Mitsubishi Lancer

import an older evo from japan.

haha yeah do that.........

i drove one once, it was nice. thats all i have to offer though sorry

agreed... evos are real sick, as far as the automatic transmission goes, just make sure to check the carfax report on the car and ive been around alot of cars and havnt heard anything bad about lancer transmissions so you should be fine as long as the car has had regular maintenance and transmission fluid changes, and as long as you keep up with regular maintenance you should be fine

i have a 09 lancer gts... i absolutely love the car. rides so smooth and i guess is ok for quickness... its not super fast or anything but has no problem getting up to speed. ive gone 115 in it and the people in the car thought i was doing 85. haha. it has a lot of good options for minumal price which is nice... i got nav, 650 watt system with sub, sunroom, climate control, some other goodies and kept it at 21,500... they have a touring package now too for an extra 1000 with stability control, HID lights and auto wipers. If you have the money though id take it to the next step up and get the ralliart or the evo... the ralliart fully loaded is 30k and i think starts around 26k  the evo starts at 32 and goes up to 40. both are baller cars. ralliart has their new sst transmission though so its not a full manual, but supposedly its sick. evo has either or but the maual is only 5 speed which kind of stinks but still does the job. All models are defintely sick cars and look awesome...

I've never actually driven one, but I have done research on them because I was car searching once too.

There's 3 models of the lancer, the base model, the oz rally edition, and the ralliart
The base is the boring econo motor, suspension and transmission not exactly the car id want
Oz Rally is the base lancer's motor, but an upgraded suspension and clutch and a few badges here and there
The Ralliart has an entirely new motor, and evo suspension, and transmission. if i found a ralliart around my area for sale i probably would have got one, but theyre pretty rare. however dont settle for an automatic trans car if you really want stick. you won't be happy.

I dont know much about them but i do know they are safe. My friend hit a tree at 90 and walked away fine. but i dont sugest you try to find out for yourself.

Good luck with that.

Thanks for the advice!

+k to everyone for your input

http://www.tyeeimports.com/Results2.asp?Sort_Field=34

these guys are about a 1/2 hour away from me, there fairly legit

My friend has a 2004 ralliart lancer, manual transmission.  I never heard of him complain about it, it seems a good car, great handling, just enough power to have fun.

And do not buy JDM cars if you are not good in mechanic.  You can have awesome deals but a lot of cars from there are beaten the hell out.  I got a Civic Type-R, and I had to shop for it for quite a long time to find one in good condition.

And finally, I don't know if it's available where you're from, but here in Montreal JDM cars are really easy to find, we've got JDM shops that import them as well as engines and transmissions.

Good luck!  Hope you find a car you like!