What to love or hate about the 2019+ Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross

BEV's are thin on the ground here at the moment. Tesla is the main player and has been here for some years with their internet sales model and modest display fronts. Hyundai and Kia have started selling their BEV's that share the same platform (Ioniq 5 and EV6) but the first shipments were around 200 cars and sold out before they even landed in Oz. The Kona has been around for a while but it is a poor performer plus we have a cheapish MG model which is double the price of its ICE equivalent.

Ford have no BEV's at the moment but the Mustang is slated for release as is the Lightning Pick Up but no timeframe for them as yet. Polestar 2 is open for order but they are booked up till mid next year. Test drives are booked solid. Rivian have imported two of their vehicles (SUV and Pick Up) to undergo the approvals process for sale in Australian and should be available mid next year if all goes to plan.

The high end BEV's from Jaguar, Mercedes and BMW are here in limited numbers but are over priced. Price is so high that they throw in 5 years free electric charging with a local charging station provider. They cost more than a Tesla Model S Plaid and that model won't hit our shores for at least twelve months on current estimates on the Tesla web site.

We have the worst vehicle emissions standards in the world and get the worlds left overs that can't be sold anywhere else because of higher standards in Europe and the USA. We also have no incentive from the federal government to entice buyers towards BEV's. State governments are providing some incentives and waiving stamp duty on new sales but they pale in comparison to the incentives offered in Europe and soon to be offered in the USA under the Biden bill.

Years ago, I read either in a Car and Driver or Motor Trend magazine that Mitsubishi had a lot of internal resignation. Over the years, Mitsubishi has lost engineers and designers to other automakers. With the Nissan absorption, obviously it’s about making money. Mitsubishi would be to Nissan the same way Kia is to Hyundai. Duplicate products with the same drivetrain and platforms makes sense from a business perspective.

The downside to this is, it stifles innovation and creativity. It’s a similar case back when Mazda was a part of Ford. Ever since Mazda broke away from the blue oval, they are producing some of the markets most well engineered and attractive vehicles. It’s like Mazda finally got the spirit that propelled Toyota, Honda and Nissan into giants from the 80s into the 90s.

That said, I suspect many EC owners would graduate to Mazda and Subaru when time to shop once again for a new car. What really damaged Nissan is the Jatco scandal. Jatco did make attempts to rectify many of its CVT woes but the damage was already done. It got so bad that the 3rd gen Xtronic CVT which turned out to be pretty reliable got ditched in favor of a ZF 9-speed (I think it is?) for the all new Pathfinder.

We happen to have a CX-5 as well which is exactly 2 years old and not one problem it has to-date. It works just like the day we drove it off the showroom. Unfortunately I can’t say same for our EC. People complained about why is Mazda still using a 6AT when there’s 10AT out there. The answer is, cause’ it works!

Mitsubishi needs to breakaway asap and ditch those Jatco CVTs in favor of Aisin torque converter automatics. They can use Nissan engines which is not an issue for me. Nissan knows how to make a proper 4 cylinder (as we saw with the SR20) and a proper V6 (VQ35) so I’m not worried about their engines. If they remain under the shadow of Nissan as a company then they will slowly RIP.

Vehicle cost details:
Purchase cost: $310,000. TTD or $45,927.54 USD
Accessories cost: $15,000. TTD or $2,173.91 USD
Final purchase cost: $325,000. TTD or $47,101.45 USD (approx.)

warranty:
3 years or 100,000kms or 62,500 miles whichever one comes first
also includes 3 years or 60,000kms or 37,500 miles free service/maintenance package

1 year ownership update:

Service history:
1st service - 5,000kms, March 2021
2nd service - 10,000kms, July 2021
3rd service - 15,000kms, October 2021
unscheduled visit - 16,350kms, November 2021

The following points were highlighted to the dealer:

1. Rough/erratic idle on cold starts
2. AC blew warm air twice within the last couple of months even whilst the AC button was on
3. Auto closing wing mirrors did not close when vehicle was locked using the door handle button at least twice within recency
4. noise coming from steering rack or front suspension experienced
5. At October’s 3rd service visit, I road tested the vehicle with a technician present and he determined that the noise heard when reversing is coming from the brake calipers. I therefore asked that this issue be looked into
6. Tyres (tires) loses 5-6psi every couple of weeks, please investigate valves
7. Alignment and steering wheel angle has been off since the vehicle was delivered to us a year ago and this has been reported 3 times before but was ignored even though the dealership invoicing details mentioned that the alignment was performed. I asked that this be investigated and fixed yet again
8. Both front and rear wipers skip a lot and make noises on the glass
9. Sometimes an occasional “jerk” from the transmission is felt especially when gear ratios are changing
10. Why was the wrong oil viscosity used at the last service, ie. 10W-30?

Dealership responses in order:

1. no issues found
2. no issues found
3. no issues found
4. no issues found
5. no issues found, not sure who that previous technician was. My goodness, it’s a miracle…the vehicle healed itself!
6. this is normal
7. alignment performed (haven’t taken the vehicle out on the highway yet to determine if the alignment was rectified and the steering wheel straightened)
8. wiper blades requires replacement, none in stock
9. no issue found
10. Technical Manager has determined that 10W-30 is in keeping with manufacturers specifications (this is absolute nonsense as these engines are designed for 0W-20 or 5W-30). The service manager told me that I should not worry cause I have proof in the form of documentation that the wrong oil was used and if the engine fails then I can use this as evidence for Mitsubishi to replace the entire engine under warranty.

This is just a gentle reminder that I live in the third world. Maybe I should email this to John Cadogan from Australia and prepare a bag of pop corn for his commentary.

17 month ownership update:

odometer: 16,000 miles
date: April 2022
description:

The dealership changed the oil filter, drain plug washer, motor oil, rear disc pads and front right-side driver’s door weatherstrip. The latter two was performed under warranty.

Being more specific:

There was a knocking noise coming from the undercarriage every time the vehicle was put on reverse. The dealer technicians attributed this to worn rear brake pads. This in my opinion makes no sense since this is a front wheel drive vehicle. These types of vehicles usually burn the front pads first, but it appears it’s in reverse order here.

Concerning the weatherstrip by the driver’s door, every time the window rolls down, a piece of the rubber kinks into the groove. This part was found to be faulty.

Two other outstanding matters are:

1. The alignment is off and could not be corrected because the alignment machine was down.
2. The sunroof is making a rattling/flexing noise which has to be inspected by the dealer’s third party/contractor before any repair or replacement can be organized.

Closing remarks:

The EC is a nice vehicle but it is not very refined. I continue to maintain that the ride quality and handling is very poor and I expected something a lot cushier on the spine. The damping and suspension tuning is all wrong. More than likely we will not be keeping this vehicle as soon as it’s paid off for.

The cost to service/maintain to-date is $0. since we got a 3 year or 37,500 miles (60,000kms) free service package.

I did an instrumented run on a local road that was straight and very smooth which was less than 50 feet above sea level. The temperature was approx. 25 C or 77F and conditions were very dry. I managed to squeeze 0-60 in 9.1s with a 1/4 mile time of 16.86s. Traction/stability control was off as well as the air conditioner. The vehicle just had one occupant being the driver and a half-tank of premium 95RON petrol (91AKI in the USA).

Those numbers were nothing short of disappointing seeing that both Car and Driver and Motor Trend got better results with their heavier S-AWC test vehicles. The only reason why I did not remap the ECU was because I did not want to destroy the weak/pathetic Jatco CVT unit.

That’s all for now.

2022 Eclipse Cross SE AWC
Have over 1,500 miles on it. We did a 900 mile round trip (Saint Paul, Minnesota to Chicago, Illinois).

On the highway, it did it's job. We were cruising with traffic (75-80mph). The MPG gauge was showing us we averaged 25 mpg at 75-80mph). It handled the highway roads really well. Even with some winds, the car was good. Passing the big semi-trucks was a breeze. I didn't feel any harsh winds. On the steeper hills, it was expected, the engine was just 'torquey' enough to not downshift a gear. Overall, on a 6 hour drive, the drive was comfy. The car handled as it should. Power was there when needed. There was no hiccups. It was a joy to drive it

On the streets of Chicago, that Auto-Hold is a life-saver, haha. Driving on small roads and red lights, that auto-hold is such a nice feature. The car was fine for accelerating from 0-40mph when needed. What surprised me was accelerating on the highway when passing someone or needing to accelerate. I didn't go full throttle but letting the car "breathe" a bit really wakes it up and you catch some decent speed if you're not paying attention to the speedometer.

Suspension-wise...I'm not expecting it to absorb the crater-sized pot holes. There were some harsh holes but the car did the best it could. It was definitely not high-tier but it was good for what the roads threw at it. It definitely has softer suspension. But that's price you pay for a comfy feel, I guess. Overall, driving the small roads and highways of Chicago, it was perfectly fine.

The only "bad" thing is just how it handles on rougher roads with uneven paving. But that goes for ANY car on an uneven pavement. I haven't pushed it yet to see how it really feels like. I feel like it will never have to get to that point unless....I take it to a local driving event or auto-x course, haha. I'm excited to really see how the AWC controls look like in the winter. So far, so good.

2of9 said:

2022 Eclipse Cross SE AWC
Have over 1,500 miles on it. We did a 900 mile round trip (Saint Paul, Minnesota to Chicago, Illinois).

On the highway, it did it's job. We were cruising with traffic (75-80mph). The MPG gauge was showing us we averaged 25 mpg at 75-80mph). It handled the highway roads really well. Even with some winds, the car was good. Passing the big semi-trucks was a breeze. I didn't feel any harsh winds. On the steeper hills, it was expected, the engine was just 'torquey' enough to not downshift a gear. Overall, on a 6 hour drive, the drive was comfy. The car handled as it should. Power was there when needed. There was no hiccups. It was a joy to drive it

On the streets of Chicago, that Auto-Hold is a life-saver, haha. Driving on small roads and red lights, that auto-hold is such a nice feature. The car was fine for accelerating from 0-40mph when needed. What surprised me was accelerating on the highway when passing someone or needing to accelerate. I didn't go full throttle but letting the car "breathe" a bit really wakes it up and you catch some decent speed if you're not paying attention to the speedometer.

Suspension-wise...I'm not expecting it to absorb the crater-sized pot holes. There were some harsh holes but the car did the best it could. It was definitely not high-tier but it was good for what the roads threw at it. It definitely has softer suspension. But that's price you pay for a comfy feel, I guess. Overall, driving the small roads and highways of Chicago, it was perfectly fine.

The only "bad" thing is just how it handles on rougher roads with uneven paving. But that goes for ANY car on an uneven pavement. I haven't pushed it yet to see how it really feels like. I feel like it will never have to get to that point unless....I take it to a local driving event or auto-x course, haha. I'm excited to really see how the AWC controls look like in the winter. So far, so good.

Click to expand...

Just came back the other day too on a 2000 mile round trip from Atlanta to NJ & NY and back......surprised that the EC handled the crazy and pot hole laden road system of Jersey & New York....it was even able to catch up with no hesitations on tight turns, uphills, exits, entries, tunnels, bridges, endless toll gates, crazy drivers, taxis, buses, ebikes, motorcycles, pedestrians etc. you name it.....whereas my Garmin Smart GPS has gone nuts already, LOL!.....S-AWC handled so well the torrential rains in Virginia wherein at one point I was already hydroplaning and the S-AWC and ASC kicked in as designed......the 2019 high rear tail lights is also a big plus to be very visible at the nearly white out conditions where everybody else had to slow down and even turn in their hazard lights just to stay visible.

So I just bought mine in February. A 2023 SE, my mentions are just things that have annoyed me. Why do my keys not have a pop the trunk option, why do I have to open my gas from the inside?, when you use the remote start and open the door the car shuts off, I like that you can set the climate, but sometimes it unlocks the doors when you use the remote start. You have to have the keys close to open the back, umm they have a funky safety feature that just tells you to brake? But it doesn’t do anything like obviously the car in front is slowing down so I’m slowing down, the lane assist doesn’t work all that well, the one that does work “well” is the blind spot feature. The little beeps it makes all get easily drowned out by the music. During the colder weeks the car was telling me that one of the safety feature sensors was not responding because it was covered in frost, but it didn’t tell me which one or how to fix it which would have been amazing. And my paint is all swirly, I had my brother buff out a spot and it looked better but the paint is not the best in my opinion.