The new Eclipse and why it failed?

[Whelan]

The new Eclipse is certainly a car that pays homage to it's predecessor. But what I don't understand is how and where they went wrong. The car runs from $20 all the way up to over $30k, your almost in Evo territory. 263hp V6 is respectable, but it will cost you over $25k to get that engine, the base comes with a 165hp 2.4L I4 engine. So the numbers are not half bad as well. But for the price of this car you can easily put yourself in the seat of a WRX, Civic Si, or a pre-owned STI or Evo. Surely they are different models aimed at different markets some say, but I thinkt hey failed somewhere else along the line.The first few generations of the Eclipse did not become popular until they were used cars bought by high school and college kids and tuned. Not many people owned them brand new in GSX or GS-T form. Then the 3rd generation Eclipse with its awkward shape and F&F2 counterpart was just ugly, bland, and dropped a lot of the performance that the older models had, especially when they did not have a turbo or AWD as an option.The 4th generation just continued the bad idea, sure the looks were there, but the car still lacked a turbo and no AWD. As if this did not turn loyalists away even more, the car is not priced well at all. A top model should be no more than $25-27 max. I don't think Mitsubishi realized that when they came out with a new model, the only people who were able to afford the older ones were kids with $5-$10k to buy a used car. So this new price point just abandoned their whole market. Kids who bought Eclipses back in the day are now buying Lancers that start at $13k. So for me that would be the big reasoning for it's demise.

[NibCrom]

I was not aware the car was not selling well.

[Kamikaze]

I really don't care for the new one... they didn't do anything that made it exciting.

[ColonelPanic]

I'd take a Tiburon over one of those anyday if I had to have something along those lines... I haven't liked the Eclipse in years, the last one I liked probably being the Talon.

[redlava]

I think you pretty much answered your own question. They are really expensive. Gone is the crappy car that your parents got you with decent performance. Not too many parents are willing to buy their 16 yo son or daughter a $25,000 car. And the market is already clogged with mid 20K cars with equal performance numbers, couple that with sub 20 miles per gallon fuel economy and you have yourself a recipe for lackluster sales.

[Sputnik]

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »The car runs from $20 all the way up to over $30k, your almost in Evo territory. Ooo I'll take one for $20! Heck I'd take a few! *tee hee*

[Merzbow]

I'm glad you brought htis up because I was wondering hte same thing!I like Eclipses, especially the new ones. I would never buy an Eclipse regardless of the year but I still like them. I hardly see any of the new ones around here at all and when I do they are always the spiders which I don't like that much anyways.

[redlava]

And I forgot to mention that the only people I see driving them are gay men and chicks.

[mjbsb69]

People's memory of failed transmissions before 80K miles from early 90's model Eclipse/Laser/Talon triplets may have cooled sales on the newest models.

[tnpartsguy]

the 2nd Gen's bad habit of breaking timing belts at 13K miles and killing the engine scared a lot of people off too. The Eclispe was pretty much a US market car only, the new car is based more on the FTO than the previous car.

[Merzbow]

Very true redlava.I was not aware they had so many issues, so you're right, that may explain it to an extent

[ColonelPanic]

I didn't know about the problems with 'em either.My buddy had this AWD Talon that he had in high school, pretty nice ride. Till this psycho was chasing him and he ended up wrapping it around a telephone pole.