With a definitive 22-year run and a recent termination of production, any news on the Mitsubishi Eclipse should be far and few between, or should it? At a recent media preview of the i electric car, Greg Adams, Mitsubishi Motors North America’s Vice President-Marketing and Product Planning was quoted saying that the Eclipse "always comes back around sooner or later."
Just when we were closing the book on the Japanese automaker’s mid-size sports car, all of a sudden there’s another chapter. According to Mitsubishi, the Eclipse was "the most-successful U.S.-market sports car from a Japanese auto maker in the past 20 years." It sold 982,024 units in the U.S. since the car’s 1989 launch and saw a 105.4% increase in sales through August 2011 compared to 2010. So why was it axed? As with any other automaker, Mitsubishi’s focus has switched to fuel efficiency, leading them to market their new i-MiEV extensively, so the extra work in trying to get the Eclipse to the next level was probably not worth it at the time. The Galant sedan will also be seeing its dreadful end by 2013, as will the Endeavor SUV. These deletions will leave Mitsubishi with three models in their lineup, and some room to grow when they’re ready.
Adams said that a future midsize sedan from Mitsubishi wasn’t off the table as long as the numbers worked out, so the Galant may still have its fair chance to come back. Our vote, though, is for the Eclipse.
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution XI may have been saved from the chopping block, but at least one Mitsubishi sports coupe is on its final dregs and will soon ride off into the sunset. For the record, the Eclipse, has been one of our favorite Japanese sports coupes in recent times so it goes without saying that we’re pretty bummed out that the line will officially end after the 2012 model year.
On that note, Mitsubishi has prepared a new mode of the Eclipse, called the ’Eclipse SE’ to give the car the proper send-off it deserves. Slated to be the last Eclipse model to be built, the Eclipse SE comes with some new details and features to make the last one a pretty memorable one, too.
Make no mistake, it’s a sad time to be a Mitsubishi Eclipse fan, but as the scribes always used to say, “all good things must come to an end”. And if this is the send-off that Mitsubishi is giving to their once-beloved sports coupe, then we expect the car sell like ice cream on a hot summer day.
Details on the Mitsubishi Eclipse SE after the jump.
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Now that the clock has finally run out and just hours away from the first showing of Fast Five - the fifth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise - we felt like it’s the right time to give proper respect to the characters that have made this movie franchise as fun as it has been since the first movie came out in 2001.
And if you think that we’re talking about resident leading men, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, guess again. This list has very little to do with them, or their other co-stars for that matter, but more so about what they were driving during the first four movies. Yes, dear friends. This is a list to honor the Top 10 cars of the Fast and Furious franchise!
Do take note that we compiled this list based on our opinions so if you have any sort of reaction on the cars we chose and the number we gave them, you have the floor in the comments section to let us hear about it.
Hit the jump to check out our list.
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Apparently, Mitsubishi has decided to give the Eclipse one last chance before deciding if the sports coupe will be dropped or not. For 2011, the sports car gets a new black painted roof, new design elements, and expanded equipment. Customers will have to choose from three trim levels: GS, GT, and GS Sport.
The new black painted roof pays tribute to the highly-successful original first-generation Eclipse Coupe that possessed a similarly dark-colored dome. For 2011, it also gets a ride height that has been lowered by over half an inch (15 mm) and a 12V accessory power outlet.
The 2011 Eclipse is powered by a 2.4-liter SOHC 16-valve normally-aspirated 4-cylinder engine that delivers 162 HP at 6,000 rpm and 162 lb.-ft. of torque at an even 4,000 rpm. The engine is mated to a crisp-shifting 5-speed manual transmission or a 4-speed automatic transmission.
Standard equipment list includes: leather seating surfaces, heated front seats and side view mirrors, power driver seat, aluminum pedals, a strut tower brace, aluminum entrance sill and a tidy-looking clear lip spoiler.
Press release after the jump.
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We all know that Mitsubishi is having some trouble with their American car line-up and we also know that it’s due to have some serious work done to it. It seems while part of that work is a global small car, the other part is the deletion of a few well known vehicles, at least that’s what Autoweek believes.
The aging machines, the Galant and the Eclipse, won’t be getting any new updates until 2012, as the company looks to create a new global small car. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. With those models gone, that would leave the Japanese automaker with only the new small car, the Outlander Sport and the i-MiEV to bring to its already small lineup.
We have all known about this small car for a while now and we can guess what it will feature upon its release. Under the hood will probably be a 1.0-liter or a 1.3-liter four-cylinder motor and for the company’s sake, we hope that America loves the small car by its release in 2012 or 2013, because an engine that big won’t sell well in a power obsessed culture.
We’re still not sold on the idea of dropping a few of the core models because what will dealers have to sell to people? The Outlander and the Lancer are good vehicles, but their sales aren’t that impressive, and the small car and the i-MiEV might not be what Americans are looking for.
