Mitsubishi back with great SUV
Eclipse Cross should help brand rebound.
LOS ANGELES – Mitsubishi is about to put itself back on a lot of Americans’ shopping lists.
If you asked me 18 months ago, I’d have given long odds that would ever happen. Mitsubishi was on the verge of dissolution, reeling from a scandal over lying about the fuel economy of cars it sold in its home market of Japan.
Then Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Nissan, took over Mitsubishi and everything changed.
For those of you who didn’t follow Mitsubishi’s travails, the short version:
The brand was popular in the U.S. a couple of decades back, then slipped into irrelevance. Most observers figured it would follow the likes of Isuzu and Suzuki and stop selling cars here. Making matters worse, Japanese authorities discovered Mitsubishi had been cheating on its fuel economy ratings.
Executives resigned in disgrace. Its stock value cratered. Ghosn, who built the mighty Renault-Nissan alliance by acquiring troubled automakers for pennies on the dollar and returning them to health, swooped in and bought a controlling interest.
Ambitious new leadership saw Mitsubishi as the missing piece to make the alliance the world’s largest automaker, passing Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors. Through the first half of this year, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi was No. 1 with 5.27 million sales.
The newly relevant brand launches the Eclipse Cross, a major step in its plan to resume meaningful U.S. sales.
So here I am, driving the eye-catching compact SUV in the hills north of Los Angeles, convinced Mitsubishi matters for the first time in decades. But is it any good?
You bet. The Eclipse Cross should attract droves of young buyers who may not even have known Mitsubishi built cars a year ago.
It competes with such compact SUVs as the Chevy Equinox, Ford Escape and Mazda CX-5 but is a bit smaller.
Prices start at $23,995 for a base,
front-wheel-drive model. All-wheel drive raises the tab $600 and is standard on all models but the base. I tested a loaded SEL Touring with torque-vectoring all-wheel drive, a big double sunroof — front pane opens, rear is fixed — heated front and rear seats, leather upholstery, blind spot alert, adaptive cruise control and more. It will sticker at $30,995 when Eclipse sales begin in March.
The interior has plenty of space, with seating for five and lots of cargo space behind the rear seat. The rear seat has 8 inches of fore/aft leg room for travel.
Power comes from a new engine Mitsubishi has not used before: a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder turbo with direct fuel injection producing 152 horsepower. A continuously variable transmission is standard.
The engine is small for a vehicle that weighs up to 3,516 pounds, but it was more than capable in an afternoon drive up and down twisting mountain roads inland from Malibu. The drivetrain labored a bit on the highway, shifting automatically despite paddles that claim to let drivers control the CVT for maximum acceleration.
The Eclipse Cross was surprisingly quiet at highway speed and on rough mountain roads. The steering is precise and nicely weighted, and the suspen- sion kept the car stable and level.
The interior looks better than many entry-level compact SUVs. The materials aren’t fancy, but they look fine. The touch-screen is large and clear, but it stands up from the dashboard for a look that’s less integrated than vehicles that incorporate the screen into the center stack with audio and climate control.
Mitsubishi doesn’t offer a navigation system on the assumption that owners will use the standard Apple Car Play or Android Auto and get directions from their phones. The center console has a small touch pad, a feature I’ve never found useful in moving vehicles.
The Eclipse Cross’s appearance is attractive and sporty. The grille features a big, shiny version of Mitsubishi’s triple-diamond badge. The roof trails downward toward the rear for a sporty look with a fast hatchback and LED taillights.
The Eclipse Cross promises to be a formidable competitor for small SUVs looking to attract young buyers.