Mitsubishi’s Eclipse badge has tremendous recognition and history, which was a blessing for a long time, but for the last decade, it’s been more of a curse. Mitsubishi executives, desperate to sell bland crossovers and now thrifty (but great!) EVs, keep going back to the well in an attempt to cash in on the glory years of Mitsubishi — back when they were a top competitor and a respected name in the car industry.
These days, though, with only one competitive product (the Outlander), and a future pipeline of products that mostly consists of rebadged products from others, Mitsubishi has sadly become a mere shadow of what they once were. Let’s go over how the Eclipse went from being a tuner mainstay and silver screen icon adored by enthusiasts, to a crossover that most people don’t even know exists, and now is being dredged up in an attempt to sell a rebadged Nissan Leaf.
For this article, we’re focusing on the American market versions of the Eclipse. We don’t have full info yet for the new Eclipse Sportback, but we’ll use the specs of the Nissan Leaf in their absence since they’re likely to be identical under the skin.
The First Generation (1990-1994)
1990 mitsubishi eclipse front tanCars & Bids
The first generation Eclipse burst onto the scene as an exciting new sport compact. And while front-wheel drive, a manual transmission option and futuristic looks would have been enough at the time, Mitsubishi elevated their sport compact among the rest. They equipped the GSX version with a turbo and an all-wheel drive system, making it a pretty unique offering at the time, especially for this segment, and enthusiasts and the media took note.
1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX rear 3/4Bring A Trailer
It immediately landed on Car and Driver’s 10 Best list for four consecutive years. It was born in the DSM (Diamond-Star Motors) era, which meant that it got rebadged as the Plymouth Laser and the Eagle Talon, with very few changes, ironically. DSM fans didn’t mind though, because they were all great cars, and had great sales success too, since this was an era when 2-door sport compacts actually sold in good numbers.
The Second Generation (1995-1999)
1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX Exterior Finished In BlackBringATrailer
The second generation of the Eclipse was arguably its peak thanks to its starring role in The Fast and the Furious that cemented its legendary status in movie car history, and kicked off a new wave of desirability in the early 2000s. In the ’90s when these were new, though, they didn’t sell in quite as high numbers as the first generation, surprisingly. It even grew slightly, and continued to offer a turbocharged option with the GS-T trim, and added all-wheel-drive to it to form the GSX version, which continued to be a unique offering in the sport compact market. Eagle still got a Talon based on this car, but it ended in 1998. Plymouth never got a version for some reason.
1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX Exterior Finished In BlackBringATrailer
This generation also introduced the “Spyder” convertible variant as well. Despite all these improvements, and despite the car’s beloved nature, this generation sold worse than the first and the third generations, surprisingly. Its worse performance can likely be attributed primarily to more competitors coming onto the scene.
The Third Generation (2000-2005)
2000 – 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse – front 3/4 angle Mitsubishi
The third generation of the Eclipse got less sporty in an attempt to widen its appeal, and it actually worked. It sold more than the last generation by a good margin, but they did lose a lot of enthusiasts in the process. That’s mainly because it dropped both the turbo option and the all-wheel drive option, instead continuing with the naturally aspirated four-cylinder and adding a V6 as the top-performing version, which actually produced 10 less horsepower than the old turbo-four at launch. In 2003, a slightly more powerful GTS trim was introduced that got the V6’s power back up to the 210 hp mark of the old turbo, but it had far less tuning potential for the Fast and Furious crowd.
2000 – 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse – rear 3/4 angle Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi also gave this generation a softer suspension, and it was now based on the same platform as the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus Coupe. Both of these traits also made it less appealing to tuners. Still, thanks to Mitsubishi being the official automotive sponsor of 2Fast 2Furious, this generation Eclipse also had a starring role. It didn’t help this generation as much as the first movie helped the second-gen cars, though, because its co-star, Mitsubishi’s hot new Lancer Evolution VIII, was one of the most exciting new tuner offerings in America in 2003 that vastly overshadowed the now-soft Eclipse.
The Fourth Generation (2006-2012)
2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT exteriorMitsubishi
For the last true generation of the Eclipse, the car grew significantly in every dimension and gained about 400 lbs too, further hurting its sporty aspirations. Thankfully, it got a big bump in power to finally give it more muscle. While a naturally aspirated four-cylinder continued to be offered as the base engine, a larger 3.8-liter V6 replaced the old 3.0-liter on the GT trims, and horsepower rose to 263 hp. It ditched the Chrysler platform but now shared its platform with the Galant, which is part of what made it bigger.
2006 – 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse – rear 3/4 angle
Mitsubishi
Its continued lack of all-wheel drive or a turbo version also meant enthusiasts mostly skipped it over, even with its second-gen inspired styling and motorcycle-inspired gauge pod, among other things. This generation was also the worst-selling of the bunch, but that wasn’t entirely the Eclipse’s fault.
!!!MODEL TAG!!! Listing Carousel 2012 Mitsubishi Eclipse Coupe
/cars/mitsubishi/eclipse-coupe/2012/
The recession of 2008 hit the entire car industry hard, even more so for the less practical options. The red-hot demand for the Evo was in full swing by the time this generation debuted too, with the new Evolution IX debuting the same year and the even more modernized Evo X coming just 2 years after in 2008, leaving the Eclipse even further behind in the dust. By the end of this generation, 2-door sport compacts were also declining in popularity from their heyday, which is why Mitsubishi decided not to make a fifth generation. Still, when the final car rolled off the line in 2011 as a 2012 model, a total of 906,876 Eclipses had been produced since its 1990 introduction.
Eclipse Cross (2018-Present)
2020 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross front 3/4Mitsubishi
Sadly, after just six years, Mitsubishi degraded the Eclipse badge by putting it on their new crossover, the Eclipse Cross. It did stick to early Eclipse heritage by coming with a turbocharged engine and offering all-wheel drive, but that’s about where the similarities end. The turbo engine produced a measly 152 hp thanks to being a tiny 1.5-liter unit, and it was hooked up to a CVT transmission, so there was nothing sporty about the Eclipse Cross aside from, arguably, its looks.
2022 – 2025 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross 1st Gen (GK/GL/YA) FaceliftMitsubishi
Despite the more popular packaging of a crossover, the Eclipse Cross struggled to even match the sales figures of the fourth generation, less practical 2-door Eclipse. A refresh came in 2022, but that didn’t help much either. But despite the lackluster sales, Mitsubishi has continued to keep it around for eight model years and counting now. You would think that the Eclipse Cross’ lukewarm reception would have proven to Mitsubishi management that the Eclipse name won’t magically help a completely unrelated vehicle to sell any better, but clearly, Mitsubishi hasn’t gotten that message yet. This leads us to the latest application of the now-tortured Eclipse badge, the Eclipse Sportback.
Eclipse Sportback (2026- )
As if 2026 wasn’t already bad enough, Mitsubishi had to go and announce that their rebadge of the Nissan Leaf will be called Eclipse Sportback. Instead of getting a little creative and brave with a new name, or even reviving any of the other names that would have been a fine fit for this vehicle, like Mirage, Lancer or heck, even i-MiEV, they cowardly slap the Eclipse badge on another completely unrelated vehicle. For those who don’t get wind of this travesty, it’ll also lead to confusion at dealers, as salespeople are now burdened with having to explain that the Eclipse Cross and the Eclipse Sportback are two completely different vehicles that don’t share a single thing other than the three-diamond badge.
2027 Mitsubishi Eclipse Sportback from the rear three-quarter angleMitsubishi
At least for this iteration, the car it’s based on is actually good. We came away very impressed with the Nissan version due to its low price tag, solid range of over 300 miles, and good packaging that makes it an easy choice over the similarly-priced but far cheaper-feeling Chevrolet Bolt EV. It’s a delightful little EV, and while it remains to be seen whether buyers will prefer its tweaked styling or other potential differences over the Nissan, it’ll at least be something new for Mitsubishi dealers to sell, finally. But it disgraces one of Mitsubishi’s most successful model lines in America, and one that has rich heritage that could be put to much better use on a proper two-door sport compact to rival the new Honda Prelude, for example.
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Sources: Mitsubishi, Nissan
