Car review: Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross
Deserves a day in the sun
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Your support makes all the difference.I know it’s a cheap shot but, well, I just can’t avoid it. It’s there on the log book, the owner’s manual, the press release, and especially in big chrome letters on the boot: E C L I P S E.
For a car company that is a relatively small player, you might say overshadowed, in the new car market it’s really asking for trouble. It’s a bit negative. It summons up an image of a world plunged into utter darkness, an event that would terrify our primitive ancestors.
Not since Hyundai christened their first import Pony (check the cockney rhyming slang) has a firm taken a bigger risk with a moniker.
Get round the name, though, (and actually it is “Eclipse Cross”, not that that adds much meaning), and you’ll discover a product that deserves its day in the sun, that is in the unbelievably crowded compact SUV sector. Put up against the classy Volvo XC40 I tried a few weeks ago, for example, and it is pretty outclassed, but then the Volvo costs almost twice as much. Up against the Seats and Nissans you might regard as more natural competition for the Eclipse, it is at least roughly competitive.
It should be very reliable, for a start, either in its two-wheel or four-wheel drive variants, and if you recall the formidable reputation for the full-size Mitsubishi Shogun and Outlander SUVs you’ll appreciate Mitsubishi’s expertise with this sort of engineering. Indeed the plug-in hybrid Outlander PHEV model has actually eclipsed the rest of the competition in that little niche market. Not to mention the near unbreakable L200 pick-up. So Mitsubishi can do quality engineering.
There’s also a quality to the external finish that is pretty premium, with lots of piano black and an impressively vibrant paint job, which looks best in a deep shade of metallic red, and almost sells the car on its own.
The spec
Price: £26,825 (as tested; range starts at £21,275)
Engine capacity: 1.5-litre petrol; 6-sp manual
Power output (hp @ rpm): 163@5,500
Top speed (mph): 127
0-62 mph (seconds): 10.3
Fuel economy (mpg): 42.8
CO2 emissions (g/km): 151
The front end is dramatically aggressive, not to say ugly, and makes it look like the movie “character” Predator, so it’s at least distinctive. It has big grooves gouged out of its flanks and a sort of bobcat foreshortened back-end. It’s narrower than its rivals, which is an underrated off-roading virtue in narrow country lanes, as well as in town. The interior is as nondescript as the exterior is startling. It’s not quite classy enough to be honest, and you’ll need to rely on your smartphone app for satnav rather than an in-house fitment.
As Mitsubishi claim, their petrol engine is very lively; too lively if anything. I didn’t really get used to it because of the pronounced lack of torque, so you need to change gears much more than you would with a conventional diesel. Mitsubishi promise a 2.2 litre diesel option soon. Leaving aside the great diesel backlash for a moment, that unit is probably best suited to classic off-road activities, and you miss the option of having such power in the four-wheel drive version of the Eclipse.
So there it is then. Yet another SUV, albeit with a couple of distinctive features and worthy of consideration, but it’s no standout class winner. Still, the market for compact SUVs is growing so fast that every marque has to have representation, at least until the next fashion comes along.
A ray of hope for Mitsubishi in tough times for the motor trade, and as the company (Mitsubishi Motors) itself is eclipsed by the acquisition of an effective controlling stake in it by the Renault-Nissan partnership.
The Eclipse Cross, then, may be the last “pure” Mitsubishi car we’ll ever see. Appropriately named, then.
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