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Japan's greatest rally special. The M5 for the Playstation generation. The only decent car Mitsubishi ever made. Different people associate the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution with different enthusiast tropes. For me, the Evo will always be inextricably linked to heartbreak.
Early in my career as an automotive journalist, I managed to wrangle a red Evo MR (above) for a week-long road test. A weekend trip to visit my then girlfriend ended in a very humiliating public breakup, and a 100 mile drove home in near-blizzard conditions.
The breakup, though minor in retrospect, served as a trigger for the kind of emotional anguish that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I was an animated example of every post-breakup cliche: unable to listen to certain songs, all too able to ingest excess amounts of alcohol, unwilling to get out of bed in the morning, incapable of focusing on my work or personal responsibilities. I steadfastly avoided anything that had even the slightest association with my ex. Except the Evo.
For some unknown reason, the local press fleet manager had another Evo, an MR model in the dark graphite color that was so popular a few years ago. Nobody seemed to want it. When I'd check for available cars, the Evo was always kicking around, and I was always there to borrow it. I ended up driving on three different week long stints, and it never lost its lustre.
On the continuum of "superlative performance cars with humble origins", the Evo is somewhere between an Integra Type-R and an Escort Cosworth. It still retains the vestigial shape, drivetrain configuration and hard points as the regular Lancer, but beyond that, there is little commonality.
The base Lancer is meant to be cheap, practical transportation for global C-segment consumers. The Evo is not cheap to buy or to own (thanks to a small tank and a thirsty powertrain, good luck getting above 12 mpg). About the only concession to practicality it makes is the fact that it has two doors and a barely passable rear seat. Between the fuel tank, the all-wheel drive system, the pureile subwoofer and the battery, the trunk can barely hold more than a carry-on suitcase. The interior is an embarrassment and the Mitsubishi brand – from the dealer experience to the name itself to having to tell people you drive one – is dismal.
In return, you get one of the most visceral, thrilling driving experiences available at any prices. The Evo is not a rival to a Subaru WRX or a Focus ST or a Golf R. It would not be hyperbolic to liken its qualitative traits to something exotic. The steering is more similar to a Lotus Evora than anything else, while the handling defies verbal explanation. Dynamically, it's as capable as a Nissan GT-R, but without the clinical, disconnected personality, and the turbocharged 4-cylinder powertrain, with its overwhelming induction noise and unrefined dual-clutch gearbox, is the welterweight version of the GT-R's mighty twin turbo V6.
No wonder it's going to be put to sleep. In a marketplace full of commoditized boxes with in-dash iPads, CAFE-driven two-point-oh-tee engines and reverse teardrop styling, the Evo is a relic of a time when performance wasn't equated with profligacy and planetary destruction. There's simply no place for the Evo anymore.
But that's nothing new either. When I penned my earlier piece for TTAC, it looked like the Evo was on its way out as well. At the time, I felt it was a fitting metaphor for a particular stage in my life, one that took supreme importance to me at the age of 22, but was long in the past for most of the B&B. Now that I'm a little older and a little more experienced, I think about the Evo's demise in its proper context, as the last of a particular breed of Japanese performance car - one ungoverned by profit & loss, economies of scale and other realities for auto makers doing business in the 21st century.
The new crop will look a lot different – a new hybrid NSX, a Supra built with BMW, a Nissan sports coupe with only a CVT. But it won't look too different either. We still have the FR-S, the new WRX, and a Miata that will be as light as it was in 1990. But there won't be an Evo. And we're worse off for that.
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The popularity of certified pre-owned cars is nothing new to shoppers. Mainstream brands like Honda and luxury nameplates like BMW and Lexus have robust certified sales thanks to buyers averse to paying rising new car prices and appreciative of getting piece of mind thanks to the certification process.
2014 Rolls-Royce Wraith First Drive
Certified pre-owned programs are finding their way to the upper echelons of the automotive luxury market, but one in particular features some benefits slightly different than your average family sedan program.
Long considered by many to be the most posh and exclusive luxury car brand in the world, Rolls-Royce has a little-known certified pre-owned program called Provenance, and with the introduction of the company's "baby Rolls" a few years ago, the $265,200 Ghost (price includes destination), it now has a relatively sizable fleet of slightly used vehicles to populate the program.
"The arrival of the Ghost, which we really call the ultimate businessman's tool, was big for us," Rolls-Royce North America President Eric Shepherd told Cars.com, saying that Rolls-Royce sales tripled almost overnight after its introduction. "It's a lower-priced model that's meant for someone to drive oneself in, less to be chauffeured in, and it opened up the Rolls-Royce brand to a new group of people." Now a lot of those Ghosts are 2 and 3 years old, and models that were leased are coming back to dealerships. With that supply now increasing, Rolls-Royce is making a push for Provenance, a certified program that inspects, tests, reconditions and restores pre-owned late-model Rolls-Royce cars to showroom-new condition much like those from less-posh nameplates ... like BMW, which actually owns Rolls-Royce.
The Provenance program can also customize a pre-owned Rolls-Royce to a dealer or customer's taste. Did the previous owner forget to specify headrests monogrammed with the Rolls-Royce logo? Provenance can fix that. Perhaps some different wheels? Not a problem. Each Rolls-Royce dealer is certified to sell Provenance vehicles and is responsible for their reconditioning and preparation before delivery. Provenance does more than that, however, also providing a one- or two-year extended warranty, full maintenance, roadside assistance and service at any Rolls-Royce dealer in the world. What it does not provide for is a loaner car if your Rolls-Royce needs to head to the shop; loaners are instead handled on a dealer-by-dealer basis. But then, loaners are rarely required, says Shepherd, as it's rare that the owner does not have another vehicle at home to drive.
Why choose a pre-owned Rolls-Royce over a new one? Depreciation is one factor. Despite even used Rolls-Royces going for serious money, there are savings to be had. A quick scan of available cars on Cars.com correlated with vehicles listed on the Rolls-Royce Provenance webpage shows a few interesting options, such as a 2010 Ghost with 7,029 miles for $195,000. A new 2014 Ghost goes for $265,200-$305,300, with many trending higher due to owners' penchant for being generous with the options list. There's a 2010 Phantom Coupe with just less than 11,000 miles on the Provenance list for $258,880, far less than the new 2014 model's starting price of $435,550 (including destination). Supply of Provenance-certified cars is also much more limited than the supply of used Rolls-Royces in general - 36 available Phantom Drophead Coupes are for sale nationwide on Cars.com, whereas only four show up on Rolls-Royce's Provenance database, suggesting that the program is fairly exclusive.
The brand is excited about the prospect of expanding the Provenance program as more Ghosts in particular come in off lease, drawing more customers to the brand for the first time. Shepherd says that a Ghost from the Provenance program is actually a financially viable alternative to a loaded Mercedes-Benz S-Class when you look at the financing options.
The certified world is also one that may play to one of Rolls-Royce's weak spots in terms of product updates, which happen rarely. Maintaining exclusivity and a slow, traditional pace to product updates is exactly what its customers want, says Shepherd. For a potential buyer coming into a showroom and seeing a 3-year-old Provenance Ghost on the floor next to a brand new one will actually be pleased to see that very little has changed.
Cars.com photos by Ian Merritt
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Auto enthusiasts often dream of taking an exotic car through some of the nicest stretches of winding roads the world can offer.
Hairpin turns… beautiful smooth roads…. nice scenery… and all the power and finesse one can summon in a car made for the perfection of that very moment.
Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, the list of great cars serving this unique purpose of vehicular bliss is as long as the opportunity is unique. Even the most frugal of gearheads want to experience this thrill sometime between now and their eventual nirvana.
But then again, I may be completely wrong on all of this. Actions speak louder than words in the enthusiast community, and what I find inside a lot of gearhead garages looks a bit like…
This 1999 Solara vs. a 2002 BMW 525i Wagon. Same price at a car lot and same mileage. Guess which one sells quicker?
This…
Let's face it. How often do car people proclaim their automotive passions, and wind up buying an old boring car?
Does the performance car represent the best of what enthusiasts want these days? Or is there something else?
My wager, after 15 years of buying and selling cars at the auctions, is something else. In fact, my hunch is that many enthusiasts are more enamored with the deal of buying a good cheap car, rather than the performance potential of their daily ride.
This shift has little do with our actual tastes. In a world where there is far greater traffic enforcement, higher insurance rates, and fewer opportunities to enjoy a long and winding drive without getting tagged by the revenuing activities of various government entities, the opportunity to cloak our rides seems like the best option.
Also, we are now in that unique point of automotive history where even plain-jane Camrys and Chrysler minivans can offer as much power as the Acura NSX. It's hard to get as excited about horsepower and performance when Mom's Accord can now go 0 to 60 in 6 seconds.
We want the deal… and often times we consider real world performance to come standard. Even though our opportunities to use it are often hindered by the local environment.
The core of automotive enthusiasm these days seems to come from getting the unsellable car at a steal of a price, and transforming it into a sleeping beauty that will endure far beyond the exotics and their commercialized fantasies.
So with that in mind, let's look at one of the cars coming up to bid this week. A car that even in the most extreme of situations, won't ever find itself making that long trip from my car lot to your own driveway.
A 2002 Hyundai Accent: Is this a hermit's heaven? Or is this a transformer stuck in partial 'transform!' mode?
This car embodies what I call the "1080″ — a car that can be bought at 10% of the new price and still easily has about 80% of its life left.
Colors are a blah, common as a cold, silver exterior, accompanied by an 80′s surplus, yawn-inducing, Metamucil inspired gray interior. This one can seat five adults and an ungrateful brat, and has 33,532 miles.
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Should Tesla and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers — including General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen — be successful in their petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, new cars could soon have cameras instead of side mirrors.
Automotive News reports the petition — on the heels of the agency mandating rearview cameras by 2018 in all light-duty vehicles — explains cameras could do the same job as mirrors while allowing for increased aerodynamics:
In light of future greenhouse gas and corporate average fuel economy requirements beginning in 2017, camera-based systems represent an opportunity to increase vehicle fuel efficiency through improved aerodynamics by eliminating externally mounted mirrors.
Current regulations place cameras as a supplement to side mirrors, with Nissan, Honda and Mercedes-Benz offering such systems, while Volkswagen's XL1 is one of a few vehicles to do away with mirrors by using cameras in their stead.
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The Detroit News reports General Motors CEO Mary Barra boarded a commercial flight from Detroit to Washington, D.C. Sunday in order to prepare for two separate hearings before Congress regarding her company's handling of the ongoing 2014 recall crisis. While in the nation's capital, she also met with 25 family members whose relatives were killed in crashes linked to the ignition switch behind the recall.
CNN Money adds GM is about to reveal the names of the 13 people who lost their lives due to catastrophic failure linked to the defective part. The information will be made available to the public, with sensitive information — corporate secrets and personal data — redacted prior to publication. The information is part of a request by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due April 3.
As for what Barra and NHTSA acting administrator David Friedman plan to say before the House and Senate hearings, Automotive News reports Friedman is standing firm on his agency's effort to "properly carry out its safety mission based on the data available to it and the process it followed" in prepared remarks to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Barra reiterates her position on the events leading up to the recall and subsequent actions moving forward:
When we have answers, we will be fully transparent with you, with our regulators and with our customers.
Automotive News also put forth four key issues Barra and Friedman will have to explain before Congress and the general public:
Tying into the fourth issue, House Democrats have found and named the engineer behind the 2006 ignition redesign as Ray DeGiorgio, who denied in a 2013 court deposition having knowledge that the part was changed. They also penned a letter to Barra stating the redesigned switch still didn't meet spec, based on information provided by supplier Delphi confirming the switches meant for 2008 – 2011 models tested poorly alongside the switch approved in 2002 now linked to 13 fatalities and 33 crashes.
Automotive News also posits the reason behind the NHTSA not pushing forward on a recall sooner was due to a heavy focus on child deaths linked to airbags. When GM introduced a smart airbag system in their vehicles in the 2000s, the agency focused on whether or not the airbags were doing their job to protect children placed in the front seat, with the goal of assessing "real world" performance while spotting "unusual circumstances" — such as the flawed ignition switch behind the recall — that would allow for "early identification of potential problems," according to a 2004 statement by former agency boss Chip Chidester.
In new recall news, GM recalled 1.3 million vehicles made between 2004 and 2010 whose power steering could suddenly lose electric power, with the automaker aware of "some crashes and injuries" tied to the steering. Vehicles affected include: Chevrolet Malibu, Malibu Maxx, non-turbo HHR and Cobalt; Saturn Aura and Ion; and Pontiac G6.
As for reporting issues that could lead to a recall, GM leads the way in filing early-warning reports to the NHTSA with 6,493 reports between 2005 and 2007; Chrysler and Toyota filed around 1,300 in the same period, while Honda filed 290. However, the cause behind the numbers is in how each automaker follows the 2000 TREAD Act, with GM setting an extremely low threshold for reporting in comparison to other automakers.
Finally, a number of lawsuits are being aimed directly at dismantling the liability protection GM's 2009 bankruptcy provided to "New GM." The tactics range from securities fraud and loss of resale value, to wrongful death.
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