A reader spotted a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross on the road and we were reminded of what could have been.
Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia has a rather strong following despite that lack of models and the relatively leisurely pace at which products are updated. Why? Perhaps the legacy of early Proton models (which were largely badge-engineered Mitsubishi products) has left a lasting impression. Whatever the case may be, it has been a while since a mainstream crossover model has been offered. A DSF.my reader today showed us photos that offered a glimpse at what COULD have been, if Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia continued to fight in the crossover market.
We were sent photos of a black Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross facelift model on a highway in the Klang Valley sporting a local number pate. The SWD prefix was issued around 2021 and is a Tawau, Sabah plate, if we’re not mistaken. This might indicate that Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia brought in and registered a few units of the Eclipse Cross but ultimately decided against launching it here many years ago.
The Eclipse Cross is the spiritual successor to the Mitsubishi ASX, which was relatively popular in its time. It was offered in Malaysia before the arrival of the Honda HR-V and Subaru XV, and was available in showrooms for about a decade before being axed without a replacement model.
We did a quick search on a few popular car listing websites but could not find a single instance of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross being offered. This indicates that the unit photographed was not a grey market unit that was brought in by an enterprising importer. In fact, the plates read Ingress Motor, and this is an official dealer for Mitsubishi Motors in Malaysia.
Unfortunately, we may never know how the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross would have fared in our market. It was available in neighbouring Singapore, where it sold in healthy numbers for a while. We wonder which engine sits under the hood of this black unit, as there aren’t any badges to indicate what it is. There were a number of options available, including a turbocharged 1.5L four cylinder petrol motor, a naturally-aspirated 2.0L four cylinder petrol motor, a 2.4L four cylinder plug-in hybrid motor and a 2.2L four cylinder diesel motor. Our guess is that the first or second of these would have been the priority for our market. This would put it squarely against the current generation Honda HR-V Turbo or be seen as an alternative to the Toyota Corolla Cross petrol model. A PHEV option would have been interesting but it would have been too expensive in all likelihood.
Whatever the case may be, we’ll probably never know what kind of competition Mitsubishi could have brought with this vehicle. Our guess is that it would have struggled to fight off the tough competition from China, so maybe there was wisdom in NOT launching the product here.
