I am not an automotive designer. I did, however, stay at a Holiday Inn in Wolfsburg, Germany. You know, the home of Volkswagen. It wasn’t an express because I don’t think those exist in Europe. Also, it was a Best Western.

All of this is to say I am nowhere near qualified to evaluate the design of car. So, let’s talk about car design. More specifically the Mitsubishi Eclipse. Recently there’s been a meme circulating the internets comparing sports coupes in their mid-1990s heyday to modern day counterparts. As far as memes go, this one is completely factual. While the likes of the Supra and GT-R have progressed into, well, more Supra’s and GT-R’s. The Eclipse returned as an inexpensive crossover sport utility vehicle. An obvious effort to cash in on an established and adored nameplate.

If you’re an automotive fan you know this isn’t exactly a new thing. I’m looking at you Pontiac LeMans circa 1980s and 1990s. Bear in mind, we aren’t talking about cars that matured over time into mere visages of their prior selves. Nameplates that endured from the 1960s and 70s into the early oughts. Monte Carlos and Grand Prixs (Grand Prix? Grand Prixeseses?) that slowly went from powerhouses to front wheel drive family coupes. These are names that ended and came back as something else entirely. As I’ve covered pervsiouly in “What’s in a Name?” this can work. In the case of the Ford Maverick they brought back a name and actually erased the negative association. This might actually be easier than ruining what was once consider legend.

The weight of this meme is noticeable, especially among people of my age group. Those of us who grew up playing Need for Speed and Gran Turismo. Watching Fast and Furious movies. Going to McDonalds when they still had playgrounds that could kill or Mame. The topic, or irony thereof, has been covered on countless automotive websites and YouTube channels to include the likes of Donut Media.

But I’m not here to actually discuss the travesty nor the history of the Eclipse. I’m not going to wax poetic about it’s current, albeit tragic, situation. Really, I don’t have to. We all know. We all see.

We all feel (insert sad face).

I’m not going to even talk about its bastardization over the course of its sports car days. The only tragic point I’m going to make is the picture below. The image most auto novices think of when they picture an Eclipse in their minds eye.

Yes, the purple “2 Fast 2 Furious” drop top. The most unrealistic hero car of an automotive themed movie since Smokey and the Bandit 3, and arguably the ugliest example of an Eclipse. Drawing on the late 90’s need for immensive panels of bodding cladding. A venerable Pontiac Grand Am on steroids.

What I want to discuss is the design of the fourth, and as of now, last generation of Eclipse sports car. One that was somewhat out of place in it’s time. A design somewhat polarizing when new and a last-ditch effort to save the nameplate. A design I didn’t care for.

Until.

Months ago, pre-meme, walking through the parking lot at my real job, sat a fourth-generation silver/grey (of course) Eclipse amongst modern vehicles. And it just… fit. This nearly 20-year-old, relatively affordable when new, sport coupe didn’t seem out of place. It wasn’t just the color blending in with the other placid greys, blacks, and whites of a mainly (and ironically) crossover filled parking lot. The design was just bold enough, yet restrained, to match currently trending design languages. Thankfully lacking a floating c-pillar.

Originally available with a manual transmission and 236 horsepower, it was capable of having a fair amount of fun. Gone was the AWD option of the first and second generation. Robbing the car of it’s true greatness. But it was also out from the Chrysler umbrella, no longer sharing a platform with the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus (“I drive a Dodge Stratus!”). Built on Mitsubishi’s PS platform (which stood for Project America…?) that underpinned the Galant and Endeavor as well. The Endeavor being a SUV.

While the final maturation of the Eclipse sports car was an echo of its former self. Lacking the turbos, tuning, and four-wheel drive of the early days, it was still a vehicle capable of sports car like fun. Like the SS/V8 powered version of the final Monte Carlos and Grand Pris (plural sp?) it at least tried. Design wise, it works as well today, if not better, than it did when it was released. At least more so than a crossover SUV.

An SUV that Donut literally hates. One that, when I went to the website, fails to even list the horsepower under the “performance” heading. A horsepower rating that’s buried three quarters of the way down the “specs” page after an inappropriately detailed description of the CVT transmission and its simulated gearing.

But at least it has a 4-WD option… I guess