ClubCJ - The CJ Lancer Club

Hey guys

I noticed this kind of question hasn't been answered nor posted on the forum yet so I thought I would ask.

What made you choose the lancer?

I chose the lancer because at the time I bought mine, it was the only car in the $11-$12,000 market that actually
had character and actually wowed me when I first saw it. I was looking at Toyotas and Hyundai Elantras,
but when the lancer (suggested by my mate) came up, that's when I said "That's the one. That's the one I'm going for."

What's your story?

Was looking for cars with dad, nearly went for a Mazda 3 until I told him "Wait, let's try to expand choices first."

So... the cars that I've looked into were:

- Found an Audi A3 (05 model) for about 10.5k cos it was a quick sale. I jumped on this but it was sold already when I called the guy up.

- Found some 02 Audi A4s for about 11-12k as well; surprised me a bit but none of them were 1.8T (which is legal for P platers to drive).

- CH 04 Lancer VR-X that was manual for 10k as well.

I was going to go for the CH, but I thought "Hm, maybe I should do a tad bit more searching.." and voila I found a CJ for 11.5k, and after a day in uni I took a bus to the seller's place and had a bit of a chat with him. His English was limited since he was an international student, but he knew what he was talking about and I had a thorough check with the car, test drove it and then tried to bargain. Got it down to about 10k!

Dad and I went back there the next day, and after he had a go at it we pretty much bought the car off him and I picked it up a couple of days later.

23000 kms and 10 months into owning the car it's been extremely reliable to taking me to uni and back everyday (it's a 50 min - 1 hour trip getting to uni, same time going back home), and even on long drives to Mt Gambier and back! I've had a couple of issues but they've been really minor and managed to get them dealt with without so much hassle.

It's still stock as aside from the panel filter and axle-back exhaust but I'm really happy at how it performs near-entirely stock. Definitely sticking to a CJ when I'm able to afford my own everything. Lol. They probably would age a bit by then but "if it ain't broke don't fix it" I guess. And the fuel economy's great for a 2.0L.

TL;DR: Was looking for cars with dad and dug enough in looking at cars for sale and ran into this sweet sweet bargain of a CJ Lancer that I now have.

I owned a 1995 V6 Magna in which I Loved & thought I would of had it for a few more years as it was so reliable Untill a learner driver T-Boned my Magna & NRMA wrote it off So then I had to start searching for another car .... I didn't have a clue what I was looking for meaning I had to get another car in a hurry & I didn't have much time to think about my new car .
" TBH I think I was in Mourning & didn't want to think of a new car

Anyways about how I got my Lancer .... I firstly went to a few car yards & looking around didn't see anything I liked & one day I saw this " Mystic Blue " Lancer & TBH at the time I had never seen a Lancer before Hmmm maybe I had but it isn't untill you actually own one then you see them everywhere lol , I really liked this one but it had a big scratch right across the bonnet & we tried to reason with the salesman to take $ off because of the scratch & he says sorry no can do so naturally we walked away , Then I started to search the Internet car yards & the lancer keeped popping up & they were "Mystic Blue " Hmmm I thought was I meant to have this car ?
We found one which was in QLD ( Miami ) & thought we have a friend " Mechanic " that lives in Miami so we called him up & he took it for a test drive & looked it over & he said it was a great little car so Gary flew up from NSW & drove her back home
The one thing I didn't like about it was the taillights so I started searching for new taillights & came across ClubCJ as Ofey was having a group buy on LED taillights at the time so yeah I got my new lights & Joined my first car club

I chose my CJ because of a few differnt reasons..

1. 5 year warranty and 10yr powertrain warranty
2. great price $16,000 brand new
3. came with alot more features then most standard model cars

after owning it for over a month now and 2000kms in i have to say the comfort is great,pleanty of power and fuel economy is amazing for me 6.9l/100kms which is great seeing as my second job is at tonsely park so thats over an hour drive from my house.

Looked at soooooo many cars before but have always been a mitsi fan after owning many magnas but was pretty close to buying a ford focus or nissan dualis but best to stick with something you know best :p

Many years of happy driving ahead i hope

Mainly the looks at features of the VRX CJ Lancer, saw it at a dealer and loved it, took it for a test drive a week later and loved the car, the features and how it drove! Wasn't even looking for a new car either!

Also I have always loved Mitsubish cars after owning a Mirage before which was a great little car!

VRX style did it for me. Couldnt find anything in similar range that looked as good. If only it had more power!

sportback !!!!! gotta love a sexy ass !!!!

- Price
- Looks. To be honest, when the CJ Lancer first came out, I didn't like the look of them, but I soon after started liking their looks more and more.
- Reliability. My first car was so unreliable and cost me so much money, I really wanted a car with low km's or that was brand new.

My first CJ was a champagne 2009 Platinum Edition, basically a VR with more chrome and MMCS. I chose it back then because it had good looks to begin with. With the exception of steering reach adjustment, it ticked all the boxes for me compared with a few cars I cross-shopped it with.

Toyota Corolla: Torsion beam rear suspension and 4-speed automatic. For me, it's also the first time ever that the Lancer is better overall than the Corolla counterpart.

Honda Civic: Nose droops below driver visibility, van-like windshield wiper layout.

Mazda3: Considerably lacking in rear seat legroom despite being the best driver's car of the bunch.

Two years later, the speed bug got the better of me, so I traded up to a Ralliart. But being essentially the same car with the exception of turbo and 4WD, I also considered a few other vehicles.

Ford Focus XR5: Great in orange with a bonus Volvo engine, but no cruise control and was about to be replaced.

VW Golf GTI: Cleverly packaged, surprisingly comfortable and spacious at the back and has won several awards, but questionable reliability.

Subaru Impreza WRX: Quickest car on the list, very close to STi performance for much less money, but not an ounce of exterior beauty whether sedan or hatch; also has dashboard with poor materials and layout.

Ford Falcon XR6: Very attractive pricing at $35K driveaway at the time, also much more nicely built than the Commodore, but just didn't have the overall zing I was looking for.

Honda Accord Euro: Base model with manual at $30K driveaway, world-class shift action and one of the best dashboards I've ever seen, but sat-nav only available in Luxury model which costs a lot more and only available in a sluggish auto.

Toyota Aurion: Very quick with legendary reliability, but seriously, a foot-operated parking brake in a FWD car?

Alfa Romeo Giulietta: Possibly the sexiest hatch ever, with nearly the same power as the Ralliart and loaded with everything I could think of, would have gotten this one if not for the perceived reliability this brand was known of, and the narrow footwell with no place to rest the left (ideally meant as a LHD car).

Well I put a deposit on a new 370z roadster (upgrading form 350z roadster).
Waited nearly 7-8 months for the car to be delivered,went to pick it up on the day, they told me since i ordered my car the price given was for a older series and now its a newer series they wanted about $8K more and wouldnt sell it at the agreed price.
Took my deposit back and look at sti-r and X mr.... never liked the lancers or evos but the X was totally different and the warranty against sti was a no brainer, so i went with that and very happy with the choice

I saw my car advertised for auction.

I checked it out, had never seen a CJ Lancer close up. I was pretty impressed with how it looked and the SST transmission.

It was a little rough and obviously had seen some action in the field. Had sort of high mileage.

I bought it anyway. Didn't look at any others.

Story behind mine was I went looking for my mum and brother found out it was a manual got a wicked trade in for my 97 MR lancer and walked out with my blue one and love the sprotback

Easy choice, didn't really bother looking at any other cars. My sister had a cj so therefore I had to get one.

I had a Daewoo lanos sedan which was my baby and I loved it until the wheel bearing went, then an engine coil, then a few other things started breaking. Within 6 months I had spent over $1,500 getting her fixed. I was doing lots of traveling back to port Lincoln (700ish kms each way) and needed a car that I knew wouldn't break down in the middle of no where.
I had no cash so knew I'd need to get a car loan. was originally gonna go $10g but then thought if I buy a secondhand car I can't get much for 10g and it would have problems. I didn't want something I would have to poor money into getting fixed. So screw it I'll get a bigger loan and go demo/new. Thought yeah finally time to get my dream car a ford xr6 turbo ute!!!
Everyone talked me out of getting a ute. Apparently they are not very practicle in the city being that there's no back seat so can only fit 2 people. And yeah then all the costs involved of owning a v6-fuel, rego, insurance, plus I was under 25.
So went the more practical option of a 4 cylinder and my sis had a cj lancer and said I should get one. Mum came over to Adelaide one weekend, we were bored so I said let's go look at some cars. Went to portside mitsi. I already knew I wanted a lightning blue lancer with a spoiler and rims. At that time there wasn't many demos around in Adelaide for sale. Spoke to a very rude salesman and got a price for the es. Wanted to go the vr but I wasn't going to pay over $30,000 for a car.
Went home rang up all the mitsis n Adelaide. Finally spoke to the awesome Steve Chapman at wayville mitsi. He gave me the cheapest price for what I wanted. They did have a demo but there was only $1,000 price dif between new n demo and I'd have to wait. They had a new beast in their show room. That arvo I signed the paper work.
I do love my lancer and she's brought me much happiness and many friends through clubcj, but I still wish I got my dream ute. If only they did the lancer in a ute

Had to be not FWD, 4 doors, good cargo space but not too big. Didn't fancy the WRX. Considered a Liberty STi or Passat R36, but they were getting a bit long in the tooth and if I kept it 5 years it would be 10 years old. So I decided to go with a Ralliart as you could still get one new with good warranty and all the latest toys like smart key and bluetooth.

Some days I wish I had just got something comfy like a C class... but the Ralliart is a good all round car even though it doesn't particularly excel at anything.