Why are you looking at Consumer Reports for in helping you make a decision for your next "project". If anything, Consumer Reports are more "economical and reliable" car friendly. Very few cars out there will give you high performance and reliability for little money. The more high performance (and moving parts) a car has, the more likely they will break, even when well maintained. Of course, there is some exception to this with a few cars, but even they can break and be prepared to shell out some serious cash if you want a car like that.

Good general rule to remember here...you can only choose two out of the three below. Face it...sure there are cars that have great performance and reliability, but they also cost an arm and a leg, unless you luck out and find one for a steal.

1. Speed
2. Reliability
3. Price

From your stand point, you sound like you want a fast car more than anything. If you are that hard pressed on wanting an Eclipse, then I would suggest a 1st Generation AWD model. They are cheap to buy, cheap to make rather fast (already come with a decent sized compressor and a motor that can hold up to 500HP, much better than the 2nd Gen models with a smaller turbo and a motor that can only handle up to 400HP), and still pretty reliable (assuming you take VERY good care of the car).

Both the 1st and 2nd Gens. are great bang for the buck cars, but the 1st Gen is more desrving of the title.