It looks like the Germans didn't just lose the final of Euro 2008; it now appears premium German car manufacturers are losing sale to Mitsubishi’s rapid Evo X. According to an in-house survey carried out by the Japanese manufacturer, since its launch in March this year the new Evo X has been stealing sales not only from the leading German car makers, but also premium Japanese rivals. Having kept a close eye on the buying trends of the Evo X, especially part exchanges, the results of the survey showed nearly 40% of buyers were part exchanging German brands for the SST Evo, while 31% were from Japanese competitors.

Mitsubishi also discovered that even supercars have been traded in exchange for the new Evo, with one customer swapping a Ferrari F430 – plus £90k – for the FQ-300 SST. "This shows the new Evolution X is certainly attracting people out of German cars," Lance Bradley, Mitsubishi UK’s sales and marketing director, said, "especially into the SST, and that the manual gearbox car is not only attracting traditional Evo customers, but also customers of other Japanese marques.”