Montero...Sport. Sort of like adding "Jr." to a child’s name, isn’t it? For 1997, Mitsubishi has created a beautiful new truck and named it after the older, larger sport-ute that’s been produced since 1983. Can we blame Mitsubishi for this lack of creativity? Not if the Montero Sport succeeds, and if its namesake is any indication, it should.
See, the Montero has been successful enough to last fourteen years in a market that is currently brimming with sport utility/recreational/multi-transportational vehicles. People enjoy the flexibility of a sport-ute combined with the creature comforts of a car, so Mitsubishi needed a truck with a softer image and lower price. We’ll address the functional aspects in a moment. But for a first glance, let’s compare the Montero Sport to its bigger Montero cousin. Gone is the boxy exterior, but for your information the older Montero is actually more aerodynamic with a .48 drag coefficient compared to .51 for the Sport. Yet the Sport easily wins this beauty contest. Looking more like an overgrown Diamante than an immature Montero, the Sport features smooth curving sheetmetal, round headlamps set behind stylish plastic lenses, and a chrome-accented, v-shaped black grille.
First we should clarify the differences between Junior and Senior. Wheelbases are an identical 107.3 inches. And that just about sums up the genetic similarities in this family. The Montero Sport is shorter, has more ground clearance, and oddly enough boasts almost 6 more cubic feet of cargo space. The Sport also gets a smaller engine and therefore generates less power than old Dad, but 400 pounds less curb weight than the Montero evens things out for an equal towing capacity of 5,000 lbs. Oh, and gas mileage is better in the Sport.
Those figures are based on our test vehicle’s LS designation, and do not apply to the entire brood of Montero Sport siblings. For example, the best-priced ES gets only a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that puts out an anemic 134 horsepower, which translates to a towing capacity of only 2,300 lbs. Forget about the ES unless you actually believe that image is everything. Our LS came equipped with a 3.0-liter V6 that claims 173 hp at 5,250 rpm. Not bad, but not exactly competitive with the Isuzu Rodeo/Honda Passport or Jeep Cherokee’s 190 hp.
Even in oxygen-rich Seattle, Washington, the Montero Sport seemed to labor up the hilly streets and the automatic transmission in our LS consistently jumped the gun by downshifting suddenly upon slight application of the throttle. Vrrrrrrrooooom is usually music to any enthusiast’s ears, except when a vehicle doesn’t have the low-end torque to pull itself up to speed and must unexpectedly slip down a gear. This tendency, combined with the Montero Sport’s firm suspension, does not make for comfortable urban cruising, and passengers can expect the random jolt.
The Montero Sport is being marketed as a car-like sport-utility, with one recent advertisement featuring a passenger shaving himself with a straight-edge blade while riding along. Don’t try this at home, kids, and especially not on the highway, where the Montero Sport bounces along like a horse. Actually, the ride isn’t bad, for a truck, but it’s not as much like a car as we’re led to believe. That firm chassis is the same one used in the Mighty Max pickup that the Montero Sport replaces in Mitsubishi's lineup. The rear suspension is the Max’s old-fashioned rigid axle on leaf springs. This is beneficial to people who will occasionally go off-road, but on the highway, it definitely rides like a pickup truck.
Huge side mirrors certainly are truck-like, and the view from inside is good in all directions. The beige interior of our test truck probably made the Sport seem larger than it actually is, but headroom and legroom are ample for front seat passengers. The same cannot be reported for rear-seat design, however, and we know this from experience: the middle passenger on the rear bench has no legroom and will become belligerent after extended travel. For our comfort test of the Sport, we were able to seat five adults and a ten-year-old boy, not to mention two halibuts and eighteen king salmon (give or take a coho). Actually, the fish were in ice-packed boxes, and the boy was seated on the boxes, but this sort of mass-transit is definitely not recommended for lengthy periods of time. On a positive note, rear cargo is easily stored by virtue of a one-piece hatch, and the spare tire is located underneath and out of view. Several cubbies are located behind the rear seats and out of view, and with the rear seats folded, cargo space is a very useful 79.3 cubic feet, including approximately nine square feet of floorspace.
Part-time shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive gives the Sport its reason for life, and unfortunately we were only able to test it briefly on a short-yet-deeply-rutted muddy trail. Notes of importance are that one, it performs admirably, and two, we wouldn’t have tried that trail in any of today’s tiny sport-cutes (RAV4, CR-V, Forester). Four-wheel disc brakes provide short stopping distances, and available ABS helps when the going gets slippery.
The Montero Sport’s low advertised price will attract people who are not looking to spend the fortune required of the base Montero. However, the off-road special XLS model starts at over $31,000, so we’d recommend ignoring the lure of a chrome grille and bigger tires. Even our tester optioned out at close to $30,000, and that's without a CD player. But for those of us who want more interior space and off-road capability than the sport-cute segment has to offer, but better fuel economy and price than larger trucks, the Montero Sport may be the answer. If you want the good looks of the Sport with a more powerful motor, you’ll have to nag Mitsubishi until they offer the Montero’s 3.5-liter V6 with 200 hp. But then, you wouldn’t be calling this one Junior, now, would you?
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