AUTOMOTIVE

Stylish Siblings: The muscular, turbocharged “GSX” version of Mitsubishi’s redesigned Eclipse sports coupe gets rave reviews in the car enthusiast books for performance and handling, but its less powerful siblings often get ignored.

Car and Driver, however, devotes a two-page spread near the back of its October issue to the Eclipse GS--the absent X means it doesn’t have a turbocharger or all-wheel drive. And with a $17,000 base price, the GS is about $4,000 less than than GSX version.

The verdict: It’s not a performance car, but it wasn’t meant to be. It is, the reviewer found, “a styler ... personal transportation with dramatic looks ... and adequate performance at a realistic price.”

Although a Japanese nameplate, the Mitsubishi Eclipse is manufactured at a plant in Illinois and distributed by Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc. Mitsubishi also builds a version of the Eclipse for Chrysler Corp., which sells them through Jeep-Eagle dealers as the Eagle Talon.