Bye Bye Eclipses

[hitbychance]

Autoweek released an article today about the discontinuation of the eclipse and a few other models,

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to kill its current lineup of U.S.-made vehicles, including the Eclipse sporty car and Endeavor crossover, over the next three years and switch to producing global vehicles at its Illinois plant, partly to target export markets.

The current nameplates will be phased out by 2014 as part of the carmaker's “Jump 2013” mid-term business plan unveiled Thursday by president Osamu Masuko.

Mitsubishi's factory in Normal, Ill., its only U.S. assembly plant, will pick up new models based on the platform underpinning the Outlander crossover, Outlander Sport small crossover and Lancer sedan. The company plans to announce early next month what model will debut there.

Discontinuing the Eclipse, Eclipse Spyder, Endeavor and Galant sedan is an element of Mitsubishi's plan to build on the company's 3 percent U.S. sales increase last year after years of steady decline. Despite losing the four models from its local lineup, Masuko predicted U.S. sales and production would rise as the company ramps up the new vehicle family.



Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/2011012 ... z1BgdfyL5C

[RicerX]

Read that on autoblog yesterday. Kind of sad, but let's face it, they cannibalized any potential for relevancy the Eclipse had when they brought the Lancer Evolution to the states. The Galant was never going to hang with a Camry, Accord, or Altima, and the Endeavor was quite possibly the most horrific looking thing Mitsu ever made.

[scotty-2-forty]

Meh, never a fan of the Eclipse since the first redesign; just wasn't a fan of the slippery design. The gen-1's were cool.

[DamonDread]

Meh, never a fan of the Eclipse since the first redesign; just wasn't a fan of the slippery design. The gen-1's were cool.

The gen1s were dope. Im still looking for one that isnt beat to death, be it laser, talon or eclipse.

Eff the U.S. galant its complete garbage. Europe got the v6 vr4 edition that is sooooo freakin hot.

[RicerX]

3000GT VR4 FTW.

[jbracy7]

bring back the 3000gt,AKA THE GTO IN JAPAN,a** a lower priced super car to run with the GTR

[biggie]

Long line of 'tanks' continue. Maybe they'll stop that now. 3000GT and new Eclipse are some of the heaviest cars on the road.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I never liked the Eclipse anyway, but the current gen particularly strikes me as a mystifying and unappealing blob of blah. The whole car, visually, seems to lack any sort of direction, theme, or coherence. It's just sort of there. Even with 260 V6 horses it isn't all that sporty.

Long line of 'tanks' continue. Maybe they'll stop that now. 3000GT and new Eclipse are some of the heaviest cars on the road.

Yup. I have never understood Mitsu's fascination with wrong-wheel drive "sports cars." Nor have I ever been able to understand their fascination with gluing a driveshaft on those FWD cars instead of just pointing the transmission the right way in the first place. And even ignoring all that, one of the two prime benefits of FWD is weight savings, yet the 3GS and Eclipse are both scale-smashers. Even the Evo is a porker, weighting barely 100lb less than my big V8 luxury car.

The only Mitsu I ever really liked was the Diamante.

[Jesda]

I also like the Diamante. Its too bad they never fixed the heater core problem in those. I know a guy who simply drives his without heat because he got tired of replacing heater cores.

[Red coupe]

Long line of 'tanks' continue. Maybe they'll stop that now. 3000GT and new Eclipse are some of the heaviest cars on the road.

This.

Front wheel drive, stupidly overweight "sports car"... what is the point.

[themadscientist]

bring back the 3000gt,AKA THE GTO IN JAPAN,a** a lower priced super car to run with the GTR

You can't be serious.

[alphapig]

Eff the U.S. galant its complete garbage. Europe got the v6 vr4 edition that is sooooo freakin hot.

True that, I LOVE that gen. Galant body style.

All we get in the US are the gross old school ones, and they are pretty rare:

http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/2119763005.html

[PEZi]

BRING BACK MY EVO IX!

i don't want a used one

[alms24sebring]

haha I forgot about the laser. I also really like the Talons and the gen1 Eclipses. 99 had the best body style. GS-T, GS-X only..

The late model ones were uuuuugly and slow. I hated that one in 2 Fast 2 Furious. WWHHYYYY??

[Jesda]

Mitsu's entire US business plan since the mid 90s was to offer cheap credit to people who couldn't get approved for a new car anywhere else. In other words, you bought a Mitsubishi because you thought you had no choice. Eventually, those people predictably didn't pay their loans and the plan imploded.

[Solar_Runner]

won't miss it. Look around a little bit on the 'ntez, the 1st gen were god-awful in terms of quality. They'd start to rust the second you drove them off the lot. Made the 914 look like it was made of stainless steel!

[jbracy7]

bring back the 3000gt,AKA THE GTO IN JAPAN,a** a lower priced super car to run with the GTR

You can't be serious.

hey i can dream! granted its a porker but it was a great looking car.

[themadscientist]

Much like the Starion, it looked good, but made a promise it could'nt keep.

[flohtingPoint]

I think the obvious answer to this is, "Mitsu still made Eclipses?" Massively useless POS.

[Jesda]

lol

I mean come on, its like they didnt even try.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the current state of affairs of Chrysler since the two of them liked to share pretty much everything, After all the same engine found in the I4 eclipses and galants are the same engines found in the sebrings and neons. The only thing that was good about this was the ease locating replacement parts. After all if it fit on the Eclipse it more than likely fit on the Galant, the Sebring, and the Avenger. The Mirage, Neon, and Lancer are essentially the exact the same car.

[PEZi]

After all the same engine found in the I4 eclipses and galants are the same engines found in the sebrings and neons.

the block in the evo is the same block found in the SRT-4's as well.... stupid

[themadscientist]

Mitsubishi, ride till the wheels fall off.

http://www.mitsubishisucks.com/cars/sca ... rests.html

[EvoTyler]

The Eclipse has sucked since they traded the turbo I4 for the V6 turd. They've taken a once great car and slowly but surely destroyed it's name...kinda like Brett Favre.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

The Eclipse has sucked since they traded the turbo I4 for the V6 turd. They've taken a once great car and slowly but surely destroyed it's name...kinda like Brett Favre.

Sad but true.

[MinisterofDOOM]

V6 turd

Indeed. 3.8 liters and 16/24 mpg only add up to 260 hp and ft-lb. That's astoundingly horrible.

[alms24sebring]

daaaaaaaam. I forgot all about this body style lol. Yeah they didnt sell too many of those.I never see them anymore.

[EvoTyler]

daaaaaaaam. I forgot all about this body style lol. Yeah they didnt sell too many of those.I never see them anymore.

^you're lucky

[frapjap]

lol

I mean come on, its like they didnt even try.

My co worker has one of these disgusting atrocities- without the 'vert.
Someone posted before and NAILED it- "SPORTY CAR," not sports car. Christ, it doesn't even look good!

I drove it a few times too, god awful build quality, craptastic transmission, and cheap CHEAP SUPER CHEAP quality of production. The paint on my '88 Pontiac is better than his 2010 Eclipse. Its truly a pathetic piece of machinery.

[DamonDread]

Ill take an AWD 4g63 and be happy. But the 420a chrysler motor they had in the RS/GS eclipses were just pure garbage. I am however a DSM fan, just not a huge one.