I saw this familiar shape on a night when I was paying a touristy visit to the town of Suchitoto, in El Salvador. Familiar, from a distance that is. I knew it to be a third-generation Mitsubishi Mirage, circa 1988-1992. And even if those cheap Mitsu econoboxes have become rare, at night, in poor lighting conditions, it was not something worth capturing in photos.
Except, when I later walked by it with my wife, I noticed something different on it: a triangle logo on its grille, but not the three-diamond kind. An Eagle? I had forgotten (if I ever knew) that these small Mitsus also showed up in Eagle dealers as the Summit. A short-lived experiment in that short-lived Chrysler division, sold from 1989 to 1996 in two generations before Eagle ceased to exist altogether in 1998.
Poor lighting conditions or not, I had to record the moment. After all, this US-sourced Eaglet in Central America had flown very far from its nest, and by morning, it was likely to be gone. The car may be a tiny humdrum thing, but doesn’t this automotive footnote deserve a few seconds of CC attention?
Since this looks like a no-frills-at-all hatchback, it is likely the humblest and most entry-level of all Eagles that there ever were. Curious that they sold under “Summit”; a bit of 1980s irony from the marketing department?
In any case, the third-generation Mirage was already sold elsewhere when these showed up for 1989. For one, in Mitsubishi dealers as the Mirage, and then, in Plymouth and Dodge under the long-running Colt tag. Finally, and likely in its most obscure form, as the Summit under Eagle, starting with sedans in 1989, and adding a hatchback in 1991… just as the whole market had lost interest in that body style? Looks like it. Only 15,244 of these no-frills Eaglets sold between 1991-1992. Then again, the sedans sold just as little, so not many Eagle buyers seemed interested in Summits of any kind by then.
Everything on these is pretty much standard Japanese econobox from those days; traverse FWD format, a choice of 1.5 and 1.6 OHC inline-4s with 4 and 5 speed manuals, or 3 and 4 speed automatics. And inside, from what I could see in this rare surviving Eaglet, really basic accommodations.
Not that the Summit tale ends with these. For 1992, a Wagon DL version appeared just as the 4-generation Mirage was about to arrive; and that one would stay around in sedan form until the Summit nameplate faded for good in 1996.
About the DL, that one has found more attention in our pages, and you can check links to those further below. As for our third-generation Mirage/Summit, those have also been covered, but with a more enticing Colt turbo version.
Just as I expected, the US-sourced gray-market Eaglet had flown away when I went looking for it the next morning. So, lousy images are all I’ve got. Still, as grainy and dimly lit as these are, at least in this shot, it conveniently appears next to a current-generation Mirage, its distant descendant. In the words of my brother in law, the post 2012 sixth-generation Mirage is the penalty-subcompact-box of this era (he rides in one rather often), but that is a chapter for another day.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Find: 1993-1996 Eagle Summit DL – Not To Americans’ Taste
Junkyard Classic: 1993 Eagle Summit DL Wagon – Soaring No More
CC Chronicles Part 8: 1989 Colt – Peak And Decline
These are interesting mainly in that they aren’t a Toyota or Nissan, so a slightly different recipe to prepare the same overall dish. And that it’s 34 years down the road of course.
Also interesting is that this whole class of cars has pretty much gone by the wayside up here in the U.S., even in regards to the recently departed Mirage. The biggest successes in the small car arena lately were probably the EV entries such as the Leaf and Bolt, which are just now completely revised into something different (Leaf) and apparently being cancelled after another rebirth yet again (Bolt), respectively, never mind that those two at least did seem to sell in decent numbers until of course recent changes took effect.
Meanwhile there is no shortage of small “personal” cars such as these in virtually every other country. I guess over here you can build them or offer them, but you can’t make people buy them. People think that Kei cars will magically sell in the millions but why would they if nobody would buy a Fit or Versa or Yaris or even a a Golf.
In my files I have a ’92 Summit just like this one from the junkyard, absolutely fascinating (in a very geeky way) is the rear parcel shelf which your example seems to have as well and which is normally just a solid piece of pressed fiberboard with some carpet flocking on it. Due to the shape of the hatchback and interior moldings, the cover (which lifts up like most other hatchbacks) has two little triangular extensions on the end closest to the opening that fit and cover an odd shaped quirk in the aperture on either side – If the tray was solid it would catch against the pillar, so instead it folds and is spring loaded so that when lifting the hatch, the support strings first pull up the little ends and then when lifting further cause the rest of the parcel shelt to rise with the corners already lifted out of place. Lowering it puts everything back in place. It’s just about the most complex yet simply ingenious bubble-era Japanese solution to a problem that I’ve seen in some time…pic attached, I wish I had thought to video it.
I remember ads for the Summit DL wagon, and the Mirage, but not the Eagle version of the Mirage.
Aside from Subaru, there weren’t a lot of imports around these parts at the time. From my memories, I thought the Mirage was another badge engineered version of the Suzuki Swift. But I see it’s a little different.
You’ve got to look pretty hard to find and Eagle Summit hatchback ad – this is the only one I’m aware of, and it wasn’t a particularly memorable (or high-budget) affair:
Quite a find! And in pretty good shape too. One interesting detail is that this car sports Mitsubishi mudflaps, so someone kept true to the car’s origins.
And I wonder what the chances are that this car belongs to the owner of the pink(ish) Mirage parked behind it? Together, they’re more automotive color in one place than I’ve seen in a long time!
These were reasonably popular in Canada. We did not get Mitsubishi at the time. I did think the three door hatchback was quite good looking. I’d run one with a 5spd for sure.