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Mitsubishi Eclipse - 2006 and Newer
nuieve
Member Posts: 43
I'm surprised to see no topics related to this extremely hot car.
http://media.mitsubishicars.com/Photos?model=&kw=&page=1
The only thing that bothers me is interior. While it's ok looking, it doesn't have free space for aftermarket options.
Where do I put Navigation system, for example?
http://media.mitsubishicars.com/Photos?model=&kw=&page=1
The only thing that bothers me is interior. While it's ok looking, it doesn't have free space for aftermarket options.
Where do I put Navigation system, for example?
0
Comments
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
For information, there's a pretty interesting topic on Mitsubishi marketing and market placement here in News and Views.
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Back when I was in elementary school... 10 years ago I guess... this is what we thought cars of the future would look like. It's nice to see that they've finally happened.
But driftracer is right. There'll have to be a hot version of this car if it's going to get any street cred. The outgoing generation was a big change for the Eclipse, and its fans (it sold more than the previous ones, I think) might feel abandoned by this one. Fans of the old one might like it, but it's not as easy to get people back once they've been abandoned once.
I hope it's not as large as it looks.
My take on the 06 Eclipse: The front end needs to be watered down a tweeny-tweeny bit. The back end looks like a 1998 Dodge Intrepid or 2001 Dodge Stratus a little bit. I don't like the back end with the Intrepid/stratus rear end. The back end needs to be totally reworked in my opinion.
To me the 06 looks totally different than the 95 model. As a matter of fact the 95 model does not look that much different from the 94 model.
I'm surprised to see negative comments on its back end. I find it very beautiful (as the rest of the car). The car looks very harmonic to me from every angle. And small! Tastes do vary!
The best thing about this car is that it doesn't look "economy"... well, the front-end is sort of generic, but that doesn't affect overall appeal. $$$-wise I'd rate its looks as a 30k-40k car. Also Mitsubishi claims 7 year/100 000 miles warranty, which deserves another thumb up for this car.
I wonder if its V6 would be finally able to do 0-60 in less than 6 sec...
~alpha
To recall the success (visually, at least) of that model in these lean times seems a good call to me.
I owned a Chrysler variant of the 3G model, and frankly I think it was a very competitive platform. Unfortunately, what it gained in refinement, I think it lost in fun-factor. It's extremely competent for a FWD, and very capable, though now behind much of the competition, but the beef is that it's not the quick, fun, tossable little terror that the 2G was.
Bigger ain't always better, says I.
Unfortunately I don't think the new body style will make a big enough splash in the market place. I'm usually pretty susceptible to solid styling cues, and this one isn't making me sweat or breathe hard, even though I think it's a big improvement.
Anybody know if the 3.8L is aluminum? And how much the new puppy weighs?
I actually like the styling, but with that much weight to lug around I wonder if the driving dynamics will be any good. It's based on the Galant/Endeavor(?) platform. Maybe they would have been better served basing the car off of the smaller, lighter Lancer and using a turbo for power in the performance version instead of a V6.
It will be interesting to see if this car appeals to driving enthusiast.
I know it's possible to make a serious driver's car that tips the scales at 3500lbs and above (Audi TT comes to mind), but there's not much history of that below the $30K mark, and regardless of how sumptuous the production models may be (this is Mitsu after all), I sure don't see an Eclipse coupe as a bestseller above that mark.
I wish the Mitsu site had some specs on it...
I have to respectfully disagree on the size issue though. I don't think a sporty 2+2 has any business being comfortable for four for any extended length of time. To me, if you want to haul four adults around in relative comfort on a regular basis, you buy a format suitable for such tasking. That's, IMO, mid-size sedan territory.
Now my '01 Sebring LXi Coupe (a 3g with a skin job) had ample room to take my kids (then 8 and 10) on a local trip of, say, 1-2 hours, very comfortably. Of course that meant having to go without the rear-seat entertainment system, so our Town & Country pulled distance duty most often. Likewise, for carrying of office associates to lunch, it had ample room for quick back and forth. It also retained some sporting quality to the driving (even with the softer Chrysler spec springs and damping) to keep it interesting when unladed. But the 2g was a better driver's car, and no two ways! The cockpit was tighter in all the right places, and the little beast was tossable in a way the 3g just can't physically accomplish.
All this upsizing is making for better utility, but what the devil are we doing as a country diluting our recreational driving with utility?
I ask you!
Gimme a totally updated 2g with just a tad more room and a light weight, efficient, small displacement six and make it RWD or at least AWD, and make sure I can have Alcantara and leather seating, and I'll be a happy man!
and a V6 FWD, its sad i like the car but a fwd v6, non turbo is not what i have in mind.
it looks good but i dont think ill buy one.
i think mitsubishi should have tried this car with the 4g63 engine, but they put all there effort in the evo.
Obviously you have never driven one. It is not just the looks, but the speed that will pin your a** back in the seat through 4th gear. All of this with only 4-cylinders. I urge you to find me another car that can do that with such a limited engine. Put a couple thousand dollars into it, and you have yourself a sleeper. My 98 has got 420 horses in it and a dreamy 51,000 miles - Do the math. I will dust just about any car on the road (especially domestic -hehe:) )and certainly anything production in the same price range. The last car that even gave me a sweat was a 04 Infiniti G35 coupe which comes standard with 298 horses. Try beating that with your Neon.
Any ways, some food for thought people. The 2nd generation body style was sleek, muscular, and to the point. Now let me elaborate, the GS was definitely for girls. Only the GST and GSX are on my good list here. Those cars with their aggressive stance and aerodynamic design continue to turn heads every time I take my baby out. I, for one, applaud Mitsubishi for going back to the drawing board because the 3rd gens look like sh*t. Who are they trying to kid with those "things" on the side...this is no Fararri.
In closing, I hope you all continue to hate on the new eclipses' because I will think of you everytime I smoke another car off the line in my new 06. Oh yes, it will be mine!!!
Try to keep up with my 98 or my 06 (once I have pumped a few mods in it).
Peace - I'm spent!
Any photos of the spyder yet that i can go take a peek at?
0-60 in 5.8 sec. They desribed the engine as "buttery smooth w/ some serious rip". 263 horsepower w/ 260lb ft of torque. About 27 grand loaded up with just about every option including the 600 watt stereo.
Looks like this car will be a winner for Mitsu this summer.
Not a good thing for the model that will, in all likelihood, mean life or death for Mitsu US. After seeing the pricing, I think the car has a shot, but it appears they will have to rely pretty much on word of mouth to make it fly.
Just goes to show you that you don't have to advertise the most to sell the most cars.
People spend as much time on the internet as they do watching TV nowadays, anyway. Interenet buzz can be more more effective than TV.
That $25 million covers the entire budget, including print, web and PR junkets, so it's a telling figure in an overall strategy.
I agree that the advertising budget isn't the end equation, but Mitsu isn't selling much of anything these days (down 43% again!), and it's a fact that pulling ad dollars is a bad strategy when the chips are down. Fact. They need more visibility now than ever before, especially on the eve of the debut of their best-selling offering historically.
Even as a long-time Mitsu fan and patron, I have to say I don't think they'll be here next year if this intro doesn't fly.
The new Eclipse is the fourth generation vehicle to wear the name, but the first-ever based on a platform designed and built expressly for the North American market
The Eclipse GS is equipped with a 2.4-liter engine with either a four-speed automatic or five-speed manual transmission (162 horsepower and 162 lbs.-ft. of torque), and the Eclipse GT comes standard with a 3.8-liter, 60-degree, SOHC V6 engine – also enhanced by the MIVEC system – that is ideally suited to provide brisk acceleration for spirited driving while maintaining efficient fuel economy. Rated at 263 horsepower at 5750 rpm, with peak torque of 260 lbs.-ft. at 4500 rpm. The engine’s intake and exhaust are tuned to achieve maximum torque early in the rev-range for strong acceleration the instant the throttle is engaged, almost regardless of engine speed. It comes equipped with a new six-speed manual or five-speed automatic with Sportronic™ mode.
To increase driver- and front passenger room, the Eclipse’s height was increased by nearly two inches, to 53.5 inches (or 53.8 inches when equipped with optional 18-inch wheels and tires
The Eclipse’s exterior design makes a bold visual statement about the product and the person who owns it, distinguishing itself from the traditional, conservative or retro styling of segment competitors. The Eclipse’s athletic fender arches, wind tunnel-inspired front fascia and long, arching C-pillar help the Eclipse carve out its own unique style.
In the interest of front passenger safety, all Eclipses are equipped with advanced front airbags, front seat mounted side-impact airbags and side curtain airbags.
The Eclipse’s optional premium audio system features 650-watt amplification with nine speakers including a 10-inch, long-throw subwoofer in a fiberglass reinforced acoustic suspension enclosure. The six-disc, in-dash CD changer also plays MP3 files. In addition to the usual bass, midrange, treble, fader and balance controls, the Eclipse’s advanced Digital Signal Processor (DSP) gives the user total control over the subwoofer “punch” level. It offers custom music genre equalizer settings and sound field image settings including: Normal, Stage, Live and Hall. The Rockford Fosgate system also offers an industry-first DSP sound setting memory function that allows users to configure all eight DSP settings and save them in six preset locations for their favorite CDs, artists, or music genres.
Mike @ Modified Mitsu
Who in Hades cares about the sound system? [rhetorical question]
You gotta be pretty hard up to go boulevarding with your rear window bouncing like a bass drum skin in the first place, but exactly what does that do for the driver?
It's heavier, taller and appears to boast a lower power to weight ratio than an Accord sedan.
I have been a devoted admirer of the G2 Eclipse in all its guises and had really hoped for a return to that kind of sport. I owned a G3 variant and was saddened that, do to the company's inability to market it well, update it appropriately, and style it with any degree of panache, that it remained an also-ran for its entire career; it deserved better and I thought they would learn. This is disappointing.
Subwoofer... :sick:
They are spending very close to a $100 million dollars on the launch of the Eclipse and you will see an entirely different type of advertising campaign from Mitsubishi starting June 12th. Check out www.yahoo.com on June 12th.
Well, if I've got it wrong, then so does Autoweek!
Some say Schembri butted heads with the marketing department over how the Eclipse should be marketed. They say market studies showed the car should be aimed at men ages 25 to 40. But Schembri argued for courting baby boomers, too, they say.
But the most difficult problem for the marketing executives, sources say, was the Eclipse's advertising budget: a paltry $25 million.
That's when Mayer walked.
"Kevin went through torture fighting for the budget," one source says. "A $25 million budget won't launch that car."
Maybe they got it wrong; maybe someone decided to spend the cash after the fact. Are you by any chance an insider, modmit? It'd be nice to have some inside scoop here.
I'm extremely pleased that they decided to return to the 2G for styling cues. IMO, they never should have left. Just about everything else I'm reading on this generation, though, seems to evidence even more of the blood-thinning that happened with the 3G, even though I believe that car was underrated.
Check out link title for the Press Releases from Today!
Mitsubishi has issued an "urgent notice of stop sale" on the redesigned 2006 Eclipse. The problem involves the vacuum brake booster, which could cause brake failure.
I flub like that would be fatal.
I think the design of this vehicle shows an excellent marketing blend that satisfies gen y's demand for futuristic lines and a full driving experience. As an owner of a G3 and an Endeavor, as well as an avid market researcher, I can say that Mitsu's N.America group has done extremely well in offering well balanced vehicles that meet the broadest needs of today's consumers. It may take time for the market to warm up to the new Mitsu, but if Corporate can keep it together, I believe their products will pull them through.
Bottom line, the G2 owners of yesterday are moving on and Mitsu is fulfilling the needs of a new clientele. So, why exactly would they just recreate the G2? To please those G2 owners (who are now older) that will pass it by to get a minivan? No...to snag a new, fresh market.
I think there's a bottom line you may be missing, and I think Mitsu might be missing it too, and that's that tuners (the youth segment they'd most like to exploit) see the G2 as the ultimate expression of Mitsu's performance capability, and within that, it's the turbo AWD variants that draw the cash offers. There's a reason for that and it has zero to do with a stereo!
None of this is to infer that the car is not good, nor that it may in fact be a better car than the G3, but more of a boulevard cruiser and less of a sports car doesn't sound like a great plan to capture a younger audience to me. At least not with the model that's supposed to be your sport offering. If they want to sell to a crowd set on amenities, they could pull a Scion, and offer a menu of goodies to play with on some other model.
End all for me is I think this car will actually appeal to an older audience based on the larger size, larger engine, amenities and styling. I could be wrong; not that that's ever happened before. ;-}
Anyway, the initial reviews I've read are pretty good, which is a good thing, but I worry that rather than a class leader here, we've got yet another mid-pack offering that will achieve whatever numbers it can on price and incentives.
I'm a 36-year old female. Just traded an 01 Eclipse Spyder GT for a Mazda RX 8 and the 06 Eclipse appeals to me very much. In fact, I see the 07 Spyder on my shopping list in a couple of years. I have disposable income, no children (thank you God for reliable birth control in my lifespan), and I'm responsible enough to take care of my purchases. Also, how can they make a turbo car and offer the kind of warranty they currently do?
Still, your typical tuner is taking a $9K-$12K used car and dumping 8-10 grand into it (often much more), so economically, they can do a GS (depending on credit scores) and aren't all that far off the GT buy in to begin with (question is would they?). Next, you may see them all as pubescent, but the average readership age for Sport Compact Magazine is 28, IIRC, and the last Southeast Nationals drew competitors averaging something like 38!
As a young (IMO) female of 36, by the time you go topless Spyder in MY07, you'll be at the very end of your demographic usefullness for this car, according to the experts at Mitsu. According to them, you're old. Not your fault; I just think they have no real clue who their actual audience has become.
Mostly I agree with you: this car is no way a demographic 18-40 target. More like a 26-55 is how I see it. That's how the recently departed Marketing VP saw it too, and that's part of why he left, according to reports. If they really wanted to nab the youth market, it would be a turbo'd AWD four-banger with less size, weight and junk. Yeah, it would have an optional killer sound system! As for the Boomer crowd (guilty), well, any enthusiast is going to balk first at the FWD, especially on the GT because of the torque-steer and the balance, and secondly at the weight, and thirdly at stright-line performance that doesn't approach a Z. The rest of the Boomers are going to find it fits their needs neatly, but won't go GS, I don't think.
BTW, modern turbos and long-term warranties can co-exist quite peacefully. They're pretty darn reliable these days. And most of those zit-faced tuners, frankly, take far better routine day-to-day care of their cars than most 36 year-old females I've known; present company excepted of course!
;-}
http://www.autoblog.com/entry/1234000040044633/
Mitsubishi halts 2006 Eclipse sales
"Mitsubishi stopped sales of the new 2006 Eclipse because of a problem with the vacuum brake booster could cause brake failure. Automotive News reports that Mitsubishi reported the problem to the NHTSA noting that up to 1185 vehicles could be involved in the recall. Only 44 Eclipses reached owners hands this month. We thought the Eclipse was supposed to change Mitsubishi fortunes."
Automotive News:
Mitsubishi has issued an "urgent notice of stop sale" on the redesigned 2006 Eclipse. The problem involves the vacuum brake booster, which could cause brake failure. Up to 1,185 vehicles could be affected.
CarConnection:
"Mitsubishi has halted sales of the '06 Eclipse after the company received reports of flawed brake systems from its Normal, Ill., plant. Automotive News reports that Mitsubishi reported the problem to the National Highway Traffic Safety ................
In the vehicles, a problem with the vacuum brake booster could cause brake failure."