1989 Eagle Summit LX Was Chrysler’s Mitsubishi Mirage

From the August 1989 issue of Car and Driver.

If we had to characterize Chrysler’s Ea­gle Division, we’d describe it as “the new home of pretty neat alternatives.” You’d almost think that Chrysler had been working with a sorcerer lately: suddenly, the once-shaky Eagle lineup looks posi­tively scrumptious.

Eagle’s dazzling new Talon TSi AWD (C/D, July) is a car with 90 percent of the abilities of the Porsche 911 Carrera 4—at about one-quarter the price. Eagle’s well-balanced Premier sedan flaunts nimble road manners every bit as good as those of the acclaimed Ford Taurus. And just to ensure that there are no ugly duck­lings in the Eagle aviary, Chrysler has mercifully retired the unpopular Medal­lion sedan.

And then there is the perky new Eagle Summit, a car ready to take on the auto world’s most renowned purveyor of good stuff: Honda.

The Summit is yet another product of the highly successful Chrysler-Mitsubishi partnership. This joint venture has placed several rebadged Mitsubishis in Chrysler dealerships, and it is also re­sponsible for the Diamond-Star Motors Corporation, the U.S. facility that pro­duces the impressive Laser/Eclipse/Tal­on sports coupes for the two companies.

Unlike the Diamond-Star coupes, however, the Summit is wholly designed and built by Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi sells three- and four-door versions of the car as the Mirage. Chrysler/Plymouth and Dodge dealers sell their own version of the three-door under the Colt badge. Ea­gle gets the four-door version, which it sells as the Summit. Still with us?

The Summit’s styling is a study in Japanese uncontroversial. The shape maintains the interesting slim-headlight treatment characteristic of Mitsubishi’s products, although the Summit’s hoodline is not as dramatically low as the Honda Civic’s.

The Summit’s wheelbase is nearly two inches shorter than the Civic sedan’s, yet the Eagle is three and one-half inches longer overall. In all but two critical inte­rior dimensions—front legroom and rear hiproom—the Summit equals or betters the Civic. And the Summit has a greater than two-inch advantage in rear­-seat legroom over the Honda. That means that four passengers of adult size will easily fit into the little Eagle.

Choosing the right trim level is crucial if you want to obtain the highest Summit. Both the base DX package and the costli­er LX trim kit offer an 81-hp 1.5-liter in­line four-cylinder as standard equip­ment. But only the LX offers the optional DOHC 1.6-liter four-cylinder. This en­gine cranks out 113 hp, a robust 32-hp increase over the base engine and 21 more ponies than you can get in a Civic four-door.

Like all Mitsu twin-cam engines, the 1.6-liter dynamo revs with abandon all the way to its 7000-rpm redline. And it makes a satisfying growl all the while.

Even with this willing engine, howev­er, the Summit LX—weighed down with such luxurious touches as power win­dows, power locks, and air condition­ing—feels chunky. The LX’s 9.6-second 0-to-60-mph run reflects how severely 2587 pounds of sedan can burden 113 eager horses.

Driving the Summit LX is never a bur­den, though. The five-speed manual gearbox (the only transmission available with the DOHC engine) is a joy, so keep­ing the revs up is easy. And the LX’s stan­dard power steering makes maneuvering through city traffic a breeze.

You sense that same lightness of oper­ation when hustling down your favorite back road. Fitted with the optional four­teen-inch alloy wheels and 195/60-14 Yokohama tires, the Summit feels nim­ble. The steering is accurate, and the sus­pension dances through the twisties with modest understeer and just a trace of en­tertaining off-power oversteer. This car doesn’t make you work hard for your fun.

Good as it is, you’ll never forget that the Summit has an econobox heart. The suspension—struts at the front, a solid axle and coil springs in the rear—is limit­ed in travel and reaches its bump stops easily. A high-g run through a choppy bend can produce some pretty unsavory body motions.

But for most driving the Summit is as easy to live with as any small sedan you’ll find—the Civic included. The interior displays the quality we’ve come to expect from Mitsubishi: the seats are supportive and attractive, the layout is airy and spa­cious, and the instruments and the con­trols are logically arranged and easy to operate. About the only gripe we have is with the chintzy-looking sun visors.

In overall goodness and quality the Summit LX can match the Honda Civic four-door blow for blow. And the LX has more power than the Civic. So why hasn’t the little Eagle usurped the little Honda in our hearts and minds?

Check out the price, amigo. At $14,297, the Summit LX with the DOHC engine and all the goodies is hardly a fire­sale bargain. For that kind of money you can get into low-level versions of such considerably larger cars as the Honda Accord and the Ford Taurus. In fact, the Summit LX costs about two grand more than a fully loaded Civic sedan.

There’s no question that the Eagle Summit LX is a fun, functional package. But before we’ll be won over, Chrysler’s sorcerer needs to say the magic words that will make a few thou disappear from the Summit’s bottom line.

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com