Another in a series of my reviews that appeared in the online version of African Americans On Wheels, a now defunct automotive magazine that was included as an insert in the Sunday newspapers of major cities.
This completes are trio of 1999 Mitsubishi reviews. Technically, there is a fourth if you count the Chrysler Sebring Coupe (coming soon).
As you may have already guessed even before reading the review, this one was clearly the most fun. What I’ll never understand is why some manufacturers take a car that is selling well and receiving lots of positive press, then just completely neutering it. I’m sure from the accountants’ point of view, since the front-wheel drive, naturally aspirated versions were comprising the bulk of sales, why add the extra expense of building and certifying a high-performance variant? Yet it was likely those “halo” versions that inspired people to buy the lesser models in the first place. Then again, if I was actually on the inside, I may find my hypothesis faulty.
Personally, I didn’t mind that Mitsubishi resurrected the Eclipse moniker for yet another boring crossover. That’s because between 2000 and 2012 it adorned a boring coupe. As far as I’m concerned, this 1999 model was the last true Eclipse. Everything following, including the Eclipse Cross, are just things you should not look directly at no matter how badly you want to.
The following review was written on February 28, 1999.
When the Eclipse premiered early in 1989, it floored the automotive world with its sleek shape, high-output turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive, all for a reasonable price. Fortunately, not much has changed since then.
The second-generation Eclipse has been around since the 1995 model year, and it is still one of the more attractive sport coupes on the market. Noticeably more muscular and “boy-racer-like” than the original, the only visual changes to the top-of-the-line GSX for 1999 are new spoked alloy wheels and a large rear wing whose main purpose seems to be blocking the already limited rear vision. Inside is a functional leather interior with an instrument panel that wraps around the gauges and into the console, with the climate controls and radio angled slightly toward the driver. The white-faced gauges are a nice touch, but the wildly optimistic 170-m.p.h. speedometer puts the oft-used zero to 70 range too close together.
And 70 comes up damn fast. While nothing much happens before 2500 r.p.m, which is known as “turbo lag,” the driver is literally pushed back into the seat when the turbo comes alive. While 210 is a lot of horsepower to put on the front wheels of a small car, Mitsubishi has made all-wheel drive standard on the GSX, although a less expensive front-drive GS-T is also available. An additional benefit is that the GSX is one of the few all-weather sports cars, a rip-roaring combination not available on any Subaru sold in the U.S. Handling is understandably outstanding, and the ride and noise levels are predictably harsh and high. For the even more budget minded, non-turbocharged RS and GS variations are available, as well as turbo and non-turbo Spyder convertibles. The ultimate configuration, Spyder GSX, is not available.
The hatchback design adds a nice level of versatility, especially when the near useless rear seats are folded down.
If all this pleases you, act now. Rumor has it that next year’s Eclipse will follow the continuing blandness that has cursed the U.S. market. Gone will be the turbo and all-wheel drive. From the looks of spy photos, the versatile hatchback body style will disappear as well.
For more information contact 1-800-55MITSU
SPECIFICATIONS
Type: Two-door Hatchback
Engine: 210-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter inline four
Transmission: Five-speed Manual
EPA Mileage: 23 city/31 highway
Tested Price: $26,985
I quite liked the styling of this evolution of the original when it was released (1996?) The smoother body shape worked well although I think it had a smattering of flat black around the lower edges and the wheels were different (more attractive to me) than the pictured one here, this one has a whiff of mid-cycle refresh about it which usually turns me off compared to the original.
As you said, these were strong performers and having the power and awd was a good call as the competition was slight (Celica All-Trac Turbo? Quite rare). Then again, demand also turned out to be slighter than it could have been, so here we are without and Eclipse coupe. I don’t mind the name recycling either really, it’s a good name, if it was on a new coupe it’d be DOA and it could be worse, they could make an Eclipse Cross-Cabriolet out of it a la Murano, no thanks to that.
I’ll even go a little further and say I like this generation (1995 to 1999) better than the original, and the Eagle Talon, with the Eagle medallion (no pun intended) up front and the amber & red full-width tail lamps best of all.
Is there any other automaker that had such a precipitous decline in modern times? In the ’90s, Mitsubishi had genuinely desirable products – The Eclipse, 3000GT, even the Gallant was class-competitive. The Pajaro/Montero was a decent SUV by the standards of the time.
Well, GM and Chrysler went bankrupt during this time, and Mitsubishi didn’t.
Nobody sells cars like the Eclipse and 3000GT anymore, and sedans are dying. Things change; it’s a tough market, if you’re not selling big pickups and SUVs. Or Teslas.
True, although GM and Chrysler probably didn’t have quite as far to fall from a product perspective in the 2000s. And of course, they bounced back, which is highly uncertain for Mitsubishi.
No doubt Mitsubishi rode the GenX sport coupe train a bit longer than they should have without a plan to move on to what was next.
Toyota sells 86 and the Supra, granted they are rebadges of other cars, and the 86 is RWD, but they occupy the same market space.
Nissan still sells Z cars.
The businesses went bankrupt but it’s not like GM and Chrysler products just stopped being bought by anyone during that time. Mitsubishi on the other hand it’s hard to even name a model they made in the last 10 years, they have zero market presence.
What else is new? The big get bigger and the small…die out. Mitsubishi simply didn’t/doesn’t have enough market share to fight off the Koreans and Nissan, who is probably most responsible, when they went bonkers to expand market share. And in the process nearly destroyed themselves.
Now Nissan is of course in an Alliance with Mitsubishi, so good luck with that.
The real issue is this: to compete successfully in the US market, you need lots of models specifically designed for the US. Look at what Honda did: their family of mini vans, larger SUVs, the pickup; they’re all on a US-specific platform. That’s where the real profits are. Ditto Toyota, to oe extent or another.
Once upon a time, Mitsubishi could be somewhat competitive with their global models. That ere has definitively ended. As has Mitsubishi’s era in the US. I predict they will be gone within 5-8 years. They’re switching their global focus to SE Asia, the only geographic area where they’re doing well enough to keep competing. They’ve pulled out of Europe, and likely will here too, as competing against alliance partner Nissan by spending money they don’t have makes no sense.
Look at how VW has had to develop a whole line of cars that are designed specifically for the US. And they’re still losing money!
Mitsubishi sold 121,046 in 2019 for the US market. Sales actually grew by 2.5% while most other automakers saw declining sales.Tesla only sold 367,500 globally in 2019. ( they do not break down sales by country)
Contrast their sales compared to the big guys in 2019 for the US market.
1. General Motors: 2,887,046
2. Ford Motor Company: 2,422,698
3. Toyota and Lexus Motor Sales: 2,383,349
4. Fiat Chrysler: 2,203,663
5. American Honda: 1,608,170
Source: https://www.automobilemag.com/news/2019-year-auto-sales-2019/
Remove full size pickups from those numbers and the Honda number for one looks surprisingly huge in comparison to the others. And T/L then outsells the Big Three, right?
I’m also willing to bet that a good percentage of that 121k is the VERY low-margin Mirage.
For some reason I’ve been keeping an eye out lately for (or just noticing) Mitsu products and the most common one I see is the Outlander Sport (sort of like a somewhat shorter RAV4. Perhaps the Mirage after that but seen most often in the junkyard of the more or less modern designs are the 2007-2009ish regular Outlander with the clear taillights, not a bad looking CUV, fairly angular almost mini Land Rover Discovery design with an interesting split tailgate.
From above link, break down of Mitsubishi models.
1. Outlander 37,965
2. Outlander Sport 33,644
3. Mirage 26,966.
4. Eclipse Cross 19,661
5. Outlander PHEV 2,810
“If all this pleases you, act now. Rumor has it that next year’s Eclipse will follow the continuing blandness that has cursed the U.S. market. Gone will be the turbo and all-wheel drive. From the looks of spy photos, the versatile hatchback body style will disappear as well.”
You sure called that one. I’m almost surprised the editor didn’t dial that back just a hair because you don’t want to anger advertisers. I agree with the assessments of Mitsubishi above. The mainstreaming of Mitsubishi took a lot out of their appeal. In 15 years they went from plucky and defiant to impossible NOT to ignore.
“Everything following, including the Eclipse Cross, are just things you should not look directly at no matter how badly you want to.”
Yep, never look at anything but a full GSX Eclipse.
If Dodge is the muscle car performance brand now, Mitsubishi was the sport compact performance brand then. 3000GT, Eclipse, EVO and some mundane stuff nobody remembers. This generation looked really good, especially now with the stigma faded away and riff riff mostly extinct. The followup generation, and forgive me as I’ve been trying to use this term less and less, really turned the Eclipse into a chick car, it got too cute, the convertible seemed to sell in way more volume and all the performance seemed to slip by the wayside. It’s interesting, the first fast and the furious movie prominently featured a heavily modified lime green second gen eclipse that a generation of teenagers used as their desktop background. The sequel 2 fast 2 furious, seemed to be sponsored by Mitsubishi, and of course used a new customized purple third gen convertible, and in stark contrast to the original it seemed mechanically stock down to the uncharacteristically tall factory ride height and it’s use in action scenes took some crazy suspension of disbelief(which is saying something for this franchise). The EVO and R34 Skyline were the imports people came away from that movie admiring, I knew then the Eclipses days were numbered.
I also knew someone with a NA FWD model with a giant intercooler occupying the full estate of that big opening in the bumper, piped from a cone filter on one end to the intake tract on the other, quite the elaborate cold air intake! It was a friend of a friend’s car that we believed was a GSX up to that point!
In my high school parking lot in 1998 it was the gen 2 eclipse and hand me down minivans that were the most common student cars. The gen 1 and 2 eclipses were awesome. Then gen 3 came out…big heavy no turbo and sales shot up from boomers who bought the spyder. It still saddens me how many sport coupes there were in 98 and in 10-15 years all gone. Sad.
But performance hasnt let up. 210 hp seems so low now. My 2015 accord v6 has 278 hp 😀
Interesting indeed it is
That the Accord more bigger and beefy is
Than the GSX Eclipse is
I about to weepy is.
Am. Are. All those being verbs.
-ThePoest
P.S. In case you’re wondering, I fell off a tree and broke my humorous bone today.
P.P.S. For recompense, go watch a Pink Panther cartoon.