American automotive reality is that most people do most of their driving on conventional roadways, where a half-mile patch of gravel road qualifies as roughing it.
Still, many drivers today favor a big rugged, crunching 4WD that gives them a certain feeling of command and security-the kind offered by one of those definitive terrain-busting bruisers such as the Mitsubishi Montero, SR.
Motive does not matter much here. The Montero might be destined to crawl around cedar-studded hills in Minnesota's Boundary Waters area, or the driver may be interested only in tooling down the interstate, Walter Mitty-like, pretending as though the expressway were a dirt road outside Kuala Lumpur. What matters isn't always terrain, or even the possibility of chest-deep snows or freakish mud.
What matters is what the vehicle does for your psyche-as well as for your sense of security-which, in the Montero SR's case, is make you feel downright invincible. For a base price of $31,475, you expected something genteel?
Drive it to church if you want, but understand that the Montero SR, is built for just about anything this side of travel on the high seas. One tribute to its mettle: It has won the 5,000-mile annual Paris-to-Dakar rally that traditionally has its share of non-finishers. Credit there goes to the Montero SR's 3.5-liter, 24-valve, 215hp V6, with four-speed automatic transmission with overdrive and Active Trac 4VVD system.
It shifts on-the-go with grace and provides precise power at the instant a situation calls for it. For a price tag that will exceed $34,000 when a host of desirable options (such as the $1,800 leather-and-wood package) are added, it's probably the least that should be expected.
In one sense, this vehicle is the equivalent of a beach-strolling bully just waiting to kick sand on the hoods of all those wimpy cars strewn across the landscape. But the Montero, is actually quite civilized and a downright handsome vehicle.
With dark cladding surrounding the Montero, (and offering some welcome protection from parking-lot dings), and with aluminum alloy wheels adding to the dress-up, Mitsubishi has definitely put together one of the more attractive cars within this hybrid niche of muscle builders.
Note that this look was achieved minus any serious focus on aerodynamics. There was some slope to the windshield, but beyond that our Montero SR was big, stocky and dramatically high off the ground. It was a considerable step up into this truck, which delivered one of the highest-riding views of a sport utility vehicle we've tested.
More subtle features we liked included two husky headlights that were outfitted with washers; curved-around amber turn signals; license-plate illumination; breakaway side mirrors with their own defrosters; and a sturdy U-hook trailer hitch that looked as if it could tug an earth mover through a swamp.
