Mitsubishi Eclipse vs Eagle Talon

terry_lynd

I am looking for my first car and have narrowed it down to two cars. A 95 Mitsubishi Eclipse or a 95 Eagle Talon Turbo. I checked the specs for each car and they are almost identicle. (FWD Talon is lighter than Eclipse and AWD Talon is heavier) The Eclipse and Talon have the same amount of torque; however, the talon has
205ft-lbs @ 3000rpm wheras the Eclipse has
205ft-lbs @ 6000rpm. I was wondering what difference in performance that would make. I also notcied that the Eclipse costs a considerable amount more than the Talon and I was curious as to why? Also, If the Talon is recommended I was wondering what benefits I would receive from getting AWD. The AWD weighs alot more so I was leaning more towards the FWD unless there is a significant benefit in performance from the AWD. I plan to "sup-up" my car and am interested in performance as well as price, more money left in the pocket to enhance the visual aspect of the car. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
Terry

revka

You may also want to try asking (copy/paste) your question in our ongoing Used hatchbacks discussion. Use your copy/paste so you don't have to re-write your message. Good luck.

Revka
Host
Hatchbacks & Station Wagons Boards

SPYDER98

The hp and torque specs for a AWD or FWD 95-99 eclipse turbo and talon turbo are exactly the same.

205hp at 6k rpm, 220ft-lbs of torque at 3k rpm for the Automatic

210hp at 6k rpm, 214ft-lbs of torque at 3k rpm for the 5-speed manual.

If you plan on modding either one of these cars, I would highly suggest opting for the AWD. Not only do they handle much better (the FWD exhibits WAY to much understeer) Once you begin adding more HP and torque, it will become tougher and tougher to keep those front wheels from breaking lose.

My best advice would be to find a 95 talon TSI AWD with low mileage. They can be had cheap these days as they have depreciated greatly.

Educate yourself on modding a DSM first. These cars have GREAT performance potential.

For the money, their tough to beat. A fox body mustang or 94-95 would be the only other car I would recommend which has a better bang for the buck value in the used car aftermarket.

Hope this helps..

-Rob

98 Spyder GST

thedarkwolf

The problem with the talon/eclipse is they are not known for their great reliability. Have you checked to see how much insurance is going to be yet? I am guessing your under 24 since this is your first car so its going to be very expensive if they will insure you at all.

BTW incase you haven't figured it yet out they are practically the same car. They might have some exterior/interior differences but underneath they are the samething. Well other than one being AWD and the other FWD but both were available either way.

SPYDER98

the only fox-bodies I would of recommended were the 86-93. Those had fuel injection.
I only mentioned 94-95 because those were the last years of the great 302 before ford switched to the 281.