Our long-term '06 Eclipse will be leaving the fleet this week, having completed its year-long test. I spent one last weekend with the car, and my feelings toward this front-drive coupe are as conflicted as ever. On the one hand, I like the driving position (which feels natural and familiar every time I get in), the low-end torque of the 3.8L V6 (and the deep exhaust note), the gearing and precision of the six-speed manual transmission, the generally comfortable highway ride, and the accurate steering. On the other, I'm annoyed by the car's huge turning radius, nose-heavy feel, lousy rear visibility and surprising amount of road noise (prompting me to crank the Rockford-Fosgate's volume and equalizer settings to deafness-inducing levels).

Although I'm fond of the car, I know that I couldn't buy an Eclipse GT in its current form and be happy with it. For this kind of money ($27,694 as tested), there are too many other good cars, namely the Mustang, the Mazda RX-8, even the Civic Si.

We'll be publishing a formal wrap-up on the Eclipse, but for now its final odometer reading is 19,973 miles. Average fuel economy for the last year is 20.2 mpg. Best tank was 28.1 mpg. Worst tank was 11.8 mpg.

Erin Riches, Senior Content Editor

Here's the one thing about our Sunset Pearlescent Eclipse GT's interior that I simply can't get past: The leather/faux suede Terra Cotta treatment doesn't extend to the backseat. It's not that I care if the occasional rear-seat passenger in this car has to sit on dark gray vinyl. It's the everyday eyesore that I have to see whenever I turn my head. Couldn't Mitsu have at least used off-white vinyl so the front and rear seats would at least sort of match?

The obvious solution is to keep the 50/50 rear seats folded down, but the problem is that there's considerably more road noise without the "insulation" of the upright rear seat backs. And as Brent has noted, road noise is already an issue in the Eclipse.

Erin Riches, Senior Content Editor

I used our 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT over the weekend for a trip to Bodega Bay, Calif. (Bodega is about 70 miles north of San Francisco and is somewhat famous for being the location used for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds.") I drove there with my wife to stay overnight and attend a friend's on-the-beach wedding. As it was just a two-day trip, the Eclipse's cargo capacity was more than adequate for holding a small suitcase, a garment bag and a few other assorted items.

Overall, the Eclipse was a pretty fun car to have for the trip. On the positive side, other wedding guests were impressed with the car, and it felt good to be driving something a little flashy.  (Our long-term Chevrolet Cobalt, in comparison, is like a charisma-sucking black hole.) I was also able to give the Eclipse a bit of exercise on Highway 1 after we had made a navigational error that placed us in danger of being late for the wedding. With spousal approval, I had the Eclipse running hard when there wasn't any traffic. I love the Eclipse's throaty V6 snarl, and the car is pretty composed on mediums-speed corners as long as one doesn't push it too much. On the downside, the Eclipse wasn't particularly enjoyable for the 450 miles of highway driving. The amount of generated road noise was tiresome and my wife didn't like the car's somewhat stiff ride quality and limited interior space.

We averaged about 23 mpg for the trip. The Eclipse's odometer is now at 18,168 miles.

Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor, Edmunds.com

I had a 15,000-mile service performed on our 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT yesterday. There were no major surprises. (Followers of our Eclipse's progress might notice, however, that the Eclipse was about 2,500 miles past due.) I arrived at the Mitsubishi dealership at a scheduled time of 8 a.m. and Adam, a service advisor, greeted me promptly and courteously. After typing our car's information into the computer, Adam showed me a sheet detailing "Fresno Mitsubishi's" 15,000-mile recommended service. As we've reported on in past articles, including How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off and Maintenance Madness II, dealership service departments typically have their own service schedules that include more inspections than the vehicle's owner's manual actually calls for. Naturally, these recommended services usually cost more, too. Fresno Mitsubishi's price for the 15K service? About $270.

Having familiarized myself with the owner's manual previously, I told the advisor that I was only interested in required regular maintenance, which included an oil and filter change, a tire rotation, an inspection of the brakes and a replacement of the cabin air filter. This dropped the estimate to a more reasonable $150. After waiting about 1 hour and 30 minutes, the advisor told me our Eclipse was about ready. He also said that the technician had inspected the engine air filter (something not part of the required service) and found it dirty. I authorized its replacement with no labor charge. The final tally for our 15K service was $172.47 after a small discount.

Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor, Edmunds.com

Over the past few months, I've had plenty of seat time in our long-term 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT. Overall, I still find it to be a reasonably enjoyable car when driven around town. But after taking it on a five-hour highway drive last week, I'm finding myself less willing to tolerate its elevated amount of wind and road noise. The Eclipse's constant road noise during this most recent long-distance drive reminded me of the similar droning sounds one encounters while being on an airplane. As was written in our May update, I'm hesitant to gripe too much. The Eclipse is a sport coupe (hatchback), after all. But above all others, this issue is grating on me. Perhaps it's like a married couple – the more time the couple is together, the more niggling annoyances become real button-pushers. Alas, dark clouds happen to be brewing for next week – I'm scheduled to take our Mitsubishi Eclipse GT for a 500-mile round trip to northern California.

Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor, Edmunds.com

17,500 miles

Putting aside the dynamic challenges that come with our long-term Eclipse GT's nose-heavy layout, I get a lot of pleasure shifting its six-speed manual transmission. The shifter feels firm and precise through the gates, and clutch engagement and takeup are progressive. It makes the Eclipse more fun than you'd expect to drive around the city... in many ways, this gearbox is just as satisfying as the ones in our long-term BMW 330i and Mazda MX-5.

Erin Riches, Senior Content Editor

This morning the 3.8-liter V6 in our Eclipse GT drank a quart and a half of oil. Each quart, which we bought at a Shell gasoline station, cost $3.24, but sadly the the Shell station was out of those little paper funnels which are usually crucial to a successful and mess free pour.

Mitsubishi must have anticipated my plight. Its engineers placed the dipstick and the oil filler hole perfectly for the task. Both are easily reached, clearly marked and the filler hole is so large a funnel wasn't even needed. A hands clean operation and a clear victory in the war of underhood ergonomics.

Inside Line Executive Editor Scott Oldham, 17,190 miles

There's not a whole lot to say about the Eclipse that hasn't been said. Every time I get in, it's surprising how much power it has and how ugly the interior is. You get the double shock every time.

One minor, puzzling note: on the drive in today with the windows up and door double-checked tight, the air inside the cabin began to resonate during a moment of low wind sheer. It wasn't painful like when you hit that magic point of head pounding during uncoordinated window roll-downs, but it was there for a solid two or three minutes. And I'm not sure if I've ever had that happen in a car before.

I was with earshot of the LBC...so maybe it was just Snoop's system blowin' me up. But I think there's an air leak somewhere around the door.

--Mike Hudson, news editor

I've always appreciated how fast the Eclipse can go but it wasn't until yesterday when I learned to really appreciate how quickly it can stop. Following a line of cars turning left, the car in front had barely crossed the crosswalk when the driver suddenly decided that he wanted to make another left across the double yellow lines into some strip mall parking lot on the left-hand side -- traffic laws and other drivers be damned!

The car behind him stopped in time but I didn't see her until the last second and therefore had to slam on the brakes. The Eclipse hauled to a standstill mere inches away from the other car, leaving me to wipe my sweaty brow and give the clueless driver a dirty look. Of course, I was already confident in the Mitsu's brakes having driven the car all weekend but it was still scary.

Caroline Pardilla, Production Editor

With a heat wave sweeping over SoCal, I was extremely grateful for getting the Mitsubishi Eclipse this weekend. My real car is an old Corolla with an A/C that emits a funny smell every time I use it and even then it doesn't do a thorough job of keeping me cool. But with the Eclipse, I found that if you twist the temperature knob all the way to blue (forget about setting it to 60 degrees) and the fan to full blast, even if the car has been sitting in the sun, the cabin cools down in a jiffy. I had some trouble trying to adjust the vents to blow on me though. The cold air never seemed to hit me where I wanted it to. But that became a nonissue once the interior's temperature dropped from Scorching Hell to Heavenly Frosty.

16,621 miles

Caroline Pardilla, Production Editor