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Originally Posted by Morpheus78
Ok, well my LUDE is an auto as well. This guy wants to sell me his Eclipse and his is an autostick also. I was figuring that with the extra torque of the V-6 it would be a faster car. Has anyone here driven an Eclipse? How does the handleing and other aspects of it compare to my LUDE?
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Eclipse V6 is fat, it's heavy, it can sort of keep up with a Prelude in a straight line. Throw in some turns, and the car will drive as ugly as it looks.
Prelude FTW.
Edmunds.com had less than kind words for the Eclipse in a Sport coupe comparo circa late 2001.
http://www.edmunds.com/apps/vdpconta...1/article.html
Here are some [shamelessly cherry-picked] excerpts:
Despite having a curb weight and horsepower rating similar to the Eclipse (not to mention 49 lb-ft of torque less), the Prelude was more than 2 seconds faster per lap. Its fastest lap, a 1:26.0, was the second-quickest lap time of any of the front-drivers.
On the freeway, the Prelude produces minimal wind and road noise. So does the Eclipse, and both the Eclipse and the Prelude seem designed to be primarily touring machines. Yet somehow Honda's engineers have come up with a way to give the Prelude an excellent balance between comfort and performance.
As one editor said, "[The Eclipse] has a floppy, insubstantial chassis that allows too much flex and body roll. Of the cars in the test, I had the least amount of confidence to push this car hard in the corners." On canyon roads, the Eclipse feels big and unwieldy in comparison to the lithe Celica and RSX. The steering has a quick enough ratio for enthusiastic cornering, but it's overly light in feel and communicates virtually nothing to the driver about tire grip.
Overall, we're not impressed with the Eclipse. For the 20-point evaluation category of this test — the part where each editor rates the car on everything from engine performance to cupholder design — the Eclipse earned an average score of 58.5 percent. Not only is this the worst evaluation score of the six cars, a casual check of other previous comparison tests we've conducted reveals that this is one of the lowest scores any car has ever earned.
The Mitsubishi might be OK for somebody wanting a comfortable and stylish two-door to punt around in and nothing more. But if that's the case, why not just buy a Toyota Camry Solara? Consider your decision long and hard before settling on an Eclipse.
Ouch. You sure you wanna go Prelude -> Eclipse?
If it's change you desire, why not go Prelude SS -> Prelude 5MT?
Or if the skies parted and a higher power told you a V6 Auto was your destiny, how about an Accord Coupe V6 circa 2001? I mean, for crying out loud, edmunds.com as much as said the Eclipse was no more sporting than a Camry Solara... yes, a freaking Camry Solara... The Accord V6 Coupe has at least twice the sporting factor as any Solara does.
Sorry if I'm being overly critical, just want to make sure you've thought this thing through...