Mitsubishi Eclipse
The Mitsubishi Eclipse is a coupe that has been in production since 1989 for left hand drive markets. It was named after an eighteenth century English racehorse which won 26 races, and has also been sold as the Eagle Talon and the Plymouth Laser captive imports through Mitsubishi Motors' close relationship with the Chrysler Corporation. Their partnership was known as Diamond-Star Motors, or DSM.
As of 2009, the Eclipse is officially available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Brazil.
The first generation Mitsubishi Eclipse was sold as an entry to mid-level four-cylinder sports coupe. Four trim levels were available: the bottom three were front wheel drive and the very top was all wheel drive. The top FWD and the AWD model were equipped with turbocharged engines.
The car underwent minor changes throughout its production; 1992–1994 models (1Gb) have updated sheetmetal and are easily distinguishable from previous vehicles (1Ga). The most notable of these changes is that the 1Ga models have pop-up headlights. The Eclipse was revised into a new vehicle for 1995 (described below in the 2G section).
The second generation car maintained the market focus of the 1G car, but had a major update in styling and had different engines between trim levels. New to the line was a convertible model, the Spyder, introduced in 1996. The convertible was available in two trims: the GS and the GS-T. The first is powered by the non-turbo 4G64 engine, and the latter by the turbo 4G63 found in the GS-T (turbo) and GSX (all-wheel-drive) hardtop models. There was no convertible model powered by the Chrysler 420a.
The turbocharged motor was a more powerful version of the previous one (210 hp vs 195 hp). The non-turbo motor found only in the hardtop RS and GS trims was a version of the Chrysler Neon engine, manufactured by Chrysler and delivered to and installed at the Diamond Star Motors facility.
The Talon was discontinued in 1998 because lack of sales in previous years.
Third generation (3G): The Eclipse underwent a change into its third generation in 1999, closely aping the Mitsubishi SST design study which debuted at the 1998 North American International Auto Show. It was the first concept vehicle exhibited by Mitsubishi at an auto show in the United States.
The 4G63 was replaced by two powertrain options, a 150 hp 2.4 L 16 valve SOHC 4-cylinder 4G64 and a 205 hp 24v DOHC 3.0 L V6 (6G72). AWD was no longer an option. The suspension setup was adjusted to provide a softer and more compliant ride quality.
No longer considered to be a DSM, it shared its platform and powertrain with the 8th generation Galant. Weight was also up slightly from the previous year's model. In late 2001 power was lowered to 200 hp (150 kW) as a result of tightened emission standards forcing MMNA to adopt the California standards for all variants of the car.
In mid-2002, the GTS trim was introduced for the 2003 model year. This vehicle included an engine with a 10:1 compression ratio and an improved Mitsubishi Variable Induction Management (MVIM) air intake system that gave the car an extra 10 hp (7.5 kW) and a slightly improved power curve. The 2003-2005 GTS and GT/GTS Spyder shared the new engine while GT models retained the 200 hp (150 kW) powertrain. From 2003-2005, the Eclipse Spyder V6 was sold in a left-hand drive version in Japan.
Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Eclipse
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