Maiden voyage of the new Montero is complete!

First impressions? I think it's a girl. A little bitchy and temperamental, but oh so much fun when you get inside. How I love me some crazy women! You may be witnessing a bonifide love affair taking place here. Windows down on Route 87 from Payson, sunroof open, tunes playing. Great drive. And I'm completely digging on the adjustable shocks. Soft for crappy I-40 pavement. Hard for the mountain curves and inspired confidence. Very cool. I don't feel like I'm lacking anything vs. a more "modern" truck. The Montero was clearly modern for it's time. Little touches like the lighted bezel around the ignition key are much appreciated. I've never had a car with a sunroof, so I'm thoroughly enjoying that. It's a little sticky and slow, but works for now. Some attention is needed in the future it seems.

A couple of things I noticed:

There seems to be some drive line slack. Right around 40mph when letting off the gas coasting, and lightly touching the throttle to maintain speed, there is a noticeable jerk when letting of the gas, and getting back on it. It happens at all speeds, but while testing it in town at 40mph it was pretty obvious. Going to crawl underneath tomorrow and check mounts and drive shaft play.

There is a pretty noisy mechanical "whine" from the engine that I didn't notice before. The tunes were too loud so I'm not sure when it started, but I heard it when I pulled into my office in Gilbert and have heard it since. The idle is quite a bit higher in park than in drive, and the idle chuggs for lack of a better word when in drive. Any input welcome.

All in all a great drive and I enjoyed the Montero a lot. A little sluggish on the steeper mountain grades, but not terrible. And best of all it got me home without incident. If it wasn't for me being so tired, I would have wanted to continue driving which is saying a lot after a 7 hour drive. Will update again once I dig around a bit.

Jay