Mitsubishi has a lot riding on its latest crossover, the Eclipse Cross. Although it shares a very similar name to a once-popular though now discontinued sports coupe, the compact Eclipse Cross is a crossover, the most popular vehicle segment in America. The days of the Lancer Evo, 3000GT, and Eclipse are gone, at least for the foreseeable future. The 2020 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, however, continues to prove the once struggling Japanese automaker is on the right path.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has just announced the 2020 Eclipse Cross has scored the coveted 5-Star Overall Safety Rating, the highest possible score. This testing took into account both FWD and AWD variants. Last summer, we reported that the non-government Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested the 2019 model and gave it a Top Safety Pick rating.

As for the US government agency's testing, the 2020 Eclipse Cross performed well in all categories, scoring five out of five stars on the passenger side front-crash test and four out of five stars on the driver's side. It also earned five out of five stars in the combined side crash ratings, though it earned four out of five stars in the rollover test.

"The safety of our customers on the road is of the utmost importance to us, and receiving a 5-Star rating from NHTSA validates our engineers' efforts to design the highest level of quality and safety into every vehicle we build," said Cason Grover, director of product planning for Mitsubishi North America. "Eclipse Cross continues to offer consumers an impressive combination of value, performance and dependability, along with top-level safety scores."

New for 2019, the 2020 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross does offer a few packaging changes, specifically with increased availability of driver assistance systems and a trim expansion. For example, SE and SEL trims now come standard with Forward-Collision Mitigation, Lane Departure Warning, and Automatic High Beams. Additional availability for front-wheel-drive models are also now more widely available.

Pricing for the 2020 Eclipse Cross begins at $22,995, which is a price drop of $600 compared to last year.