Some could view the Mitsubishi brand as a problem child, being stuck in a kerfuffle as it tries to shift its lineup to meet the overwhelming demand for crossovers and SUVs. It was initially planning to hit the 100,000 sales mark here in the U.S. for 2016, but the financial year – which ends in March of 2017 – will be the first time in eight years that the brand has posted a loss. That suspected loss, which could amount to as much as ¥205 billion (about $2 million) can be attributed to the brand getting caught in its own scandal. But, that’s not the only reason. Over the years, it has let down fans that prefer sporty cars over SUVs, with the Eclipse being killed off after 2012 and the Lancer soldiering on virtually unchanged and underpowered for a decade, just to be killed off before the start of 2018. With its focus consistently on SUV’s, it should come as no surprise that the brand is set to debut a new compact SUV that will slot between the Outlander and Outlander Sport. For now, little is known about the new SUV but will go into production in Fall of 2017, could use a shortened version of the Outlander’s platform, and should borrow some design cues from the Mitsubishi eX Concept and 2013 XR-PHEV Concept.
As it turns out, Mitsubishi has decided to go with the rumors that have been circulating about the crossover’s name and will end up calling it the Eclipse. But, it will be called the Eclipse Cross, which is still better than some random series of letters or numbers, but is still uncreative and might not be received well by those who remember the Eclipse as a sporty coupe. According to Mitsubishi, the name was chosen because the new crossover will have coupe-like contours and, of course, “Cross” because it’s a crossover. But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, the Eclipse Cross will make its debut on March 7th at the Geneva Auto Show. For now, all we have is a teaser image, but hopefully, the crossover itself will be more creative than the name badge that it wears. Let’s dive on in to talk more about it before it makes its debut.
Update 02/14/2017: Mitsubishi has announced that its new crossover will be called the Eclipse Cross and will debut at the Geneva Motor Show wearing a “deep gloss red metallic finish.”
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2le12uR
No comments:
Post a Comment