Faults:

I've had this car for a month now, and my opinion on the car is it's cheap. A very cheap feeling car; everything is plastic. I hit a bump and it feels like it's going to blow apart.

When I got it, I had to replace the valve cover gasket and the check engine light came on.

The brakes are squeaking and the belts are whining.

Sunroof rattles when you run anything over; it's really annoying.

General Comments:

I bought this car because gas prices are $4 a gallon, so I wanted something efficient.

It's as fast as a tugboat chugging through a tar pit, but at least I'm getting phenomenal gas mileage. I drove 250 miles on 7 gallons of gas, which is pretty impressive.

The car looks awesome too.

Basically this car is a glorified Cavalier; cheap, economic, and slow.

Compared to driving my 1967 Chevelle SS, this car is a dog. If I jam 3 of my friends in it and try to take a hill, forget it, the poor little engine can't handle it. I might as well throw the 4 ways on because we're crawling to the top.

Faults:

Where do I begin?

The head gasket blew.

The alternator died.

The starter died.

The MAF Sensor was shot.

The ECU died.

The O2 sensor needed replacing.

General Comments:

Great handling.

Looks great - Turned many heads

FAST

Inside very comfortable (if not sitting in the back seats)

Turbo spooling/BOV ptshhhh sounds WONDERFUL.

However, do not buy this car if you're anywhere close to having a money crunch. I was a Sophmore in college when I bought my 98 Eclipse GST.

Ran great for 2 weeks, then the head gasket blew. 2 grand later ran great, then the alternator died, then the starter died, then so on so on.

Finally I couldn't even figure out what was wrong with the car. The dealership told me it was it was the ECU or the MAF Sensor (Mass Air Flow sensor). They were offering to fix it for 1500, which I couldn't afford. So I bought new parts off eBay and it still didn't fix the car.

2 years later, I'm still feeling the money crunch accumulated from the disaster piece of crap Eclipse I bought.

To sum it all up.

Unless you have a lot of money to put into the car, or rather just look at it in your drive way, DON'T buy this car!!!!!!!

DSM's are a Piece o' crap. Really fast and really fun to drive, but hurt you in the long run.

Faults:

Side mirror inside plastic trim broke - replaced cheaply from the Internet.

Plastic knob on cruise control broke off.

Burns oil intermittently. Sometimes no smoke - sometimes lots of smoke. 700 miles/quart.

I think my clutch needs adjustment, but after reading some reviews, now I'm afraid to take it in. I think I'll let it get worse. Like my Dad always says: "If it ain't broke - don't fix it!"

Timing belt broke when it was supposed to - at 105,000 miles causing $1500 in repairs. I should have replaced it at 100k as most people suggest. Dad would have been wrong here!

General Comments:

I love the car.

Engine just purrs - idles smoothly, even though it burns oil sometimes.

Seems plenty powerful for a 2 liter non-turbo. It'll do 130 and the 5-speed makes for fun driving.

Transmission shifts great and has a great feel to it.

Sunroof doesn't leak, but gives off a popping noise at speeds over 90.

It gets 35mpg in careful city driving. Even if I drive it fast, shifting at max rpms, driving 80 on hwy for a half tank of gas, I can't get it to get less than 27mpg!

The seats are not comfortable. My back hurts after an hour of driving - cushion padding too thin.

Replaced the stock radio right off with a 700 watt system. Now, she rocks!