Junkyard Find: 1993 Eagle Summit Wagon
As with so many things surrounding the bewildering swirl of Renault/AMC- and Mitsubishi-derived products sold by Chrysler brands during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Eagle Summit wagon is something of a puzzler. The Eagle Summit car was a rebadged Mitsubishi Mirage, which itself was the same car as a Dodge/Plymouth Colt. But the Summit wagon was actually a Mitsubishi RVR, sold in the United States as the Mitsubishi Expo LRV and the Dodge/Plymouth Colt Wagon. In Europe, this thing was known as the Space Runner. Space Runner!
In fact, this is a good time to watch a European commercial for the Space Runner. And, just as I did with the ’12 Chevy Sonic rental-car review, I’m going to find some more not-very-relevant ads for the RVR.
A whole lot more than a four-door!
How about Bugs Bunny riding an RVR to the beach while getting red-eyed to Japanese reggae?
Apparently Bugs was the RVR spokesman.
You could get a Space Wagon in Brazil, too.
The Eagle brand lasted all the way until 1999, though (disappointingly) the AMC Eagle that donated the name was never sold by Chrysler as an Eagle Eagle.
The Mitsubishi Sirius 4G63 engine went into everything from the Mitsubishi Cordia to the second-gen Hyundai Elantra to the mighty Proton Perdana. You can always find plenty of 4G63s in American wrecking yards.
The sliding side door was extremely useful, but image-conscious American car shoppers were beginning to hate minivan practicality by this time. Within a few years, just about every potential Eagle Summit buyer would be looking at SUVs.
Yes, just imagine the proud family that owned this Summit Wagon back in 1993, putting some of 1993’s greatest hits on the cassette deck for the family vacation to Action Park.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Thank you so much for this article and the trip down memory lane. I have a red 95 Eagle Summit Wagon with 157,000 miles I bought used about 8 years ago. It's still my daily driver and I love this car. I'm thinking of having it wrapped and detailing it to be like a new car again. It has a 5 speed standard and is great on gas and zips around like a sports car. Only thing I would add to it would be a sun roof and maybe find someway to suppress the road noise as it is a bit noisy on the highway. All in all it has been well worth the $2000 I paid for it 8 years ago and now it's 20 years old and really a great car still.
Anyone hear know somebody that might be interested in a Summit or two? I have a 1994 wagon that's teal, front wheel drive & a 1993 wagon that's red & AWD.