The keyword for the new styling is softer. And a little bit rounder. Headlight housings are no longer so angular, as if they'd been chopped out of the corner of the car, but more eye-like, with the outer corner tugged gracefully back into the fender. The front end has been relaxed with the opening of a split grille, filled with recessed black honeycomb mesh, above the bumper and the rounding of the corners of the intake below. Foglamps have been moved to the sides, into the bumper's bend beneath the headlights. Wheels are farther apart than in the '05, by more than two inches, not only presenting a more planted look, but also promising better stability when cornering.

The softer look continues in side profile. The A-pillar and C-pillar flow into the hood and trunk, leaving behind the '05's sharp, crease-like seam between the lower body and the glass house. Door panels lose the '05's strakes, tucking inward as they approach the B-pillar, giving the Eclipse what the stylists call a wasp-waist look, but what could just as easily be called corseted. The rocker panels' bulge fills the lower portion of the doors, tying together the robustly blistered fenders. The rear wheelwells beg for larger tires, even on the GT.

From the rear, the word bulbous comes to mind. It looks like the stylists did the best job they could of stretching the Eclipse's haunches over the expansive Galant platform. A minimalist, translucent-cum-three-dimensional plastic spoiler arcs across the liftgate between the clear-lensed taillights. The rear license plate fits in a recess in the fulsome rear fascia. A faux underbody airflow extractor panel fills the bottom quarter of the body-color fascia; on both models, a single exhaust exits through the right-hand segment, the GT's tipped with something Mitsubishi calls a large muffler cutter.