What you want with your new purchase is a vehicle that stands out from the crowd, an SUV that displays something a little different from everyone else and with the Mitsubishi you’ve certainly got that. Mitsubishi themselves nail it when they describe their Eclipse Cross as fierce from the front, flowing from the side with heavily flared front and rear arches and coupe-style roof line, and featuring a truly distinctive rear. The Eclipse Cross certainly shines amongst the increasingly generic competition.
If the exterior of the Eclipse Cross impresses then the interior raises your expectations even more so with technology and style aplenty. Dominating the centre console and usually the preserve of something a little more Germanic, you have the touch pad controller that allows you to control the Smartphone Link Display housed in a neat screen on top of the dash. And it’s the rather clever Link Display that allows you to maximise the features of your Smartphone, meaning that mapping is current and traffic updates live. You can even talk to your car using your phone’s voice control system which is extremely handing when needing to change the Sat Nav destination on the move or accessing your own music rather than the offerings on DAB and beyond.
Leather heated seats, a Rockford Fosgate premium 9-speaker system and a panoramic glass roof help create a bright and airy cabin. The Mitsubishi also offers the discerning driver technology aplenty including Blind Spot Warning & Rear Cross Traffic Alert Lane Change Assist and my own personal favourite, the Adaptive Cruise Control (CVT 4WD model). Have I mentioned the superb colour Head-up display yet?
Under the skin you’ve got thoroughly modern 4×4 architecture, which should come as no surprise, this is a Mitsubishi after all and moves the Eclipse Cross away from the more regular two wheel drive opposition. With the Mitsubishi’s impressive S-AWC system you have better straight line stability, enhanced cornering and increased traction and control, even when the weather and conditions conspire against you. When you need extra traction and the confidence that it gives you, the system in the Eclipse Cross allows you to concentrate fully on the road ahead rather than worrying about what the car itself is going to be doing. Excellent.
Driven by Mitsubishi’s new 1.5 turbo direct injection petrol engine with Auto Stop & Go, this is a power plant that provides excellent ‘real life’ power and performance that suits the Eclipse Cross perfectly. An SUV that delivers 118 bhp at 5500 rpm whilst offering 184 lb/ft torque between 1800-4500 rpm doesn’t tell the whole story as a 0-62 mph time of 9.8s suggests that this isn’t a car that is slow off the mark. Off the motorway and out onto the A and B roads is where this SUV really starts to earn it’s money as it seamlessly transforms from high mileage cruiser into a sporty upstart intent on releasing your inner youth.
And it’s this ‘real life’ ability that impresses when using the Eclipse Cross everyday. Supermarkets, the school run and longer journeys fail to dent the abilities of this impressive SUV, an SUV which manages to combine comfort, technology and style in such a way as to create a quite unique combination, plus there’s the small matter of a superb and intuitive all-wheel drive system ready for when the need arises as well as a combined mpg of up to 40.4.
With a starting price of £21,915 you are getting an awful lot of car for the money.
Where will you go?