Road Test
From the July 2005 Issue of Car and Driver
TESTED
"Hey, it's the new Eclipse."
"It's ugly. I hate it."
"They did a good job."
"Finally."
New sports coupes like the 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse age quickly, going from red-hot to hardly noticed in a few months. Will the lines on this Eclipse have legs? We brought one to within shouting distance of a '62 Ferrari GTO, a chorus line of Lamborghini Murciélagos, and a platoon of old Porsches and turned on the pundit meter. At Crystal Cove, an informal Saturday-at-dawn gathering of exotic and overly manicured cars at a beachside strip mall in Southern California, opinions are rarely left unspoken.
Results: inconclusive. The Eclipse drew stares, but any car that hasn't hit showrooms yet naturally gets gawped at. It drew sneers, but mainly from people who sneer at anything that doesn't roll on Campagnolo knockoffs. It got pointed at with cell phones, but mainly by guys who looked suspiciously like employees from the various automaker styling studios nearby (because they came in their own manufacturer-plate cars).
We left disappointed, this story having failed to be written for us by the loafer-shod crowd. Oh, well, here's our opinion: Mired in a sand trap for several years now, Mitsubishi has chipped one into the cup.
This is unexpected news. Why? Because Mitsubishi is foundering, bleeding enough red to shock a hemophiliac. Sales are retreating, and Mitsubishi Motors North America is on its third honcho in as many years (Rich Gilligan, a Mitsubishi manufacturing exec, now holds the CEO title). When companies are churning, the brains drain fast and the inspiration goes with them. But nothing about the new Eclipse says "crisis car." There's no hurry-it-up design, no chintzy details, nothing that implies Mitsubishi isn't still thinking, isn't still swinging.
Prices remained a secret at press time, but we were told to expect the base four-cylinder GS to start "just under $20,000," the GT V-6 about $25,000, and a loaded GT like the one pictured here for about $28,000. The Spyder convertible arrives in early 2006.
The worst criticism we can level is that fans of the original turbo all-wheel-drive Eclipse will be disappointed. Again. The '06 Eclipse is front drive only and continues the dimensional swell started by its predecessor, adding girth everywhere. The wheelbase rises by 0.6 inch, the width by 3.3 inches, the length by 2.9 inches. With 72.2 inches between the door handles, this Eclipse—it's supposed to be a sports coupe, remember—is wider than a Ford Explorer.
"Compact only" parking spaces are off limits, and maneuvering the Eclipse into a normal space with enough swing room for the long doors requires the persistence of a chimney sweep with hypothyroidism. Reliance on Mitsubishi's Project America platform, which underlies the company's Galant sedan and Endeavor sport-utility, hasn't performed miracles for the Eclipse's curb weight, either. Compared with a similarly equipped outgoing Eclipse, our 2006 GT V-6 is up 340 pounds, to a tubby 3560.
Mitsubishi keeps the acceleration brisk by adding displacement. Bore and stroke rise, and the SOHC 3828cc cast-iron V-6 now runs Mitsubishi's MIVEC variable intake-valve timing-and-lift system in its aluminum cylinder heads. This is a cold-hot switch similar to Honda's VTEC, with a crossover to the urgent lobe at 4000 rpm. With 3.8 liters, 263 horsepower, and 260 pound-feet of tire-peeling torque, the V-6 seems big enough to move mountains, or at least move this six-speed manual Eclipse—a five-speed auto is optional—to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds at 100 mph. That's a little quicker than an Acura RSX Type-S, a lot quicker than a Hyundai Tiburon GT V-6, VW New Beetle Turbo S, and last year's Eclipse GTS. But a Mustang GT will smoke it.
