meant to say: Endeavour was a trim in the final years of the gen 2.5 trucks, it unfortunately lost the rear locker.

Now this I can get behind. It seems that Mitsu V6s suffer from premature valvetrain wear, this applies right through to the final Monteros with 3.8Lv6s. And all seem to leak oil from valve cover seals and rear cam "halfmoon" gaskets. My 20 year old 4Runner's 5VZFE is bone dry, and uses zero oil, even when loaded up…

I was very leery of my friend's plan to simply take his just-purchased heap of a $1200 220k mile Montero into the California desert without baselining it with every kind of maintenance and wear item, but so far, so good! It's been a total tank.

That and the steering wheel cover (read: worn out steering wheel) lead me to seriously question whether this is a 106k mile truck. Even if it was the body damage and wear would result in a CP from me, and I adore 2nd gen Monteros.

The fullsize Montero is a distinct entity, it has its own frame and body, but shares drivetrains with the Sport. The Sport is based on the L200 pickup, early models even had leaf sprung rear axles. Shorter with less passenger space, and somewhat less highly regarded, perhaps unfairly. Shape/size wise, a Montero Sport…

I think you're overstating the issues with solenoid-actuated 4wd, particularly Mitsubishi's system. Most fail due to original soccer mom owners never shifting the system into anything more than 4H unlocked, simply exercising the system a bit can break them free a lot of the time. If not replacing the solenoids is not…

Again, utter nonsense. Head on over to Expedition Portal, tons of guys taking these 2nd gen Monteros on weeks-long trips without issue. I can't see how one of these is less durable than a 3rd gen 4Runner, and I say this as someone who owns a third gen 4Runner. If anything, I'd prefer the Mitsu's more durable torsion…

Locker on the blister-fender "gen 2.5" was an option, not all of them had it. There was a "winter package" that bundled the rear locker with some other stuff (heated seats?)

I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. If it works right now, it will probably keep working. The number one cause of their failure seems to be disuse. If it is that big of a worry, preemptively replacing the solenoids (not that expensive or difficult DIY) will avoid the issue for another 15 years. I’ll gladly take…

Take a look at the size of components (axles, suspension control arms, frame (which the Xj doesn't have). The Mitsu has a massive 9.5 inch rear diff, and is in general as overbuilt as SUVs come, short of a Land Cruiser. The XJ, while capable and easy to modify, is nowhere as durable. It can be a cool rock crawler, and…

This Montero is so far above an Xterra and especially an XJ, it's not even funny. $4k will get you a rust bucket 3rd gen 4runner with 200k miles.

Endeavour

That one's a sport, the one with 250k miles is a fullsize Montero. Are you really having that hard of a time telling them apart?

Nonsense. How is a 2nd gen worse than a 1st gen in terms of capability? Yes the SR with the rear locker is better yet, but even a plain jane LS will perform just as well as a gen 1 Montero, stock vs stock.

Russians made perfectly good use of old T62s in South Ossetia in 2008, don’t know exact model designations but they had fencing on them (anti-RPG type protection). It is a demonstration of the will to fight overcoming a demoralized opponent. When the Georgians hightailed it back to Tbilisi, of course old T62s will…

For all of the claims of unbiased and impartial reporting, the slant of this article is undeniable. Again and again we hear moaning about Syrias’s methods (and Russia's) in this conflict. Glass house much? How many deaths can be linked to our military endeavors in the past 15 years, let alone indirectly the deaths…

“From what I’ve read, Toyota decided to cool the engine and the transmission with one radiator.”

This is literally how most modern automatic transmissions are cooled, unless a towing package or some such thing is installed. Maintaining the cooling system with regular coolant changes will avoid the problem, a lot of…