![]() At other times, even a sturdy shove on the loud pedal gets you nothing more than a turgid response, and you creep and strain up the road, waiting for the revs and the turbo to catch up. Sometimes, the lightest brush of your foot on the throttle pedal elicits a sudden surge of revs, and a learner-driver style kangaroo hop up the road. The front seats are hugely comfy, and the new touchscreen looks good, sticking up proud of the dash It’s mostly down to the throttle response, which is so variable as to be schizophrenic. I’m pretty sure there’s a good engine in there somewhere – it has moments where it’s both smooth and punchy, and fuel consumption overall isn’t too shabby – but the way you access the engine creates serious issues. The only engine option for now is a new 1.5-litre turbo petrol, developing a better-than-healthy 163hp and 250Nm of torque, and you’d think that would get the Eclipse off to a good start. It's mostly good looking – sharp and hawk-faced at the front, but a bit blocky and over-styled around the back. Indeed, the Eclipse will eventually take some of the Outlander's marketplace, as the next-generation model will grow in size, and the next ASX will shrink a bit, creating a more logical three-tier Mitsubishi crossover line-up. Instead, it's based on the cut-down platform taken from the Outlander, which should be a good thing as that's far from being a poor car. While Renault-Nissan swept in and took Mitsubishi under its corporate wing, the work on the Eclipse was started long before, and so there's no commonality between it and what are now its sister mid-size SUVs, the Nissan Qashqai and Renault Kadjar. It’s a bit of a mish-mash, with some good points but far too much in the debit column for comfort. The Eclipse Cross (which has drawn much ire in the US for apparently besmirching the name of the beloved old Eclipse coupe) is rather more what you’d expect from a company operating in circumstances of turmoil. Were its engineers able, at this time of crisis, to dig deep and produce something great? Sadly, no. It's odd that while German carmakers were busy poisoning monkeys, and largely getting away with it, Mitsubishi lied about some small car economy numbers and got slammed. So savaged was the company's share price by the scandal over fudged fuel economy figures that rival Renault-Nissan was able to snap the company up cheap, suddenly and unexpectedly creating the world's biggest carmaker (by volume of production, if you don't include heavy trucks). Mitsubishi was certainly in crisis when it created the Eclipse Cross. And think how many wonderful cars crisis-prone Lancia gave us. Saab, even in its death throes, came up with the last-generation of 9-5 saloon which, while not perfect, was certainly better than decent. ![]() MG Rover had but a couple of years left to live when it created the MG ZT saloon, one of the best cars in the long and torturous history of Rover-Austin-MG-British-Leyland etc. Think back to the times when other carmakers have been on the brink of collapse, and yet pulled an absolute star car out of seemingly nowhere. Sometimes, when a carmaker is in crisis, it can find an unexpected slice of inspiration.
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