SUVivors

Getting there first is an achievement that cuts both ways. Granted, you earn the satisfaction of beating everyone else to the goal, but Fate is perverse: The public memory usually remembers best what happened last.

So it goes with two venerable Japanese war-horses in the SUV wars. Mitsubishi’s Montero first appeared in 1983 as a two-door four-by-four that put a premium on utility at the expense of sportiness. I know, because The Wife and I bought ourselves one as a sort of matrimonial commemorative, having tied the knot that very same year. (Appropriately, our Montero was pristine white.) By the late ’80s, Montero grew four doors and a whole bunch of competitors, one of which was Isuzu’s Trooper. Trooper, bless its soul, offered an even boxier interpretation of utility with even less of a concession to sportiness. Its puny four-banger engine just sort of pooted along; nevertheless, this SUV’s following far exceeded the number of frustrated commuters stacked up behind a Trooper in rush-hour traffic.

From these humble beginnings, Mitsubishi and Isuzu reached the high ground of popularity early in the onset of SUV mania—only to be overwhelmed by a tsunami of 60 or so different models that now call this acronym their own. For ’98, both Montero and Trooper have renewed their assaults upon the hearts and minds of America’s off-road wannabes. A recent opportunity to evaluate both models side by side shows how widely their respective reinterpretations of “four-wheelin’ ” have diverged.

1998 Isuzu Trooper S

Time certainly marches on for this stalwart Trooper from Isuzu. A new V6 powerplant is lighter yet larger and more powerful than the one it replaces (the four-cylinder having long-since retired). Horsepower is up 13 percent, and torque (perhaps better understood as scamper-factor in the rough or while towing) is up 22 percent. Gracing a subtly softer-and-rounder exterior is a shiny hard-case for the hanging spare tire. Go ahead and laugh, but the aesthetic effect is powerfully striking. By far, however, the Trooper’s new TOD (Torque-on-Demand) powertrain is the most exciting news for ’98.

Personally, I find TOD most refreshing for its intellectual honesty. Everybody knows that nobody goes off-road in an SUV—all right, at most 10 percent do some kind of serious off-roading. Still, SUV manufacturers persist in touting their serious, rugged, go-anywhere 4WD powertrains. Problem is, what’s seriously effective off-road is, all too often, a serious pain in the neck when you get back on the streets. Isuzu’s shift-on-the-fly TOD system (developed in conjunction with Borg-Warner) acknowledges this reality by providing an automatic, part-time all-wheel-drive mode that monitors traction requirements by the microsecond and provides extra traction only as needed. It’s a marvelously well-computerized setup, the effectiveness of which goes mostly unnoticed (according to plan). But anyone familiar with the heavy bind that most four-wheel-drive systems impose upon the front wheels in low-speed turning maneuvers will be cheered by Trooper’s newfound nimbleness.

With this system, the front wheels can deliver from zero up to 50 percent of total pulling power in a nanosecond. This is just what the doctor ordered for suburbia’s occasionally wet or icy road surfaces. Then, when Dad decides to relive his youth in some ill-considered foray into the deepest backwoods, there’s still a bona fide locked-hub 4WD mode to help him retreat whence he came with a minimum of embarrassments and regrets.

In its attractive “Red Rock Mica” monotone paint scheme, the Trooper I drove made a simple yet elegant fashion statement on the road. There’s no fussiness of design about either the interior or exterior; call it “upscale casual,” like a freshly pressed pair of Duck Heads and a new knit shirt. The cabin is genuinely cavernous, which makes the five-person seating limitation all the more ironic. Just the same, the Trooper’s road feel, its practical arrangement of space and seats, and its generally understated styling give it a subtle edge next to the more extroverted Montero. Considering that its $27,800 (base)/$31,167 (as-tested) prices are some 20 percent less than the Mitsubishi, the Trooper’s allure is all the more compelling yet.

1998 Mitsubishi Montero

I’ve always been tempted to see in the nonsense name Montero a sort of pidgin Latin form of the verb-phrase, “I’ll show you.” How appropriate for a dedicated four-wheeler that’s been trail-tested tough by diehard outdoorsmen and by racers in such grueling off-road competitions as the Paris-Dakar Endurance Rally. For ’98, the name’s the same, but the emphasis seems to have changed slightly: “I’ll show you.” There is simply no mistaking the new Montero’s pretensions to a certain grandeur that has afflicted a whole host of high-end SUVs lately.

It’s a situation fraught with irony. Here is an admittedly capable SUV—boasting one of the highest ground clearances in the class and equipped with a versatile and rugged Active-Trac 4WD system. Its 3.5-liter V6 manages a respectable 200 horsepower/228 ft.-lbs. of torque. The tires alone are huge, truck-sized, aggressively treaded. But the enveloping package of the model I tested was this two-tone showboat in metallic green and silver with tan leather upholstery and scores of electronic gewgaws meant to flatter and fawn your every sybaritic pleasure on the road. Who would dare submit such a fashion plate to the scrapes and scrabbles of outrageous fortune that typify the uttermost off-road?

This is not to say the new Montero doesn’t cut quite a figure around town. The model I tested stickered out at $39,846—so it included almost all of Mitsubishi’s available goodies. There was a 10-disc CD changer; there was a giant power moonroof that seemed to extend over the front and middle seats; there were heated seats, heated mirrors, and little squirt jets for spritzing the headlamps. Two ingenious assemblies in the cargo area unfolded like opposite-facing jump seats but in fact paired up as a third-row bench to give Montero a seven-passenger capacity.

Clearly, Montero has set its sights upon the over-consumptive appetites of SUV shoppers who are also considering giant Expeditions, Navigators, Land Cruisers, and Tahoes. Problem is, the Montero feels a bit like a compromise. It’s plagued by an especially heavy steering feel, due to what’s called the “unsprung weight” of those monstrous, aggressive tires and wheels. With each shudder of the steering wheel over road deflections, you’re reminded that Montero would rather be out on a fire road playing hide-and-seek with a trout stream instead of pulling into the post office parking lot. But then there’d be all that beautiful bodywork and paint scheme to scratch, wouldn’t there? I ask you: What’s an overdressed, overqualified—and perhaps overpriced—sport/utility vehicle to do?