[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.