Junkyard Find: 1998 Eagle Talon
While assembling my website pages with links to every Eagle and Mitsubishi car I have ever photographed in wrecking yards, I learned something troubling: I had never shot an Eagle Talon. Sure, there was this Plymouth Laser Turbo and this much never Mitsubishi Eclipse, but no examples of the Eagle Division’s most beloved — well, only— sports coupe.
I resolved that I’d shoot the next Talon I spotted in a wrecking yard; that car turned out to be this one in Denver, from the final model year of Eagle.
It’s a front-wheel-drive, naturally-aspirated model, but at least there’s no slushbox to ruin all the fun.
164,899 miles is an acceptable final figure for a 1990s Mitsubishi product. The interior is rough and the exterior has suffered from a key-scratching attack, so cosmetic issues may have doomed this car.
Even with the windows open on a cool Denver day, the musty interior smell was strong. A half-dozen Vanillaroma Car-Freshner Little Trees couldn’t hide the odor. So it’s possible, even likely, that this Talon was a runner when it took its final ride to the car graveyard.
I checked the VIN and it was born a Talon. Maybe someone glued a Mitsubishi badge here, or perhaps some body parts have been transplanted. Either way, this is one of the very last cars to bear the Eagle name; if we are to believe Wikipedia, only 4,308 Talons were sold in 1998.
The turbocharged all-wheel-drive Talons really could haul the mail, while this version was more of a zippy-looking commuter. With 140 horses and a five-speed, though, it didn’t crush drivers’ spirits in Tercel-ish fashion.
Chrysler had such optimism for the Eagle brand at first.
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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I was addicted to the turbo kick of my 1992 Eclipse GSX. It was also the easiest car to handle at the limits of cornering adhesion of any car I have ever driven. I literally drove the wheels off of it -- the front left strut disintegrated -- after 16 years and 200,000 miles. Man, I miss that car!