Sleek and chic are the words. The Eclipse Spyder, like the similarly attractive Eclipse Coupe, has a handsomely sculpted form as intensely contemporary as any open car in the marketplace. Its styling is closely related to the recent Mitsubishi concept cars seen at auto shows around the world.With the top up, it has a hunkered down, rounded and smoothed contour. But when the sun shines and the summer breezes blow, releasing two ratchet latches and pressing a button for a mere 15 seconds delivers all the fresh air and open sky you'll ever need. Mitsubishi supplies a neat black-rubber folding boot cover that conceals the retracted top, giving the Spyder a handsomely finished look. Inevitably, of course, this retracting top, for all its benefits, exacts one considerable penalty -- its stowage area and operating mechanism seriously intrude upon the Eclipse's trunk space. Golf clubs, for instance, will have to go in the Spyder's backseat. Our test GT had handsome ten-spoke alloy 17-inch wheels. Wide 215/50VR17 tires admirably filled the Spyder's flat-sided, designer wheel arches. And our car also had the extremely attractive optional aluminum fuel-filler door, which really dresses up the car. The impression made by this design is altogether more grown-up, more adult than the previous rendering, which had become a sort of bad-boy street-racer weapon. From the minute you approach the new Eclipse -- Spyder or Coupe -- you know it belongs at the country club, not the IHOP.
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