Report: Mitsubishi to kill Eclipse, Endeavor and Galant
#46
Lexus Fanatic
I wasn't with CL 11 years ago when the Turbo and AWD models were dropped, but, even then, Eclipse/Talon enthusiasts were b**ching about the new 3Gen 2001 model. And the Mitsubishi reps/execs simply turned a deaf ear.....they wanted to make the vehicle a mainstream sports-coupe, appealing to a wider audience. Well, look what happened.
Some American plants can turn out Japanese-badged vehicles of similiar (or even higher quality) than equivalent models in Japan, but not the Mitsubuishi/Chrysler plant at Normal. The Nissan/Infiniti plant at Canton, MS, of course, also had problems....but it hasn't been in operation as long.
I primarily blame the company's execs. They tried to shift the 2Gen Turbo and AWD Eclipse's former market to the 4-door Evo sedan (and, of course, succeeded to an extent). But, in succeeding, they thought they would make the Eclipse a more adult and mainstream sport-coupe. That just didn't happen....and the relatively poor build-quality (by today's standards) at the Normal plant didn't help any. The Evo is built in Japan, and avoided some of the Eclipse's assembly-problems.
Odd, didn't know they were made here.
Its sad really, especially to see a coupe bite the dust. Its amazing how strong they started with the Eclipse in the 1990s and just lost its way when it dropped the turbos and AWD....
Last edited by mmarshall; 04-25-11 at 07:26 PM.
#48
Lexus Fanatic
We know that the Evo has a dedicated owner-base, if not a huge one. But one of the big questions, now, will be what happens to the Outlander. It's a decent, but not terribly impressive, small car-based SUV, well-built and with a good Consumer Reports reliability record for past models. But it is boring to drive, runs completely like an appliance, doesn't sell in particularly large numbers, and, unlike the Evo, doesn't have a hard-core group of fans to make noise for it.
#50
Lexus Fanatic
This is not necessarily fact (just my own opinion), but I'm not sure that Mitsubishi will still be in the American market at all a year from now.....on that, I agree with some of the other posters here. I would not be surprised one bit if, despite the Evo's vocal fan-boy base, they packed up and followed Isuzu out the door.
Last edited by mmarshall; 04-25-11 at 09:00 PM.
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Hoovey689
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2013, club, concept, discontinuation, discontinue, eclipse, galant, gen, jump, lexus, mitsubishi, montero, ra, replacement, sport, texas