I drive a Ford F150, and am going to trade it in on something that I can actually fit in my garage. My wife really likes the Eclipse, and so do I. While I think it would be nice to have the HP numbers of the GT, the premium fuel and price to get the RockFord Fosgate stereo would be about $7,000 more than for a GS, not to mention my insurance would be quite a bit more than for a GS, and I would have to take leather seats when I don't want Leather.

Given that information, is the 2006 Eclipse GS a good purchase?

What should I know about the car?

 

one thing you should know about the car.......it weights about as much as your truck

 

DOn't want the leather seats?!?! I'll trade ya the seats outta my Sentra if you want them LOL. I LOVE the smell of leather....

 

We have leather in our Eddie Bauer Explorer. My wife is not fond of leather. Plus, have you ever sat on a leather seat when the temps outside are 110*? Wow, that can be painful.



Oh, and Edmunds.com says the GS weighs about 3300 lbs and puts out 162 HP. My truck weighs about 5000 pounds.

 

If this is the car your wife wants then you are very lucky. The GT's are going for 29k in my area, the GS are around 20k. The G.S. weights around 3300 pounds for the straight drive and has 162 hp and 160 pounds of torque. They get around 30 miles per gallon and they do look great. The interior looks like it cost much more than 20k. In it's price range I think it is the best deal of all new cars. Having said that I believe power makes a car fun to drive and I would try to hold off around a year and maybe get a used 2006 GT. Mitzu's do not seem to hold there value very well and you maybe able to find one around the 20's.
( some mitsubishi models hold there value better than others but it maybe possible )

 

I know the leather gets hot in the summer (Mom used to have a Caddy those ALL have leather interior) but I'd STILL take the leather seats if you don't want them [:P]

 

Talking about leather, whats the best thing to clean your leather seats with? make them look new?

 

If possible hold off a year for sure. Eclipses in general do not hold there value other mitsus do a lil better but I have had a 2000 eclipse GS which was 145HP 2.4L and I have had a 2002 GT which was 205hp and I would never want the eclipse GS again it was so slow no accell. at all and really the miles to the gallon are not that much worse the 06 GS get 23-30MPG (city,Highway) The GT gets 18-27

I bought my 2002 GT spyder for $15000 in october 2004 2 years old it had 32k on it now I had the origanal window sticker in the car it was $29,3xx brand new so figure I got the car for half of its new cost, and that is not bad for a 2 year old car...well not bad if you plan to keep it lol. I traded it in 6months later they gave me $13000 as a trade but I bought a 2003 EVO with 12k on it for $22,000 and the sticker on it was $31,000 brand new I bought the EVO may 2005 2 years old got 10k off the top and it was barley broken in with only 12,000 miles on it

 

DO NOT BUY THE GS......i mean its not as slow as da 3g but still much slower than the GT and the difference is about 4k, and gas milage is not THAT BAD....i have the GT and i lvoe it......oh and btw i test drove both of them, GS seemed a lil bit faster than my 01 rs

 

I think he is looking for a nice car not a speed racer, personally I think the eclipse gs is a good choice. Mitsu. dosent always get the credit that they deserve for their work. The whole crank walk thing was kinda chryslers fault. In the early years of the gst and gsx the 6 bolt 4g63's were made in japan and shipped over, then chrysler said "hey lets make them over here" once here they develpoed the 7 bolt and the bearings for the crank shaft were out of spec. So in all Mitsu can perduce a great product and so far they have been behind the motor of the eclipse gs for 6 years with out a hitch. I'd say deff buy used tho, no new car holds its value. Expecially when it comes to a sports car, for example wrx's and srt-4's are a dime a dozen and are getting cheaper every day, even not that dodge has discontunied the srt-4 its still getting cheaper. One would think that its value would go up a bit, but the fact of the matter is that any car seen as a sports car is going to lose its value fairly quickle because they were ment to be beaten on.