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Mitsubishi’s rapid Evo X is prying customers away from premium German and Japanese marques according to an in-house survey. Since its launch in March this year, Mitsubishi dealers have been keeping a close eye on the buying trends of the Evo X, especially part exchanges.
The results showed nearly 40% of buyers were part exchanging German brands for the SST Evo, while 31% were from Japanese competitors. The automaker has claimed that even supercars have been traded in exchange for the new Evo,...Read the full article

Hip, hip, hooray!!  At least Mitsubishi seems to be one of the few remaining manufacturers that understand some of us like to shift gears ourselves in high-performance cars.  They most certainly should reap the benefits of this wise decision.

One of the joys of owning BMW's in the past was just how natural the clutch and gearchange felt, and how much joy one derived from rowing up and down the box.  No such choice in the M5 or for that matter, the humbler M3.  Mercedes does not give you that choice at all unless you opt for their most humble offerings.

Bring back the manual gearbox, please!  There are some of us out here who love to shift gears for ourselves, can still manage to turn on the wipers ourselves when it rains, and are prudent enough to know when to turn on the headlights.

We don't expect anyone to wipe our bottoms for us, and most certainly we would not expect our car to!

here here!

i recently went to an auto for the first time and i must admit that whilst it is sorta of relaxing, this benefit is more than outweighed by the feeling that i could have a lot more fun in a manual, not to mention a lot more control.

and thats the key for me, control.  i want to drive the car, not be driven by it.

 

I couldn't agree more!

 With even the more humble offerings from car manufacturers pushing out 200bhp plus surely you need to be more in control rather than less?

I know the recent raft of DSG boxes have become seamlessly smooth and lightning quick but can anything beat snicking through the gears yourself? Besides we've all been there when you want to get past something on an A road and dropping a cog or two, prodding the throttle (to minimise the danger) has to be one of lifes little high points, surely :)

 

I know this is widening the debate but I'm curious to know where anyone is driving cars like the Evo or M3, DSG or no DSG. I live in a semi-rural area and there is nowhere I know of where you could use even a fraction of their performance potential or, at least, not with any degree of responsibility. I'm not against these cars per se, I'm curious to know what people do with them. Do they just drive too fast? Also, like 4x4s, surely the MPG of these cars mean that their medium-long term future is pretty marginal.

Hi RobotBoogie.  I can't speak for the UK because I have never lived there, but in many Asian and American cities, these are precisely the cars that come out at night to play. :-)

OK, I am talking about street racing at night which is illegal but as far as my moral values go, it's no harm as long as nobody gets hurt, and generally nobody gets hurt.

Aside from that, there are weekend drives into the mountains or track days.  Most of these cars are completely capable of handling daily driving as well.

My neighbor has a Scooby STI as well as an Evo X which are both used as daily drivers, while another neighbor of mine has (and this is no exaggeration) Porsche 911 Turbo, Porsche 911 Carrera GT2, Merc SL 55 AMG, Merc CLK 55 AMG Cabrio, BMW M3 Cabrio, Lambo Gallardo, Ferrari F360 Spyder and BMW X5 4.6 iS.  They are all black save the M3 which is dark grey metallic.  He generally only goes out at night.

Just wish I could go over and borrow one of them for a weekend. :-)

I simply could not agree with you more, Mate!

Absolutely!  Even if the G-tronic and Steptronics and DSG's might be able to slam a gear home faster than I can, I don't get any real satisfaction out of it aside from the fast acceleration.  Driving enjoyment comes from every aspect of driving and for me, that does include shifting gears and using the clutch. You're on the money Kee Law!

Not sure if I agree with you on this one, I'd take a DSG equiped GTI over a manual any day, being that it is quicker, smoother and more fun to drive, the manual box has passed it's sell by date, that's why F1 cars have semi automatic boxes. One suspects the Evo is lumbered with a manual box because Mitsubishi haven't yet mastered modern technology.

I think the Evo doesn't get the DSG option due to Mitsubishi not having developed a box that could handle the torque. Their manual box has no such issues. I recall AMG having to do serious development work on their autos to handle the torque, then again they were talking about monster figures.

wheats:

Not sure if I agree with you on this one, I'd take a DSG equiped GTI over a manual any day, being that it is quicker, smoother and more fun to drive, the manual box has passed it's sell by date, that's why F1 cars have semi automatic boxes.

 

I agree that a DSG may be faster, hence its on F1 cars.  But imho a manual is more fun.

 

wheats:

One suspects the Evo is lumbered with a manual box because Mitsubishi haven't yet mastered modern technology.

as a well informed autocar reader, i'm sure you're aware that Mitsubishi do have the dual clutch SST....

 

Finally people are getting with the program. People want usable, very high quality cars that drive great--- but, and this is key, are NOT status symbols. BMW's, MB's and VW/A/Porsche's are way too same. And moreover they are mostly too big and heavy or in the case of Porsche just not practical. If a Evo or Sti can match a Porsche on real roads plus can seat 4 comfortably with luggage then it becomes an easier and easier choice.

 
Sure the Japanese have not solved the fun to drive and feel aspects but maybe that will be there next "innovation" for 2014. Until then, maybe I could get a Cayman S and rebody it with an Sti shell and move the engine to the front.