a really fixed up regular Lancer. Still Mitsubishi does have some problems, hopefully Mitsubishi can turn itself around.

Just like to say I've never seen an ad for an Evo but I remember constantly seeing ads for the STI, w/ it drivnig around a curve and then the screen comes up "0-60 in 4.8 sec..." and so forth. But I do agree w/ the statement that these cars are really not worth the advertising, they are no where near the comanies "bread and butter". Economics is a a totally different subject than car racing. Us enthusiest may think the Evo is a great buy, but from an economics point of view, it's nothing special. BTW have you guys seen the commercials that Mitsu is offering 3 years FREE maintaince?

Maybe it's just me, but in the past few months, I've been seeing tons of Subaru ads, and before the start of 2004, I had never seen one on TV. I guess they must be doing really well as of late :)

Just like to say I've never seen an ad for an Evo but I remember constantly seeing ads for the STI, w/ it drivnig around a curve and then the screen comes up "0-60 in 4.8 sec..." and so forth. But I do agree w/ the statement that these cars are really not worth the advertising, they are no where near the comanies "bread and butter". Economics is a a totally different subject than car racing. Us enthusiest may think the Evo is a great buy, but from an economics point of view, it's nothing special. BTW have you guys seen the commercials that Mitsu is offering 3 years FREE maintaince?

Technically speaking, unless your talking about a company that only sells sport cars such as Porsche (Not counting Cayene) or Lamborghini, no company can really claim that their sport cars is their bread and butter. Don't get me wrong, I know that there are many sport cars out there that turn in profits (sometimes big profits), but still are not considered the bread and butter of any car company. Sport cars offer more than just profit, they offer image, and believe me that can be very important. An example is the Nissan 350Z, a car that is turning in a very good profit for Nissan and looked upon very favorably, and one could say that in the USA the Z series is the heart and soul of Nissan. Yet does this translate into bread and butter, nope. The Altima is the bread and butter, in an average month Nissan sells about 2,500 350Zs compared to 16,000 Altimas (The 350Z would have to cost well over $100,000 to make up the difference). Yet both cars are successful and turn in profits. So when I said that the EVO was a bright spot, I wasn't saying it was the bread and butter, because no sport car really is the bread and butter, but it has turned in a small profit for Mitsubishi, and for Mitsubishi right now, believe me even a small profit can be looked upon very positively.

As far as commercial, man I haven't seen the commercials you guys are talking of. I would love to see them. Well I live in Southern California and I am constantly on the road and I do see these cars (EVO and STI) a lot, and dealers are still selling some with markups, but most aren't. So I guess here they are doing well. I do wish the Mitsubishi and Subaru would dish out some cash for a truelly national advertisment campaign, but then again, both of these cars are considered limited editions, meaning not many are even imported here. So unless both Mitsubishi and Subaru decided to dramatically increase their importation of EVOs and STIs to the United States, a big advertisment budget isn't really needed. Still a couple of comercials here and there wouldn't hurt.

Look at this way, Mitsubishi's goal was to import and sell 5,000 EVOs it's first year, modest goal at most, they accomplished this goal, as of now they sell about 450 EVOs a month, you do the math. Most of Mitsubishi's cars are losing money, the EVO is making money, not a lot, but Mitsubishi never intented for it to be a lot. The EVO has been a success as far as image and profits, hopefully they can build off of this and spread this to their other so called 'bread and butter' cars. They have a new GM now, who help turn around Hyundia, hopefully he can do the same for Mitsubishi.

well i wasn't talking about how much they are profiting for the companies themselves.. but mitsubishi seems so cocky with their commercials.. and since they are supposedly real world tests.. they should compare them against the competition.. which in this case would have the evo/sti on the same commercial.. 0-60 breaking 1/4 0-60 and salom and all that stuff.. maybe even an accident avoidance commercial? lol anyways this is turning out to be a great thread.. also do you think the clutch goes out sooner than most cars... because both the evo/sti or wrx are AWD.. and that stresses more on the clutch when you launch or just when you mess up once in awhile

o yea just from what i've been seeing in souther california.. specifically the whole 626 area.. the WRX's are as common as EVO's but i only see 1/3 as many STI's as there are EVO's/WRX's

should point out that the evo and sti wrx don't have an image in the states because you guys don't follow the world rally.

in the rest of the world, these two cars have a very strong image.

Yeah I do believe that the clutch is a problem, while most EVO owners don't report major clutch problems, a substantial amount do. This problem I hope will be solved with the introduction of the 2005 models. Your correct about AWD being more abusive on the clutch, but clutch problems for other companies that utilize AWD such as Subaru and Audi are not really a big issue, so yes I have to admit, the problem lies with Mitsubishi. Also you say why doesn't Mitsubishi advertise the EVO against Subaru STI, well really, Mitsubishi doesn't really advertise the EVO period. For now they really don't need to, they are accomplishing their sale goals with out it. But if Mitsubishi ever plans to sell a lot more EVOs, a big advertsing campaign would be highly recommended.

And Mitsubishi refuses to admit that there is a problem and repair the clutch when it dies at 3,000 miles. That's bullshit, and that's a sign of a bad company.

300, I didn't mean that you said they were the bread and butter... I was just pointing out that fact, economics rules out over performance... look at Toyota... and we all criticize them, ha, I bet toyota's CEO and major shareholders are pretty happy w/ how things are going, and could care less about the demise of any car that wasn't making them enough$$$, or yen, or whatever. Hey, look at my car, Camaro, it too fell victim, though having a diehard following it wasn't economically justifiable. I'm just saying the commercial showcase the valuable cars... like you said, the altima for nissan. BUT... sports cars DO provide an image, the Corvette is GMs little flagship. When is the last time you saw an ad for a Corvette? But I have to say I see a lot more Corvette's around than EVOs or STI's.

But I have to say I see a lot more Corvette's around than EVOs or STI's.

Yeah you do, and so do I. The Corvette has been around a lot longer, and they do out sale the EVO and STI and many other sport cars. No argument there. Still that doesn't make the EVO and STI a failure.

I've only seen 3 evos and i dunno how many sti's. there is so many in my area it ain't no big deal having one lol

Hey, look at my car, Camaro, it too fell victim, though having a diehard following it wasn't economically justifiable.

Sure it was. The Mustang was outselling it about 3:1, and other sports coupes were outselling it by even more.

kman, you misread my post
"Hey, look at my car, Camaro, it too fell victim, and although having a diehard following it wasn't economically justifiable to produce" I omitted a few words the first time.
I was just saying the Evo and STi are niche cars like said earlier, the Corvette is more of a manstream sporty car, while the Evo anbd Sti are really for ethusiests only. You don't really know about these cars unless you know about cars.

Actually the EVOs are not selling that well in the US. You can easily get a new one at around 27K USD when its msrp is 29K. It seems that mitsubishi got quite a bad rep nowadays. If you go to the evo us forums 90% of the guys swear they will never touch another mitsu again. It seems the dealer service is quite bad and that the USDM evo loves to blow clutches and the 5th gear syncro.

Not to mention that mitsu is going out of their way to void warranties. A guy in my local autox chapter is in litigation with them because aparently mitsu is activelly searching local racing clubs web sites to black list cars for warranty work. And this guy's son went only once and got blacklisted.

Good think I don't have a mitsu since I am listed on the same SCCA website. :uhoh:

On the handling grounds the USDM evo is still better than the USDM STI though. it seems that subaru messed up by using the same suspension specs for the USDM sti wich has a heavier engine and therefore a different ballance. Also I belive that subi is using a clutch type diff on the front axle which in my book is a big WTF...for the front the best choice imo is a torsen like on the USDM evo RS or just non USMD evos.
Mitsubishi in the US are crooks and nothing more, that which you described is just the tip of the iceberg. Considering that they hid safety recalls, did some EXTREMELY dodgy book keeping (According to them Enzo Ferrari bought a Mitsi in 1999), yeah basically the US franchise deserve every slap in the face they get from falling sales.