It's a great truck when it is running

My wife and I bought a used Montero with a lot of miles, but expected it to continue working for longer than a month after we bought it. Soon after we bought the truck the check engine light would come on and the engine would run rough intermittently.

We brought the car to the Mitsu dealer we bought it from (Valley Mazda Mitsubishi in San Luis Obispo-never ever buy from them!) and they tried to fix it twice. After the third time the engine seizedvand after $3000 in repairs the engine now runs. It turns out that the valve seat broke apart and fell into the cylinder. The head, piston, and a bearing on that cylinder needed replacing.

Besides the engine (3.5 L V6 DOHC), we had no problems with it and would have kept it for a long time if it didn't die. The car overall was well designed and was easy to use. We never had a chance to drive it off road, but found it to be good on the road and in slippery wet stuff in 4WD. It is a bit top heavy and would recommend using 4WD whenever it starts to rain or snow.

We researched this car a bit before buying and found the Montero to be one of the better midsize SUVs. Perhaps we were unlucky or perhaps others have had similar problems. Is it worth taking that chance?