When I arrived at the Hertz rental car counter at Zurich airport, to collect a car for a fleeting weekend visit, I was slightly surprised to see a Mitsubishi key pop out of the packet that was waiting for me. To my knowledge, Mitsubishi had exited Europe a few months earlier, ceasing the sale of all new cars, and selling up the assets they had. A bit of research elicited that whilst this is indeed the case for the UK market, where the brand had really been struggling for some time, it was not universally true across Europe and some markets would, at least for now, still be able to buy cars from this once respected Japanese manufacturer. The decline of the Mitsubishi brand has been rather sad to watch, as, whilst they were never able to sell the volume of cars that Toyota or Nissan could, this was a make which not only had a huge “want one” factor lined to the rallying success of the Lancer Evo cars in the late 90s, but which had also been early to turbo-charge every single model in their range in the 1980s and which had shown true innovation with the dual-range gearbox of the Colt/Mirage hatch of 1978, one of the first true offerings to bridge the Land-Rover/Range Rover gap with the Shogun, the use of four wheel steering on performance cars such as the 3000GT and even the Galant family saloon in the 90s and balancer shafts to improve the refinement of four cylinder engines, as well as more recently offering a tax efficient large crossover, the Outlander PHEV long before everyone else started to do the same. But in the last 20 years or so, things have been on a steady decline. The rally program came to an end, and by the 2010s, the rather limited range on offer lacked any real sparkle.  Mitsubishi got more badly scarred than anyone else with a huge dependence on the sub-prime market in the US, a market which largely collapsed in the 2007/8 credit crunch, and with a relatively small range of cars, did not have the progression for the brand faithful who wanted to trade up. New models were few and far between, and although they did embrace the crossover, the Outlander, an early market entrant as a joint venture with Peugeot/Citroen was only joined by one other, the much smaller ASX (or Outlander Sport in the US) in 2010, with nothing to offer in the critical Qashqai-sized sector of the market. That the 2010 ASX is still on sale in 2022, two modest facelifts on tells you that this is a company that is not cash-rich, unable to afford to replace cars on the 5/6 year cycle of all its rivals. Hopes were pinned on the car that did eventually arrive to fill that C-Segment gap, which, following the showing of the 2013 XR-PHEV and 2015 XR-PHEV II concepts, finally went on sale in the spring of 2017, as the Eclipse Cross.

Mitsubishi’s first new addition for some time to their small range did not arrive without some controversy. It was not the car – which was pretty conventional in almost all respects, apart, perhaps, from the split rear window – but the name. Whilst Eclipse was not a name that the brand had used in Europe, they had done so in the US, where it was applied to a series of sports coupe models, akin to the Ford Capri. Diminishing sales had seen the car phased out in 2011, but there were plenty who remembered it fondly and who felt more than a bit let down that the name that had once graced a sports coupe was now on a rather humdrum crossover. Perhaps anticipating this, Mitsubishi added the word Cross to the car’s title, to emphasis the crossover-ness of their new offering, but no-one was fooled. The rest of the car was pretty conventional, and distinctive coupe-like rear styling apart, deviated hardly at all from the class norm. Initially the Eclipse Cross only came with a 1.5 litre petrol engine, but there was a choice of manual or automatic transmissions, and a decent equipment tally even in entry level cars. It was well priced and had a generous warranty, but when the press came to drive it, they found little that made it stand out from a vast array of competitors. The addition of a diesel engine in 2019 was a slightly strange move, and then in 2020, to coincide with some visual changes, a PHEV version was launched. Now a five year old design, how does the Eclipse Cross stack up against an array of very competent competitors, and were Mitsubishi right to abandon the UK market but persist with others in Europe? I hope to get some perspective on these questions as I took advantage of some lovely summer weather in Switzerland with the nearly new 2022 model year car into which Hertz had upgraded me.

The PHEV version of the Eclipse Cross combines a 2.4 litre petrol engine with an electric motor to generate a combined total of 124 bhp, which does not seem like a lot for such a relatively large engine. When I collected the car, the charging cables were still wrapped in cellophane, in the boot, so clearly no customer in the months that the car had been on the rental fleet had bothered to charge the battery in any other way than what happens in ordinary motoring. My experience was that in “ordinary” motoring, that never got the battery above about 4% and the battery charge was quickly depleted. Take the car up in the mountains, though, and it was a different matter. Coming down the Grimsel Pass, the battery showed as 1/3^rd full, but few people are going to be driving on roads to achieve this on a regular basis. There is a “Save Charge” button, but otherwise, the car will decide when to use the petrol engine and when to use the battery. It starts in electric mode, not surprisingly, with the petrol engine kicking in once the speed creeps up a bit. The transition between the two is pretty smooth, though your ears will tell you when it is occurring. That said, in gentle motoring, even on petrol power, the car is pleasingly quiet. However, push it a bit harder, and it gets noisy. And up in the mountains, you will need to push it hard just to get reasonable acceleration. Truth be told, this car really needs a bit more power, something which most rivals have acknowledged. There is a CVT transmission and it works reasonably well, and there are paddles to select pre-set ratios if you really want. The gearlever was a bit awkward to use, to get it into Park which took a while to get used to.  During my weekend, I covered a total of 800km and I put 54 litres in, so as to return the Eclipse Cross full. That works out at 42.03 mpg, which is a decent result considering that I only got the benefit of the battery from when it had been charged up from the engine or from braking.

The driving experience is pretty average, truth be told. There’s nothing that stands out, either good or bad. The electrically-assisted steering has some feel to it, but not a lot, which apparently is what a lot of people want. Handling is safe and predictable, but not something to engender a sense of fun to the ar. Grip levels are good, but if you do approach bends with a bit of gusto, then body roll will be a feature. Although on the form side, the ride is quite well judged for Swiss roads, with the car proving comfortable on all the surfaces that featured in my test. The test car came on 225/55 R18 wheels. There were no concerns with the brakes, with a decent feel to the pedal, even when the car was transferring charge to the batteries. There were also few issues with visibility, there being a good field of view from the mirrors and the added safety aids of Blind Spot Warning and a reversing camera proving useful.

Mitsubishi made quite an effort with the interior of the Eclipse Cross to try to make it feel less obviously cheap, which is a problem which afflicts the lesser models in its range, and they have largely succeeded. The perceived quality of the materials is quite good, with plenty of soft touch surfaces and the carbon look inlays and the use of some gloss black plastic trim is right on trend, even if not entirely to my taste and everything feels quite solidly built. There is a leather-wrapped steering wheel. A simple instrument cluster houses a couple of large dials, a speedometer on the right and one indicating levels of power and charge. There is no digital speed repeater, but – slightly surprisingly for a car at this price point, there is a head-up display, though the button to configure this is quite well hidden. There is a central display area which can be configured with a variety of different data points, with the button to do this in the lower part of the cluster. The column stalks are a bit complex, with lots of functions included. Auto lights and wipers are part of the standard spec. The centre of the dash is dominated by a large touch screen which is mounted quite high. Everything is controlled through this, as there are no buttons or knobs except for audio volume and on/off. Navigation is Tom-Tom based.  Apple Car Play and Android Auto are fitted. Lower in the centre of the dash are the knobs and buttons for the dual zone automated climate control system.

Posher versions of the Eclipse Cross, such as this InStyle version get black leather upholstery, though it has to be said that this is not the highest quality and softest hide that you will come across. Both front seats are electrically adjustable and they feature seat heaters. There is a telescoping steering wheel, too, so it was easy to get the driving position I wanted, and the seat itself proved very comfortable, with good support in all the right places.

Space in the rear seats is not overly generous, with this car not quite as accommodating as many of its rivals. However, there is no central tunnel to speak of, the seats are on sliders and the backrest angle can be adjusted which does help matters. There is a central armrest, and there are map pockets on the back of the front seats as well as door bins. There is also a set heating capability.

The boot is not huge, though it is a nice regular shape and the floor is flush with the base of the tailgate. There are useful small wells to either side and there is an underfloor stowage area which will easily house the charging cable and there is aa bit of additional space here, too. More space can be created by folding down the asymmetrically split rear set backrests. The resulting load bay is not completely flat, as it slopes up towards the front of the car, but you could certainly get some large items in here in this two-seater mode. As a family car, you would hope for decent provision for odds and ends inside the cabin and that is what you get. There is a good-sized glovebox including a shelf, a decent armrest cubby, door pockets and a stowage well in front of the gearlever.

Swiss market Eclipse Cross models are offered with a choice of five trims: Inform, invite, Intense, InStyle and InStyle +. The test car appeared to be an InStyle. Even the entry level Inform comes well-equipped with standard features including cruise control, Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Forward Collision Warning System (FCM), Highbeam Assist, Keyless Operation System, heated and folding exterior mirrors, dual-zone automatic climate control, SDA, 8″ touchscreen, rear camera, 18″ alloy wheels, heated front seats, interior mirror automatically dimming and bi-directional charging. The Invite adds driver’s seat having electric adjustment, LED head- and foglights, Headlight cleaning system and interior mirrors which can be dimmed automatically as well as number of safety features which include Faulty acceleration protection (EMS), Parking sensors (front/rear) and Lane Change Assist (LCA). There is also Mitsubishi Remote Control, electric additional heating (auxiliary heating/cooling), a black headliner and Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR). The Intense spec further adds a heated steering wheel, 8 speakers and the Mitsubishi Power Sound System MPSS, a 360° Ambient Camera, Rear Traffic Alert (RCTA), Blind Spot Assist (BSW) and side mouldings in body colour. The InStyle does not add that much, notable features being a Head Up Display, electric adjustment for the passenger seat, the driver’s seat having a map pocket on the back and upholstery in black leather with decorative stitching. The InStyle + adds a panoramic sunroof. All Swiss market cars now come with the 2.4 litre PHEV engine and automatic gearbox. Other markets still see the original 1.5 litre petrol or a 1.9 litre diesel.

It’s not hard to see why the Eclipse Cross did little to rescue Mitsubishi’s sales difficulties in the UK. Whilst there are no good reasons why you would not pick one, it has to compete in a class that is overloaded with very able rivals, all of which have their own appeal and reputation, and the Eclipse Cross has nothing really that stands out to lift above them all. It is not quite as spacious as cars such as the Qashqai or Sportage and unless you do charge the battery, you will feel that the PHEV version is a nit under-powered. The earlier 1.5 litre petrol-only car put out 163 bhp, which would probably make quite a difference, but fuel economy would likely suffer. So unless you really liked the brand or the styling of this car, you’d probably pass it by and choose something else. Mitsubishi have announced that they will start to replace some of the older models in their range with rebadged Renault cars, but for now, the Eclipse Cross continues as it is. It will be interesting to see how it fares in the future, but on the evidence of this test, I can’t see it being a common sight on the road wherever it is still sold.