1990 Eagle Talon Reviews, Pricing & Specs

I bought this car about 3 years ago for under $2,000 from the second owner. He got the car from his grandparents who had bought it new. I have it serviced by the same mechanic that worked on it for the prior owners with no major work needed. It is a kick to drive and to let others drive (when I am in the passenger seat of course). The combination of AWD, 5 speed manual trans., 4 wheel disc brakes, and turbo makes it one fun car with great acceleration and control. The 2.0 DOHC just wants to GO and I have to let it! Who can blame me? It sounds SO sweet running up to 5500 rpm through the gears. No modifications have been done. No racing, ever. Good gas mileage, no car payments, quick, fun, and my wife loves it. I've got 7 grandchildren ages 11 yrs. down to 1 mo. I plan to keep this car for them to enjoy too.Jan 14, 2014

Performance - This car was a $1600 POS. A friends little brother bought this and got scammed. It had a EVO II knockoff on it and leaked oil on the turbo line. The clutch was bad and shift quality was horrendous. The car also had electrical problems and would only cranks once on a full battery due to a dead alternator and only ran in limp mode because of a busted CAS. Build Quality - Terrible, the person who put the 1Gb Eclipse front end on this hacked up the wiring harness to hell and back. They also changed the BOV to vent atmospherically, causing issues. They also tried to weld in a test pipe but the welds broke and it ran open DP. Appearance - Looked ugly as sin because of the front end swap onto the 90 frame. Cost of Ownership - The kid lost $800 on the car when he sold it because he didn't want to pay to fix it. Fun Factor - It was a cool lawn ornament. When it says I would not recommend this car to a friend I mean that you should research what you are getting so you are not just buying someone else's problem.Apr 30, 2009

For those who don't know the DSM cars, Eclipse, Talon, Laser. They are great tuner cars, but very finickity. They have a habit of breaking, thankfully, not major components, but enough to make life a constant challenge. As for tunability, they are great. Some simple add-on parts and you can start to pull big HP's out of them with no major damage to the wallet. I've done the suspension and rear drive. My Talon is a AWD and now has a '92 4 bolt axle/LSD rear end on it. KYB AGX adjustable all round, combined with Eibach pro springs. Manual boost controller running about 15 PSI. Symborski shifter mods. K&N filter, with MAF mod's. Getting ready for intercooler and Intake pipe upgrades and then I'll have to do some fuel upgrades and new tires and that'll be it for me. Sep 07, 2008

I owned this car before it became really popular. One of a trio of sister cars (Talon TSi, Mitsubishi GSX, Laser RS), it combined great handling, luxury, practicality and looks into a phenomenal package. The 4-cylinder turbo combined 195 horsepower with pretty good mileage. The all-wheel-drive was simple but worked very well, tracking through corners like it was on rails and out-performing 4WD vehicles in the snow (if it wasn't too deep). The heater/defroster was one of the best I've seen, blowing heat within a couple of blocks of driving on a cold winter day. The A/C worked well on the hottest days. It had power leather seats, a small rear seat suitable for kids, a removable sunroof, pop-up headlights, cruise-control, cd-player and a host of other options standard. It was very reliable while I had it. My only regret is that I didn't keep it. Best car I ever owned.Jul 26, 2008

im sure when these cars were new they would have been awesome but after 17+ years everything is worn out, Car and driver voted these cars the best bang for your buck 4 years in a row, they with a 200hp awd setup for just over 22 grand with every option including cd cassette stereo in 90' u cant buy performance like that even today. Over the years its been proven to be the most capable 4 cylinder in the world with guys pushing out well over 1000hp on the stock block and running 6 second quarter mile passes. A well taken care of stock dsm will still give any car in its class a run for its money despite being a decade and a half old!Dec 14, 2007