A dozen years ago the stars aligned for a somewhat rare four solar and two lunar eclipses. There will only be six years like it this century. The first of those was 2011. It was also the final year for the Mitsubishi Eclipse sports coupe that had been in production for a dozen years. Coincidence? I think not. Fortunately for us CarMax has unearthed and preserved a nearly new pair of these extinct unicorns. May not be the greatest sports coupe on the road, but you won’t see a lot of them in orbit. And like most cars of questionable enthusiast interest, there are several forums and Facebook groups with thousands of owners who are passionate about their Eclipses. I swear if you think about the worst car you ever owned, there is a car club with a Facebook page of fans for that car. That said, these are the first Eclipses I’ve ever written about. That’s rare.
This 2011 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS model is a single-owner, 16,000 mile car with a coveted manual transmission. The five-speed for sure makes the car more fun to drive, despite the limited 162 horsepower from the 2.4 liter four cylinder. On one hand, this is the company that brought us the Sapporo, Starion, and 3000GT – all cars I kinda liked. On the other they have largely gotten out of the car business and now sell the Eclipse as a small cute-ute crossover. If you really REALLY want to read some good automotive writing on the downside of a Mitsubishi Eclipse GT, try this hilarious piece by Jack Baruth in The Truth About Cars, He hates the convertible GS he drove and his review included such prose as “let me tell you what else is a bad idea: driving a convertible top-down through LA with a passenger who is both drunk and fluent in Spanish.”
The car is pristine inside. It’s certainly clean and unencumbered by options. It gets a “3” on CarMax’s Features and Specs scale – with a upbeat note the rating describes a car with “The Basics – More potential savings with more basic features.” (FWIW – here’s a link to a 2011 Hyundai Accent GL that gets a “1”) The Eclipse GS has cruise control, an aux jack and CD player, and air conditioning. Did I mention it’s clean? On the plus side, front seat leg room is an expansive 42″ – more than a Mercedes S-class.
Honestly, the car would make a fun little daily for someone’s first manual transmission car. Yeah it would be more fun if it were the 265 horsepower six cylinder GT….but at least you get 28 mpg on the highway! The car sold new for about what it’s selling for now, and it’s available now here in Baltimore, Maryland. And if for some reason you thought it necessary to protect this car from unlikely repairs, MaxCare is good for up to 150,000 miles or until 2028 – right before the next six-eclipse year!
Stock No. 23191938 VIN 4A31K5DF9BE004545
Sticking with my lunar (lunacy?) thinking, today is the beginning of the spring equinox and according to the poet Alfred Tennyson the time when young men think of love…and convertibles. Personally, I think everyone should own a convertible at some point in their life. Been fortunate enough to own three over the years. Nothing like the wind through the hair on a spring drive. Get a drop top before it represents a sunburn through a receding hairline. Trust me.
Anyway, if you want a convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse much like the one Baruth skewered, here’s another 2011 model with only 18,000 miles. It’s an automatic, though, so lower your enthusiasm a bit. But it’s a nice triple black unmolested little runabout with a convertible top for young lovers motoring to….wherever young lovers motor to nowadays. It’s $3,000 more to trade the manual for the convertible, but wait! There’s more!
You were wondering what the GS Sport offers over the plain old GS model, and unlike the basic hardtop configuration the droptop is rated an “8” – loaded with features! For 2011 in this class, that means it has leather heated seats, adjustable lumbar support, and a rear view camera. AND a Rockford Fosgate sound system. Baruth said his wasn’t bad, targeting the “critical retired-minitruckers-who-remember-the-Punch-45-amplifier demographic“. No idea what that means but I liked it. I suspect the Rockford Fosgate amp would offset any buzz from the same 2.4 liter four cylinder with the top down.
The 2011 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS Sport sold for almost $30,000 – much more than the “basic” GS. This convertible is available here for a third less in sunny Doral, Florida, where the one owner has v=been driving it very little up and down the A1A. Oddly, Doral is where I am headed this week to drive a tempting Mercedes SUV. Maybe I can work a twofer deal?
Stock No. 23842928 VIN 4A37L5EF5BE002054
DETAILED SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON FOLLOWS. (NOT REALLY)
The GT convertible (above left) comes with a subwoofer smack dab in the center of the rear seat. Baruth noted “the subwoofer mounted between the negligible rear seats seemed inadequately protected and quite prone to being poked with pencils, pens, broken bongs, shivs, and the other accoutrements of the modern Mitsubishi buyer, who is primarily identifiable by his sub-600 credit rating and fondness for the music of “Sublime”.“
And finally, note the mostly useless trunk on the GS Sport convertible (above left) compared to the not-too-bad hatchback with a deck lid trunk in the hardtop. Then again. we really don’t buy convertibles for long distance luggage.