Buying Evo8 VS 9

[scheides]

IMHO get whatever is in your pricerange and fits what you want. Lots of 2003 evos going for the low teens and 80-120k miles on them that will make for a great car for simple fun DD or mod it to the gills and run 10's. You can retrofit more comfy shocks or fancy coilovers or bigger turbos or the latest and greatest cams in and as long as you maintain it properly you can have a great reliable and affordable all-around fun car.

Basically spending more on an IX or an X gains you a few things:
-less mileage (less potential wear/tear)
-newer chassis (same as above, generally cleaner, plus design improvements over the years, esp the X)
-more tecnology out of the box: ACD (05 evo8, 06 IX, all evoX), Mivec (IX), Dual mivec (X), S-AWC, etc.

Basically I say more 'out of the box' because the newer cars seem to respond better to less mods on a mildly modded car.

Evos are all seriously fun and tons of bang for your buck. Lots of people go drop $30k on a new camery or accord for a nice reliable DD. If you can afford and justify spending that much, look more towards the X's. If you want something to mod the eff out of and don't really care about what breaks and how long it takes to fix it, lean more towards an 8. If you want something inbetween, look more at an IX. All of these of course are generalities and there are plenty plenty plenty exceptions to these comments. Go drive a few, decide what you like best, and dive in.

[Mwolf83]

I say if it is a car your going to DD, then find a nice condition 8 with SSL package and go ahead and rack up as many miles on it as you want, but leave the 9's alone because they are hard enough to find with low miles on them, haha.

[C3L1CA]

If money wasn't an issue I would pick up a 9 with low mileage as they make a bit more power with basic mods.

Being as money was an issue for me, I went with an 8 with 75k miles on it. I love it so far and being as its a daily it'll just rack up miles so I don't really care about getting a low mileage car.

[Kracka]

^ And as Jake said a better looking front end, which is also more functional as the IC opening is wider than the factory IC. ;)
Study the design of the stock intercooler along with the IX bumper and you'll realize it's more functional ;)

[dsmdion]

Im leaning more towards the IX, money isn't a massive deal since Ill be putting down a good size down payment. It won't rack up a million miles cause my daily commutes arent very far at all. Not only that, Ill still drive my talon on a regular basis, I just can't depend on a dsm that im going to race all the time as a daily driver. Im leaning IX cause it seems to be an overall little nicer car with everything worked out, and more options. I figured if im going to spend a chunk of money for one I may as well get the better of the two. That and Knowing me Ill prolly just wish i bought a XI down the road anyway so I won't Kick myself lol. Even with that being said If i did find a low mileage nice VIII I would definetly consider it. Maybe even a X could be in the works, I really do love them, but that may be a bit too much.

[scheides]

Knowing me Ill prolly just wish i bought a XI down the road anyway so I won't Kick myself lol.

When I crashed my 2005 SSL evo8 I *almost* bought another 2005 SSL evo8, similar mileage and everything, but there were only a couple SSL IX's on the market and I just knew I would regret not getting the IX if I got another 8. With the time and mods I planned on putting into the next car I knew I had to pick one that I could stick with. I found one IX for like 24k and was really hoping high that it would be 'the one' but the owner was so lazy in getting me pics or wanting to meet up I stumbled upon this beat up 2008 EvoX and started to figure out that for barely any more than I'd spend on the IX I'd get an X with a lot less miles.

Again, drive a few, figure in some basic mods/tuning/maintenance into your budget for the purchase (I planned a few months out or X amount of mods and maintenance) and then finally figure out what the market has on it. Feel free to post up links here as you think about various cars and we can make comments/suggestions!

[dsmdion]

Ya i work with a kid that has a XI so ill check that out. Are the XIs that expensive to where they are close in price to a X? I haven't seen to many for sale, but i see VIII for like low teens like mentioned above.

[Kracka]

There is no such thing as an Evo XI...are you referring to the IX but just don't know how Roman numerals work? ;)

[dsmdion]

Haha my bad, and I actually don't know shit for Roman numerals :( lol. Ya I meant IX. Thats why I Usually put 8 or 9 otherwise I end up getting shit wrong or backwards lol.

[1G_DSM]

I would say IXs go for like 22- 25k'ish.