AutoTrader Find of the Week: 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo GSR Was the End of an Era

If you didn’t grow up in the 1990s and early ‘00s as a car enthusiast thumbing through the newsstand for copies of Import Tuner Magazine, you may be surprised to learn there was a time when the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution felt almost as rare and mythical as a Nissan Skyline GT-R.

That’s because before the 2003 Evo VIII, the Lancer Evolution was never sold in North America, and it first arrived with a left-hand steering wheel in the Evo VII generation. Like the Skyline, this was a car we only encountered in video games, anime, magazines, and The Fast and the Furious franchise.

And to be honest, I recall a few heated schoolyard debates about whether you could really buy an Evo VIII in North America. After all, you never saw one on the streets. Turns out that’s because they were never sold in Canada due to regulatory issues. Same goes for the follow-up Evo IX.

Ah, but finally, when the refreshed Lancer arrived in 2008 and the new Evo X along with it, could you at long last purchase a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution at a Canadian dealership. And while Mitsubishi never released official sales figures of the Evo X specifically, it wasn’t long before you almost got bored of seeing them on the street. After all, in the late ‘00s and early teens, there really wasn’t much else in terms of four-door all-wheel-drive super sport compacts. Canada never got competitors like the Audi RS 3 Sportback, and the Ford Focus RS didn’t arrive until the Evo X had stopped production in 2015. The GR Corolla wasn’t even a twinkle in Akio Toyoda’s eye. It really was just the Evo X, Subaru WRX STi, and the Volkswagen Golf R to choose from.

Not that that was a problem. The Evo X began at just $42,000 and delivered tremendous value for the money. Hilariously, some magazines complained an Evo X could eclipse the starting price of a BMW 335i — but you won’t see me writing an article on a 2008 to 2015 BMW 335i any time soon.

A 291-hp turbocharged engine mated to the optional dual-clutch automatic transmission meant zero to 100 km/h in 5.3 seconds. But coupled with one of the most sophisticated all-wheel-drive systems on the market — Mitsubishi's “Super All-Wheel Control” system, which allowed you to switch between tarmac, gravel, and snow modes seamlessly (this was still kind of a big deal in 2008) — the Evo X was a sports car you really could drive every day of the Canadian year.

Brembo brakes, BBS wheels, and Recaro seats only helped fuel the Need for Speed: Underground fantasies.

Still, the demise of the Lancer, Mitsubishi's overall abysmal state as an auto manufacturer, and the arrival of more contemporary alternatives have led to the Evo once again fading from the public eye, except this time with far less mythical status. Even older, once-totally-forbidden-fruit models seem to have lost some of their desirability.

Perhaps that’s because if you see an Evo X today, it’s likely either driven into the ground, modified into utter vulgarity, or beaten to death on a racetrack.

Seeing a clean, low-mileage Evo X GSR Final Edition like this one for sale on AutoTrader through Pickard Lane Automotive Group in Bolton, Ont., feels almost unheard of. But then, here we are.

It’s only done 48,355 km. As a Final Edition, it is one of only 350 units produced for the Canadian market. The asking price is $49,990.

The Final Edition received a slight power bump to 303 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 305 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. More notable was the addition of Bilstein shock absorbers with Eibach springs and two-piece Brembo front brakes. The only transmission option was the proper five-speed manual.

And while one of the chief criticisms of the Evo X near the end of its production was how unsophisticated and behind the times it was with its harsh plastic interiors and lack of modern creature comforts, driver interfaces and aids, that’s exactly what makes it feel so special now.

Sure, the interior is festooned with hilariously cheap plastic. But 2015 was about the last time you could buy a car without a push-button start or backup camera, with only a single USB port hidden in the glove compartment. It’s the last time cars were the perfect mix of analogue and digital. Read any driver’s review of the Evo X Final Edition, and they’ll confess, even back in 2015 and 2016, just what a pure joy the car is to drive, not despite its lack of modern interfaces, but because of them.

This was the last time you could just drive and connect with a vehicle without text messages and navigation alerts buzzing in your face, without lane departure and speed warnings, or alerts telling you when to shift gears.

Calling this the Evolution Final Edition seems fitting. Because just maybe, it’s where automotive evolution should have stopped.