New Mitsubishi Eclipse: Ehhh mediocre Options

[turbohcar]

For whatever reason Mitsubishi has decided to bite its own tail again. Sources inside the plant tell me one of the new concept Eclipses went down the line just a few days ago. Styling is supposed to be it's strong point. It was reported that many of the employees were very happy with the car aesthetically, which is pretty close to that of what was seen at the auto shows. However, power is where they are lacking. They will NOT have the AWD platform with a hybrid gas in front electric in back power plants. No turbos either. No Mitsubishi would rather eat itself into debt farther by simply replacing the V6 in the current Eclipse with a larger displacement (3.8L) power plant. Yet again I am dissapointed with Mitsubishi's poor judgement. It has been said over and over again by enthusiast and factory employee alike, people bought those cars (90-99) because they are a poor mans Porsche (sometimes better) and because of the organic, animal-like styling combination (95-99). You put performance and a hot body together and you've got yourself a winning combination. One without the other is simply a quadrapeligic, you're getting nowhere fast. Even the 1G cars are somewhat good looking. I hope sooner or later the realize what they're doing wrong. Oh and production is supposed to start early next year.

[turbohcar]

I agree, 90% of the cars sold from 95-99 were nonturbo but, the people that had turbo cars, even people that weren't car nuts, loved how quick and sporty they were. In my opinion, people bought the nonturbo cars because they couldn't afford the higher sticker of a turbo car and settled for a car that just looked like it. I'd like to think that if the 1G and 2G cars had been delayed a couple years they would be contenders with (and hopefully better than) Dodge against the SRT-4. IMO, the SXT Neon is just like the nonturbo 2g cars, it just kinda looks like their bigger, more powerful version.

I'm not saying that EVO's aren't great for play time, its just when I hear the phrase "sports car" the EVO isn't the first one to come to mind. IMO a sports car is defined by a short wheelbase, compact, lightweight, two door, two seater (if they did have four seats they were so small they were useless), with plenty of power to rip through the gears quickly. Not that an EVO couldn't be considered a sports car, but I consider it to be a family sedan with a sports car motor dropped in it much like the SRT-4. When I hear sports car, I think of the Mazda Miata, Porsche Carrera, etc.... cars of that breed. The Eclipses to me were on the heavier, slightly less agile end of the sports car band.

Take some chances Mitsubishi, you've got nothing to lose. Sacrifice some of that styling for more power and handling and keep the price close to $20k, it wouldn't hurt to try.