I had never directly pursued ownership of the Mitsubishi - being a hardcore JEEP CJ7 owner - but my daily driver has been a 2000 GMC Safari AWD van until the second engine died last summer. Used vehicles in Alaska are WAAAY overpriced - most of the rigs I went to purchase (via Facebook Marketplace) were total wrecks, missing titles, etc. A real nightmare. Then I spotted this rig, my 2003 Mitsubishi Montero Sport LS, for $1,500. I thought it would be just another huge disappointment, smashed in doors, something major. WRONG. It is a really clean unit, almost everything worked. One bad rear seat belt, and a few small dents and scratches on the exterior, plus the "Alaska windshield" with cracks all the way across. The owner disclosed it has overheating issues, but it started immediately and ran smoothly.

I have since purchased a t-stat, valve cover gaskets, and the water pump/timing pulley kit from O'Reilly's. Less than $300 in parts. The t-stat somewhat alleviated the overheating, but I have a big job ahead to install the water pump.