Sudden Unintended Animation
With the all the bad publicity the Montero Sport is having, the fate of the 2016 model doesn’t look promising. The alleged SUA caused a wound so deep, that even tricycle drivers near my house veer away when a Montero Sport parks or crosses its path. The stigma is real. You can thank the video clips circulating around social media and the biased reporting of TV Patrol for the new model’s premature death. I may not have the full technical prowess to convince people to change their minds, but my family owes this SUV a big thanks for the years of Biogesic-free service. More than enough to compel me to write about my experience with the Montero Sport in defense against SUA claims.
Backgrounder.
My mom bought a Montero Sport way back in 2009, If my memory serves me right, it was the same year the Montero Sport was officially launched in our shores. With the Fortuner already the leader in the IMV segment that time, the Montero Sport posed itself as a worthy challenger. On paper specs, it toppled the Fortuner and on the actual drive, it did not disappoint either. I was rooting for the Fortuner and made every effort to turn the tides against the purchase of a Montero Sport. I find the Fortuner macho/manly with its bold stance, while the Montero’s aerodynamic design a bit too conservative and refined. I failed miserably of course, simply because whoever holds the power of the purse has the final say, a reoccurring lesson that I never learn.
A few days after making a reservation, my mom and I went to CarWorld Pampanga. We came early morning and by mid-afternoon the grin on our faces and the universal feeling of excitement of new car owners was upon us. I remember when we left the dealer it only came with 10 liters of diesel and the low fuel warning light’s amber glare was stone cold. Before we can conquer the roads, we had to stop at the adjacent Shell station a few meters away. It was pretty disappointing.
It came with free tint and EWD (early warning device). I remember getting a freebie in the form of an umbrella. As soon as we got home we took pictures with our Monty. From that day, we never had any major issues with the Montero Sport, not even a sighting of the alleged SUA ghost.
Return of the comeback.
Mom’s Montero Sport was so dependable that my Father opted to buy the beefed up version which came in the form of the Montero Sport GLS-V back in January 2012. The comfortable suspension was the main driving point that led him to the decision. The additional ponies (horse power) made it a dream to drive on NLEX and the abundance of power and torque tempts you to toy with the speed limit. It was the fastest thing I drove on four wheels. I bought a second hand Fortuner V 2006 model a few months before his purchase, the stock Fortuner had a harsh ride. I was able to observe the pros and cons of both the Montero Sport and Fortuner as a consumer and a daily driver. Without any reservation, from 2009 until January 2015 after we sold our last Montero Sport, we never experienced any Sudden Unintended Acceleration.
I alone racked up 35 thousand kilometers driving my father’s Montero (he later sold it to me a little over a year after he bought it). We also drove it weekly from QC to Pampanga and fuel cost was no more than a mind blowing Php500 back and forth. Just to set the record straight, we sold them way before the SUA claims came out. It was a business move as they were purchased way above their current market value. My mom’s 2009 Montero Sport was bartered to 1M worth of dried corn she used as main ingredient for livestock feeds in her farm, the valuation was 700K at that time for her Montero Sport.
My two centavos.
The Montero Sport shares the same engine and specs with the Strada, why the alleged SUA happens only to the Montero Sport escapes me. Surely this would have affected the venerable Strada as well if there was a grain of truth in it. The alleged SUA happens only to Monty’s with automatic transmission, which is all too fishy in the first place. The Montero Sport is manufactured in Thailand and is sold to different countries with the same specs as the ones sold in our shores, how odd that all the cases and claimants all came from our beloved country? Is it possible that only the defective units were shipped here in PH? Probably a Trojan planted by Mitsubishi engineers so they can take over our country? Do our road conditions turn them into wildlings?
The timing of the SUA issue coincides with the release of the New Model. Just today I saw a 2016 Montero Sport on the road and my suspicion was up to my nose. A smear campaign meant to discredit and bring down sales. As a member of a Facebook group with thousands of Montero users, not a single soul has stood up to claim they have experienced the SUA first hand. It was always “kaibagan ng kaibigan ko.”
These are facts, people, it is up to you if you want to join the bandwagon. Thank you for reading!
Average Jom 
Just to share IMHO, this post is from a user’s point of view with no background of the technical differences of an automatic and a manual. A strada and the montero sport. An adventure and the montero sport. SUA is not limited to Montero Sport. There are other brands and model in the US that had reported problem. First off, why it happens to automatic only? Because newer automatic models are drive by wire. Meaning, controls are transmitted as electronic signals and the cpu translate this to command for the car. Why not strada? Because the strada may have different codes for its cpu unit. He mentioned same spec and engine: the adventure also shares the same engine model. Why didn’t it happen with adventure? Electronics and cpus are quirky. We experience bugs everywhere with our daily gadgets. A static there, an undefined conditioned there, a careless soldering… things happened. If the probability is 1:5000 to exhibit that flaw, I wouldn’t feel assured with the 4999 confessing gospel truth when the odd one out might be me and my family. Heck even 1:1M chance. Data says that airplanes are the safest mode of transportation. But when a single unit exhibits failures, they are grounded. That’s the reason why they are the safest. They take precautions and doesn’t take chances that the flaw might be on another unit. They don’t just put it aside offhand because other units doesn’t exhibit such behaviors nor they ask the others that has driven them safely. It’s adding salt to injury. Just like a victim of a crime, you don’t ask those who wasn’t a victim to cast doubt on the victim. You sympathize with them and exercise caution it won’t happen to you.
I noticed aND as should be taught in school, not every post in the net is FACT. And not every post by someone should be treated as expert’s opinion. Including mine.
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sua – stupid’s unintended acceleration..
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Not all units of montero had the issue.. Only a handful of units had the issue of sudden acceleration. Unfortunately, people had lost trust to the brand due to fact that the same issue persisted to a number of units across its different model series releases on different times or year. they did not do anything to prevent the issue from occurring on the later units or fix what design issues could have caused the problem, instead paid a sum of money to some owners and asked them to shut their mouth in return of the buyback. They are indeed covering something up.
No manufacturers are perfect. Factory defect will persist.. But that kind of persistent factory defects is unacceptable and is not a minor issue because it will claim lives.
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