I recently bought a 1992 Montero LS. I didn't know anything at all about it or Mitsubishis in general, but it was cheap, seemed to run good, and I was willing to buy anything at the time since I sold my last car and just needed some kind of transportation besides a bicycle.

There doesn't seem to be much info on that year of monteros online. I see lots of stuff about problems with '99 and up monteros, but about the only negatives I've seen on my year of Montero is that it's pretty slow (which it is), gets bad gas mileage (which it does), and that the paint wasn't good (paint's peeling on my hood so that rings true for me too).

Mine has some issues (that I'll probably be posting questions about in the near future), but overall, I'm really impressed with what a solid SUV it is, even though I'll likely have to sell it soon to get something more economical. The build quality and engineering seems to be as good as or better than the few other 4WDs I've owned/driven a lot (1984-2001 Toyotas and jeep Cherokees, '92-96 explorers).

So, how does these compare to similar years of 4WDs in terms of offroad capability, reliability, and longevity?

Besides being ugly (they're only slightly less homely than an Isuzu trooper), and a huge turn radius (still no worse than the Toyotas I've driven though), I can't figure out why these weren't more popular. Thoughts?

 

they were badged "pajero" in the rest of the world (from what i've been told here)
and that means "******" in portugese. i could only laugh when my last boss told me he'd "got a sweet deal on one"

i don't know either. personally they're a better ride than the toyotas and are more 4x4 and less SUV, which would probably account for their unpopularity, people want to *look* like they're "adventurous", without having to actually, y'know, do anything.

 

oh, they're competent offroad and will last for as long as you're willing to throw money at them. same as anything else.