Published:
28 March 2018Despite its rather radical-looking exterior, the Eclipse Cross’s cabin isn’t one to surprise or delight. Overall, the design language here errs on the side of conservatism, but the car’s interior is functional for the most part, with the majority of controls sensibly located.
Despite our test car coming in range-topping First Edition specification, material quality isn’t particularly distinguished. Plain plastic mouldings are abundant throughout, and although leather upholstery, contrast stitching and a panoramic sunroof (the latter being standard on upper-spec 4 and First Edition versions) go some way to lifting the ambient richness, they don’t lift it to anything like the level of a Toyota C-HR or a T-Roc. Nevertheless, next to its larger Outlander sibling, the Eclipse Cross definitely feels like a more polished product inside.
The 7.0in touchscreen system (or ‘Smartphone Link Display Audio’, as Mitsubishi would have it) that sits atop the dashboard looks the part and fits in well with the styling of the interior around it, but to use it’s slow, graphically poor and fiddly to navigate.
There’s a new trackpad controller on the centre console aft of the gearstick, but it’s over-sensitive and unintuitive, and you’ll likely find you ignore it in favour of operating the functions via the touchscreen itself. Features are a bit sparse too. Even this top-spec First Edition model doesn’t get satellite navigation – a notable omission when you’re paying upwards of £26,825. Still, it does get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as standard, which goes some way to making up for this. We’ll wager you’ll likely use these as the default operating systems when you’re on the move.
