Probe to continue for Montero Sport model

There will be no recall of Montero Sport units for now, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said yesterday after a two-week investigation wrapped up in Manila.

The DTI said a third party is needed to look deeper into  complaints about incidents of sudden and unintended acceleration (SUA) in the  SUV model of Mitsubishi involving at least 24 customers.

Foreign experts may be called to handle the inquiry since the Philippines has no adequate laboratory to conduct a full-vehicle checkup, said the DTI.

CONSOLACION

A Mitsubishi Montero Sport crashed at the fence in barangay Lamac, Consolacion. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ Isaiah Cabanillas)

A Cebuana and her foreigner husband were in their brand-new Mitsubishi Montero when the SUV crashed and landed atop a neighbor’s concrete fence Sunday afternoon, Dec. 13, in Consolacion, north Cebu.

The couple survived the incident without serious injury but missed their 7 p.m. flight to Singapore that day.

“They were on their way to the airport when it happened about 50 meters from their home,” said PO1 Jean Pierre Punay, traffic investigator of Consolacion police.

A photo of the gray Montero, nose down, straddling the fence quickly circulated in social media amid the controversy over SUA cases involving the Montero Sports.

The damaged vehicle was towed away on Dec. 15.

“The owners  reached an amicable settlement with the house caretaker for the fence repair,” said the policeman.

The Consolacion police blotter said the driver, 44-year-olld Emilynina Lim, “lost control due to brake malfunction and sudden acceleration,” causing the SUV to move downhill and hit the house fence of Panfila Calabroso who lives next door in new Orleans Street in  Monteverde Village.   The house owner is out of the country.

No one was home when Cebu Daily News dropped by looking for the Lim couple this week. A house keeper said the couple had already left.

Police said Lim, who had a Singapore driver’s license good for 90 days, didn’t return to the station, and may have gone abroad.

CDN also tried to contact the Mitsubishi dealership in Mandaue City several times for comment but officials declined to be interviewed.

The vehicle, a Montero Sport GLX2 AT (automatic),  was claimed from the dealer just days earlier by the couple on Dec. 9. and was still subject for registration.

“The Lims were also in Cebu a few months back to process bank papers for the Montero,”said  PO1 Punay.

It was not known as of press time whether the Lim couple would bring up their accident as a customer complaint of SUA.

THIRD PARTY

The investigation in Manila was a DTI inter-agency panel composed of the Bureau of Philippine Standards, Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau and the Consumer Protection & Advocacy Bureau.

DTI ruled that a third party is needed to conduct further investigation on the cause of complaints of SUA incidents of Montero Sport units.

The whole process will take about 20 days, after the DTI, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) identify a third party.

On Tuesday, Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. (MMPC) called for the engagement of a third party as the best way to settle allegations of SUA instead of a product recall.

MMPC first vice president Froilan Dytianquin said in a statement that the company  has received complaints of SUA in connection with 97 Montero Sport units over the past four years.

Dytianguin said Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Japan evaluated them and found nothing wrong with any of the vehicles, but some complainants remain unconvinced and have asked for a recall.

“A recall order is issued when a defect has been found. If there is none, there is nothing to check and correct,” he said. “At this point, we believe such a recall order is not called for, and what would its basis be?”

“The perceived solution will create unintended and even bigger problems (as this) will significantly affect the businesses of our dealers and their thousands of employees and their families,” he added.

Dytianquin said the number of complaints against the Montero Sport in the Philippines, an SUV  model assembled in Thailand, was “too many for a coincidence.”

He said it is only here in the country where the vehicle faces SUA allegations.

Dytianquin also noted that allegations of SUA with the Montero Sport first came out in 2011, when the vehicle was dominating the domestic mid-size sports utility vehicle market.

“Now that we are about to launch our all-new Montero Sport, the SUA issue suddenly cropped up again,” he said. “We are not accusing anybody. We are only raising some questions because the timing of these stories is suspect.”

He said other ASEAN markets carry the same units available in the Philippines—all assembled in Thailand—but there are no similar complaints there.

“If there really is a problem with the Montero Sport, that should also manifest in the units being sold in other Asean countries,” he said.

Dytianquin earlier ruled out the potential causes of alleged SUA cases, including pedal entrapment, pedal misapplication, mechanical or electronic failure, and sticky accelerator pedal. He said these cannot occur due to the various safety features installed in the model. -Michelle Joy L. Padayhag