...Torque steer and big weight kept me away from this one. That, and the fact that Mitsu may not be a car company in the course of a few years. They have been struggling with crushing bankruptcy, and were it not for some huge Japanese banks injecting billions into Mitsu, they would have been gone by now. If the company folds, who is going to honor your warranty? Where are you going to get parts? How on earth are you going to unload it for a decent resale? All good questions that our British friends could answer, having witnessed MG-Rover recently implode. Truthfully, there are just too many good car companies in the world now, all fighting for the same piece of pie. Hardly any of them build crummy cars. And, inevitably some will fail.

That said, there is no doubt that the Eclipse has many fine attributes. It's just not enough to tempt me. At 28K fully loaded, cross shopping Crossfires, RX-8, Mustang GT, and many other fine (RWD) sports cars becomes a reality. Can a FWD, V6 car with econobox roots play in that league? Not quite, but close. Bring back AWD, a low curb weight, and a peaky turbo inline four, and Mitsubishi would have an Eclipse that I might actually want.