Car companies never stop chasing perfection, even after they’ve achieved it. There are plenty of examples of this in the car world today, where one generation of a model reaches the absolute peak, only to be ruined by its successor. I have my own thoughts, and I’m curious to hear yours.
It doesn’t get any more egregious than the Mitsubishi Eclipse in my eyes. Specifically, I think the second-gen Eclipse was spot on with its 4G63T four-pot that made 210 horsepower that sent twist to all four wheels through a five-speed manual. It was a great lil’ rally-inspired coupe that could also be built to crazy high power levels if you’d rather take it drag racing. Pretty great, right?
Thing is, it was replaced by the front-drive-only third-gen. It might have looked OK, but the spirit of performance just wasn’t there, even though it made the same power in top trim with a naturally aspirated, 3.0-liter V6. Its biggest street cred boost came from Tyrese Gibson driving one in 2 Fast 2 Furious, but not even all that purple could undo the fact that it shared a platform with the Chrysler Sebring.
I’d really rather not talk about the fourth-gen Eclipse. It was so meh that Mitsubishi sent off the final model with a drab photoshoot at its factory, out by the pond with maybe the most basic shots I’ve seen.
Mitsubishi
Oh, and now the Eclipse is a crossover.
All right. I can’t keep thinking about this. It’s your turn to tell me what car was better before some automaker had the bright idea to “improve” on perfection.
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