Honest opinions encouraged

[Twisted Noodle]

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I was last on here. I had a '97 Sport, bought it from someone with a broken timing belt. Fix'd it and wheeled it..once. I absolutely loved that UTE!!
Posted here. I had lost my job and put all my vehicles up for sale and kept which ever didn't sell. The Monty sold first.. Fast forward 3 years later, I'm on the market for another however, I have a choice.


2001 Sport 3.5xs


Then there is this one...  little bit out of my price range though..
2001 Sport XLS <----- only 61k miles

I LOVED my Montero Sport but I also know the Regular Montero is very capable off road as well and it has a 3rd row seat (I have 4 kids) but the MPGs are probably a lot worse than the Sport.. It also has the same Towing Capacity... 

I'm leaning towards the 3.5xs because I like red....... larger engine, more affortable.. and its red.

 I value everyone's input. I remember this forum as being very informative.

[colted]

I'd go for the 2001 XLS.....61K mileage vs 117 is no brainer....same AWD and it has the same size 3.5 engine plus has more features than the XS....you can probably haggle it down to 4.5k......it's just me but I don't like monty's in red.....

[redraif]

Holy crap 61K.... I would want that one just cause there would so much less to worry about wear wise. Like a new car almost. Looks good in Silver too!

Red is pretty too, but more options with the XLS. Now is the XLS a 3.5 or 3.0 like mine (2001)? My XLS is 4WD not Awd also

Go see them in person. Pictures can hide a lot! My sport looks better in pics then in person... LOL! Check if either have been off road.... Also what maintenance has been done. Get paperwork proof or info on the shop that did the work to verify it was done... The price between the 2 could be averaged out depending on what maintenance would be needed on one versus the other... Just a thought.

Dang even with low miles you don't see sports going for that much around here. Try to haggle them both.... :)Here, folks don't want to pay their worth for them. Seems you have to give them away at $2500-1500... The main reason I kept ours... we had $4000.00 of maintenance and repairs in it and can't sell it for that. Plus we have such high mileage. Now I have fallen in love with the dang thing.

I wish it was a 3.5... but its impressed me with the 3.0.

I can't offer anything on the Limited. I don't know enough about them... the link isn't working for me either

[dclambertt]

I didn't think the '01 came with AWD.. my '01 Ltd. came as 4WD.

[Twisted Noodle]

Looks like my options have been narrowed down for me. The Montero Limited post was "flagged for removal"... I would have really loved the 3rd row seats.

The XLS I thought was only a 3.0. Which made sense because the XS has the 3.5 advertised on the front fenders.

[jkdv8]

Yea I think the AWD models started in 02. That silver one sounds to good to be true. 61k hasn't even been broken in yet the 3.5 was standard on the limited and XS. Believe it was an option on the XLS.

[ES_97Sport]

Aug 19, 2015 22:53:16 GMT -5 Twisted Noodle said:

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I was last on here. I had a '97 Sport, bought it from someone with a broken timing belt. Fix'd it and wheeled it..once. I absolutely loved that UTE!! ...

Back from UT!

The Montero is a little heavier and a little bigger. Otherwise its a good platform. Mileage isn't as good as the Sport. Insurance might be a tad higher on the Montero. Otherwise cost of ownership would be exactly the same. Personally, I'm not too impressed with that generation.

60K is awesome. That would make it hard to turn down. KIM that 60K is the first major maintenance interval. That means timing belt, etc. right off the bat.

The 3.0L and 3.5L are totally different engines. The 3.0L is a HP engine and the 3.5L is a torque engine. If you're planning on towing anything, the 3.5L is the way to go. If you're looking for something that gets relatively decent mileage, then the 3.0L is a better choice.

You mentioned that you wheeled your '97. If you're looking for a Sport you're thinking about wheeling stay away from the AWD models. The AWD transfer case and PCM integration severely limits what modifications you can do. IMHO, the ideal models are the '97-'99.

The '97-'98 automatics use the Aisin/Warner AW4 A/T transmission (the same used in Jeeps, Toyotas and other common vehicles) which is easily modified to the Jeep 6 bolt pattern and will accept the Jeep NP231/242 transfer case. That means easy access to 4:1 gears and the ability to install a crawl box if wanted, cheap SYE (slip yoke eliminators) and drive shafts.

The '99 came in a 3.0L (LS/XLS) and a 3.5L (Limited) if you're REALLY looking for the 3.5L. KIM, that Mitsu changed automatic transmissions in '99. This IS NOT the AW4 - this is a completely different transmission and while the AW4 can be retrofitted, it requires some fairly significant surgery. (I'm in the process of this conversion now, BTW)

After finally having a full Moab trip with 8 days of wheeling under the belt of my big Sport with everything rebuilt I can finally compare off road mileage between the 3.0L and the 3.5L. The 3.5L is wonderful off road, especially with the 5-speed M/T - all that torque really cuts down on the shifting. The down side is that the mileage isn't nearly as good as the 3.0L - which puts a serious crimp in things if there are long distances involved. The 3.0L may be a bit underpowered, but it is certainly a more efficient engine.

The only vehicle I would strongly consider staying away from is the '03 3.5L Limited AWD. This is the first year for the 5-speed A/T. The programming is a little flaky and it requires a special A/T fluid which if not used trashes the TC clutch - the fix is NOT cheap. The techs said that in '04 Mitsu got the kinks worked out of the programing at least.

Edward