Japan’s Bubble Era saw the East Asian country become an economic powerhouse, then the second largest in the world. At the same time, Japanese automakers were building cars the envy of their rivals the world over. Back then, sports coupes weren’t too expensive, or too niche. It was a must-have necessity for every serious Japanese automaker. In the ’80s and ’90s, Mitsubishi was up there with the best.
Born in this crucible of greatness was the Mitsubishi Eclipse. It wasn’t the brand’s halo car, but a solid mid-tier sports model offering great lines and affordable performance. Like so many Japanese cars of its time, this sleeping dragon could be woken into a full-throated monster with the right mods.
Very much of its era, the Eclipse shone brightly for three generations, before faltering at the fourth. Let’s examine how this glorious 90s icon shone so bright, and how it all went wrong in the end.
Exceptional In The ’80s
Japanese automakers still build sports cars, but their lines are often limited to one or two high-end models. Deals are struck between brands to amortize costs, and concerns over sales and the bottom line are always front of mind for product planners. Think about how the new Toyota Supra launched without a manual, or the fact that you’ve barely seen a Nissan Z since they launched a couple of years ago.
In the late 1980s, it was an entirely different world. Automakers had money to spare, and so did the customers. Some of the economic slowness of the ’70s was replaced with a new energy and lineups reflected this. Sports models abounded wherever you looked, from sub-compacts to the god-tier halo cars we revere today.
In this environment, the Eclipse was developed with a purpose. It was intended to be a mid-level model, and would slot in beneath the higher-end Mitsubishi 3000GT (Dodge Stealth). Mitsubishi developed it specifically for the North American market, and it was built in Normal, Illinois. Debuting in 1989 for the 1990 model year in North America, it was eventually exported to Japan and Europe, too.
As Japanese automakers oversaw the changing of the guard into 90s design tropes, the Eclipse helped lead the charge. It had a low hoodline, pop-up headlights, and rounded edges that separated it from the prevailing 1980s aesthetic. It was often painted with a contrasting black roof, too, which gave the glasshouse a sleek, shadowed look. 1993 would see the car updated with a simple, clean facelift. It lost the pop-up headlights but gained a more modern look for the mid-90s era.
As was common in the era, you could option the Eclipse in all manner of different configurations. Base models had a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine that was only good for 92 horsepower, solely driving the front wheels. This was the model you’d get if you wanted the look, but you couldn’t afford the go. You could step up to the 2.0-liter 4G63 if you had a little more cash, which would deliver a more respectable 135 horsepower to the front tires.
The money models, though, were the GS Turbo and GSX. Both rocked the legendary 4G63T, and the latter got all-wheel-drive to boot. You could get up to 195 horsepower in the later models, assuming you specced the five-speed manual. Automatic models were stuck with 180 horsepower courtesy of a smaller turbo and fuel injectors. Even then, it was still a decently hot ship.
The 4G63T is one of those glorious Japanese engines that tuners fell in love with. Throw on a big turbo and the right supporting mods, and making over 500 horsepower isn’t out of the question. The same engine gained legendary status in the Lancer Evolution, but America had little need for the rally-bred model. You could get the same power and all-wheel-drive grip in an Eclipse, and you weren’t stuck in a four-door sedan, either.
Under the Diamond Star Motors collaboration, the first-generation Eclipse was also sold as the Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser. All were well regarded, with badges and some minor visual tweaks being the biggest difference between them.
The first-generation Eclipse was one of those models that made people fall in love with Japanese sports cars. It had modern looks and good power courtesy of boost. Plus, turbo cars proved eminently tunable. They quickly became a desirable model in the import scene—even if they were being built domestically for U.S. buyers.
The Hero’s Journey
Mitsubishi didn’t rest on its laurels. A sports car might sit on sale for over a decade today, but that wasn’t the case for the Eclipse. The Japanese brand was already retooling for the second-gen model for the 1995 model year.
The Eclipse was now a beautifully curvaceous thing, round and svelte and of the moment. Where the first-gen still had some details that hung around from the 1980s, the new model was as fresh as frosted tips. It also scored a couple of new engines for lower models while retaining the beloved 4G63T for the performance trims.
Oh, and this time around? Mitsubishi even sprung for a drop-top Spyder model. Why? Because the Nineties were rocking hard, and Mitsubishi was having a ball.
For the US, base models were far better off than the previous generation. They got a healthy 140 horsepower courtesy of the 2.0-liter 420A engine from Chrysler. It was related to the engine that would end up in the Dodge Neon, another benefit of the partnership between the two companies.
Meanwhile, peak power from the turbo models was boosted to 210 horsepower. It was all thanks to higher compression ratios and improved turbos, with Mitsubishi beefing up the driveline to suit. The beloved 4G63T was available in the front-wheel-drive GS-T models, or you could upgrade to the GSX for all-wheel-drive. The only caveat is that Mitsubishi wouldn’t sell you a convertible with all-wheel-drive.
Fundamentally, the second-generation Eclipse was cool for one reason. You were getting the same rad drivetrain in an even hotter body than before.
The second-generation model is probably the most famous Eclipse of all. That’s by virtue of its starring appearance in The Fast and The Furious all the way back in 2001. Thanks to the influence of car consultant Craig Lieberman, the 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse ended up as O’Conner’s car at the start of the film.
Brian’s Eclipse would go on to explode shortly into proceedings before he stepped into the orange Supra that became the JDM star of the film. Regardless, it was still a huge role for the Eclipse, and the car still has star power to this day. One of the movie cars sold for a mighty $170,500 back in 2022, despite being a low-powered automatic with few of the mods seen on screen.
It’s worth noting that The Fast and the Furious didn’t define import car culture; it was a reflection of the scene at the time. Not least because most of the hero cars were real builds rented from real owners. The Eclipse seen in the film was a great example of a hot build of the era. If you had big turbo power in the 1990s, it certainly didn’t hurt to have a laptop onboard for tuning. It was also cool, nay—expected—that you had a killer sticker pack that boasted of the performance parts under the hood.
Sliding…
The second generation gave way to the third for the 2000 model year. Mitsubishi switched up the visuals and the engines once more, but this time, it got a little twisted along the way. Basing the car on the same platform as the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus didn’t help matters.
The styling was confused at best. The new model had sharper lines for the new millennium. It also had a bunch of odd strakes, vents, and indents that overcomplicated the design, much to its detriment. From some angles, it looked like the designers couldn’t choose between a retro throwback look and something that was futuristic and modern throughout.
Mitsubishi also turned away from greatness in the engine selection, too. The 4G63T was out, with emissions making things complicated. Base models got a 2.4-liter inline four, good for 150 horsepower. The top models got the 3.0-liter 6G72 V6, which offered 210 hp in peak configuration.
On paper, the new V6 matched the outgoing four-cylinder in output. In reality, though, it wasn’t nearly as good. That’s because the new V6 simply didn’t have the same tuning potential as the 4G63T. With no boost as standard, making big power would require installing an entire turbo kit at great expense. The V6 layout would make this far more complicated to boot.
Mitsubishi also abandoned all-wheel-drive at this point, too. The Eclipse was now front-wheel-drive only.
The loss of killer performance models wasn’t the end of the Eclipse, though. In every generation, more lower-end models were sold compared to the top trims. The third generation was, at first, selling in bulk, just like the previous two generations.
For context, Mitsubishi was regularly selling over 50,000 Eclipses in the 1990s, with a peak of 72,468 sold in 1992. In addition, the Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser versions raked in a ton of additional sales. A whopping 80,033 Lasers and Talons were sold in 1990 alone.
The third generation kept up the good fight, shifting a healthy 72,041 units in 2002. That quickly sunk to just over 20,000 units by 2004, however. The masses were turning a blind eye to the Eclipse, and the enthusiasts weren’t falling in love with it, either.
Withered On The Vine
Mitsubishi was ready to arrest the slide with the fourth-generation model. It boasted a cleaner look in line with Mitsubishi’s then-current design language. However, while neater than the third-gen, it was heavy and burdensome, with a look not befitting a lithe and sporty coupe.
It wasn’t just the looks, either. Curb weight had swollen to 3,472 pounds for the V6, while the base model weighed 3,274 pounds. For the first-gen model, the original GSX weighed just 3,095 pounds in comparison, with an all-wheel-drive drivetrain and turbo on board to boot. The base model was a featherweight, at just 2,524 pounds.
Once again purely sold as a front-wheel-drive model, Mitsubishi sold the new Eclipse with a 2.4 liter four in the base models boasting a decent 162 horsepower. The top-tier GT model scored a comparatively massive 3.8-liter V6 also seen in the Pajero, Galant, and 380. With 268 horsepower, it was a new high for the nameplate.
Nonetheless, the fourth-gen failed to connect with enthusiasts once more. The styling wasn’t there, the cool engine was gone, and the Eclipse wasn’t finding an audience. First-year sales were lukewarm and things didn’t really improve much from there. Peak sales for the fourth-gen came in 2006 at under 40,000 units. As noted by GoodCarBadCar at the time, it was proving too expensive to compete versus rivals with more power, better looks, and fancier badges.
Mitsubishi would go on to tease greatness, in the form of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Ralliart. Shown off in searing red with gold wheels, it rocked an aggressive stance, a sweet rear wing, and a 4G63T under the hood. All-wheel-drive was back, too, and Mitsubishi boasted it had an “estimated” 400 horsepower on tap. The body was dripping in carbon fiber parts, while the interior rocked Recaro seats with racing harnesses included.
Nevermind, though. It was just a concept. Mitsubishi had no serious plans to put it into production.
Sales dipped below 5,000 by 2009, and the writing was on the wall. The Eclipse’s final year of production was 2011 for the 2012 model year. Mitsubishi sold just 784 examples in 2012, and a further 40 cars in 2013.
The Eclipse went out, not with a roar, but a whimper. By the end of production, Mitsubishi simply didn’t give a shit. Nor did anybody else.
The final example ever built was set aside. It would be auctioned off for charity. The last Eclipse wasn’t given some grand glory tour, though. Instead, it was trucked out behind the factory by a photographer who made no effort to capture its charms. They took some of the saddest, most lifeless press photos you’ll ever see on this website.
Before long, the coupe would be a distant memory. Mitsubishi slapped the name on a boring SUV, and the Eclipse was gone for good. What a way to go.
Remember The Good Times
The Eclipse is a bit like your favorite sitcom. It started out pretty good, and after a few seasons, it was kicking serious goals. Laughter, fun, excitement—it had it all! Then, the studio wanted to juice it for everything they could get. They forgot what made it great, and started churning out crap under the same name to turn a buck. Eventually, there was no more to give, and it was put out of its misery.
Thus, I implore you to remember the Mitsubishi Eclipse for what it was: a genuinely cool tuner car with legions of diehard fans. And if you ever doubt the cultural impact of the original Eclipse, consider this. Despite Mitsubishi trashing the name by slapping it on a humdrum SUV, Google still confuses the current model with the legendary coupe.
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The Mitsubishi Eclipse was a beautiful thing, even if its later examples were bloated, uninteresting, and in no way true to the name. A glorious Mitsubishi coupe may never redeem us, so we pay tribute to the ones that have passed.
Image credits: Mitsubishi
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I had a friend in high school whose parents bought her a first-gen GSX. She had very little appreciation for what the car was, but my circle of car friends would always rave about how awesome her car was to her without recognition on her part. It turned out that she was a timid driver and the boost scared her, so she always drove like a grandma and kept it low in the rev range. The thing was an absolute hoot to drive, and felt a lot faster than my friend’s Fox body despite being down on power.
Years later, I dated a girl with a third gen Eclipse GT. I’ve recounted before how unreliable the thing was, but the part that disappointed me the most was just how dull the thing felt. The looks were hardly impressive, especially after the swoopy second gen, but the steering was numb, the chassis felt way too flexy (it was a hardtop), and the drivetrain was just dull. Granted, it was an automatic and therefore starting off on the wrong foot, but that V6 wasn’t a very willing partner either – it was course, unrefined, and not only hated being revved but didn’t make rewarding noises when doing so. It was bittersweet when we broke up, as I missed the girl but didn’t miss her crappy car.
The third gen really failed to impress, huh.
I’ll have to concede that subtlety isn’t one of my strong suits.
To your point, I should give the third gen some credit – it did have pretty comfortable seats and surprisingly large trunk.
3rd gen was a total abomination, 4th gen tried to play it safer and made it bland, bulbous and boring instead (with a rear end like that you can be many things, but sporty you are not). 2nd gen is the one that defined Eclipse for me, they are quite handsome in person and much smaller than you think.
Can we also give a shout-out to the Eclipse predecessor, the amazing Starion and Dodge Conquest.
I remember when Mitsubishi
…
…what, you were expecting more?
Good one! Regretably, nowadays I see that name more often on aircon units than on cars.
Brutal but fair.
My first car was a 1994 model that my uncle had brought back home from Hawaii after he was discharged from the Navy. Red paint was faded, headliner was flappy, the tires were bald, no power steering, no air conditioning, and the really weak 1.8, but it was a red coupe with a stick, it was free, and I was a 16 year old idiot.
I learned to wrench on that car. I learned a lot about driving in that car. Was it as fast as my friends’ cars (a 2001 Civic SI and a 1997 Saab 900 S Turbo)? Absolutely not! Put on good tires, a brand new suspension, a Goodwill CD player, and I drove that thing hard.
Ended up getting a couple of the final generation cars as rentals when I was dating my now wife and had to drive across the back roads of Georgia from one side to the other. It wasn’t the same. Felt heavier, not really more refined (felt like a really low buck grand touring car), but the slung back fighter pilot on a budget seating position took me right back to my first car love.
The first car I ever bought was a 1993 Talon ESi in deep metallic green. I drove that car for 10 years, and loved every minute of it. It wasn’t a turbo, but with a 5-speed and only 2600 lbs to haul around, that 135 hp made it feel faster than it was.
I think Mitsubishi somehow captured lightning in a bottle with that 1st generation – the styling, the ergonomics, the handling – not much else could touch it at that price point. It felt solid and planted at 185 km/h, turned in respectable fuel mileage, and even handled gravel roads much better than some much larger cars in my family at the time.
Every time I see the name ‘Eclipse’ slathered across the back of a misshapen crossover, I feel a little bit sick to my stomach.
Bought a ’90 Eagle Talon TSi AWD when they first came out. They were still new enough that I’d get thumbs-up signs from kids in other cars when I passed them. It was a lot of fun to drive in any kind of weather, quite powerful for its time. It was a bit heavy, though, and not all that agile. Still a great daily driver.
Lost my virginity to a GSX owner.
Bob Barker?
Slow Down, Turbo!
My mom had a Plymouth Laser back in the day, it was a manual in red. She loved the car, then she sold it once she got pregnant with me. Traded it in for a VW Jetta, but she kept the owner manual and window sticker because it was her first “new car”.
Knew 2 people in highschool who had a Talon, one was FWD and the other was AWD. They ended up getting into “races” to lunch and such because they just shit talked each other constantly. They were fun little hot hatches to ride in!
The last generation Eclipse is begging for a good powertrain, it needed one. If I won the Powerball, I’d be swapping an EVO X drivetrain into one tomorrow. They are just that pretty (to me anyway) and deserve all the love they can get.
The 3rd gen sucks my ass. Saw a convertible one at a classic car show this year and I was so angry. Who saves them?!
What always impressed me about for the first generation was how super cheap they were compared to basically everything else except the Ford Probe. On paper they were a direct competitor to the Celica All-Trac/GT-Four but they were only like 60% of the price (so much cheaper that they undercut the Celica GTS); and that you could go to a Dodge showroom and see the ancient ass Daytona with a Laser and Talon sitting right next to it for less money, and that Dodge continued to try to pawn it off on people for years afterward anyway, is nuts.
And yet, I had a soft spot for the Daytona.
It soldiered on (long after its Laser twin evolved into my favorite of the DSM triplets), like a pony car from the alternate universe where the Mustang had actually changed into the Probe as originally planned.
I can’t believe first gen had only 195hp. In an Eagle Talon was the first time I ever felt such force when the turbo kicked in.
Later, I got to try a 3000gt and for a long time it was the fastest car I ever drove.
These were fantastically fun to drive-a buddy of mine bought a ’91 Talon TSi around 2002 with only 65K miles. He drove a lot of highway miles for work and by 118K he sold it after it collapsed two lifters following a string of other expensive repairs including a CV axle failure and needing to replace the viscous coupling in the AWD transfer case. This in spite of having been in pristine like new condition when he bought it from the original owner, a mechanic, and babying it so much we would give him hell for buying a sports car and then never even winding it to redline.
The third gen was so weird, but also the late ’90s early ’00s seems like a time where a lot of companies (maybe too much so) were throwing out the rule books on styling. I mean c’mon have you seen a period Celica? I can’t help but think more than styling turning it into essentially a sportier Sebring/Dodge Avenger clone is what really killed it. But also it seems like sporty coupes in general were facing mass extinction by this point. Honestly I can live without sports coupes personally-but I do wish small sporty 4 doors had taken their place instead of SUVs or whatever the people who used to buy these buy now. Maybe it’s being a life long snow belt dweller but can’t help but wonder if more car makers had stayed the course on AWD performance cars if maybe SUVs wouldn’t have replaced them quite so readily.
In size and weight, the 4th gen car was much more akin to the 3000 GT than the Eclipse. Want to feel even more sad? For the Ralliart concept, the AWD bits came from the Endeavor, which it shared a platform with. The rear diff and suspension parts practically bolt in. The possibility was nearly there.
I think that 4th Gen was erased from my mind MIB style. I have absolutely no recollection of that vehicle existing or ever having seen one in person.
Says something about it doesn’t it… I have the same problem, was quite surprised to scroll past the 3rd gen in the article.
The third Gen was so awful I think I blocked it from my mind. I didn’t remember a fourth generation either.
I remember the ads for the second gen. There was a car next to the road and while the riff for Enter Sandman was playing, the Eclipse would rev up, and it would wake up the broken car because it had power to spare (later versions of the ad had the riff removed). The other one was just the generic people riding in the car and they were playing Ready to Go by Republica in the commercial. Why do I remember these things?
Now we all need to sing along to a song we don’t actually know the lyrics to, like the old Mitsubishi commercial in the 90’s. Pour one out for the Eclipse, a car I wanted in the 90’s and forgot about once the third generation arrived.
I had completely forgotten about the fourth gen.
An overlooked element of how cool the first gen was: the interior.
The dash had a terrific, driver-focused setup that looked as futuristic as the exterior and wasn’t a copy of any existing efforts. Lots of very legible gauges and a great futuristic soft-geometric feel.
https://images.app.goo.gl/PHiRbWfyC5Vkga2D8
Very true! And great seats as well.
“The Eclipse was now a beautifully curvaceous thing, round and svelte…”
I’m more inclined to call even the Gen 2 Eclipse more bloated than svelte. Gen 1 looked like an athlete. I think subsequent versions looked like post-retirement athletes puttin’ on the pounds.
I agree, I liked the first generation the best, 2nd Gen. was a little too much 90s jelly bean.
I think fairly regularly about how the compact sports coupe suffered a sad death in the 2000s. As mentioned in the article nearly every make had some sort of similar car, a sporty fwd coupe that wasn’t just a coupe version of their compact sedan. The Prelude, Celica, Eclipse, Tiburon, ect… They were close to the ideal 1st cars at least in base form. They were sporty looking, they couldn’t fit a whole crew of kids in them because they were too small, and the base engines were anemic enough to not encourage too many shenanigans.
Where the plot got lost was that manufactures seemed to forget that they needed to be cool, or at least have a version of them that was cool. Without a turbocharged performance version high school kids weren’t chomping at the bit to cosplay as having one while tooling around in the base engine car. I don’t think a 4th Gen Eclipse GSX would have saved the Eclipse but it would have made the platform more interesting.
Did manufactures stop caring about sports coupes because they weren’t selling, or did they stop selling because the manufactures didn’t care? Either way the world is a little sadder and more dull without the.
I think they would have stopped selling regardless. The SUV and Truck takeover couldn’t be stopped, as they started to be not only bought for their intended purposes, it considered cool instead of boring work vehicles.
I remember when my dad got a red 1992 Eclipse GSX as his new car — despite the unfortunate auto transmission, he instantly became the coolest dad in the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, despite being low mileage and in perfect visual condition, by 1999 the car had become so unreliable that dad had to replace it…with a Pontiac Grand Prix. Even 25 years later, that hurts.
Yeah a buddy of mine bought a clean lowish mileage one that was 10 years old and sold it after about 40K of mostly highway miles (and still looking perfect) because it needed so many expensive mechanical repairs in that time.
I’m enjoying seeing so much mainstream coverage of something I’ve been so involved with for so long.
-Dino from 2GNT.com
We should note the 2nd gen’s Achilles heel, danger to manifold. The 3rd gen also suffered from Dirty Vegas, of which there is no cure.
Yeah I’m not sure I agree with this assessment.
For one, the 2G Eclipse was also based on the same Galant platform that the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring coupe were. They even shared instrument panels. Didn’t detract from Peak Eclipse.
The 2000 model was largely panned as disappointing by auto journalists at the time. No more turbo. No more AWD. It just became Mitsubishi’s Sebring rather than a distinct and sportier car. And sales absolutely cratered as a result.
The whole reason Mitsubishi went back to the bubble-type styling theme with the 4th generation was because the 3G had flopped so badly. But again, design wasn’t the main problem. The fact that it was essentially a Mitsubishi Monte Carlo with no performance beyond the also lackluster Galant on which it was based was a problem.
So no, the 2000 Galant was the end of the Eclipse being anything like its predecessors, having shot straight for the middle and missed badly. The 4G was the ill conceived attempt to recover from that mistake.
I loved those second gen awd turbo cars but could not afford one in my early 20s. I really miss those days, when these, Ford Probe GT, and Celica All-Tracs were everywhere.
Me too. Those were the high end of the sportcoupe era, but even the lower end stuff could be simply fun. These days, that’s a tough thing to find – even many performance cars don’t seem particularly enjoyable to drive.
Exactly, everything has turned into a boring crossover.