MMPC nixes Montero recall

MANILA, Philippines - Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC), the local unit of the Japanese automaker, said a credible independent third party technical evaluator is the best way to settle the Montero Sport sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) issue instead of a product recall.

This is because of the opposing views of the vehicle’s distributor and the complainants who remain unconvinced and have asked for a recall, MMPC first vice president for marketing Froilan Dytianquin said.

Dytianquin claimed MMPC and Mitsubishi Motors of Japan have evaluated all the 97 vehicles involved in the alleged SUA and found nothing wrong with any of them.

“A recall order is issued when a defect has been found. If there is none, there is nothing to check and correct. At this point, we believe such a recall order is not called for. That is why we have been pushing for a third party to settle the issue,” he said.

Dytianquin said a recall order from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) would significantly affect the businesses of its dealers and its thousands of employees.

“The perceived solution will create unintended and even bigger problems,” he said.

Complainants want Mitsubishi to stop selling the Montero Sport model until the company could identify the vehicle’s defect.

They said the SUA issue now involves public safety and welfare.

Dytianquin, however,  said it is “baffling and just not possible” why it is only the Montero Sport units in the Philippines that are facing SUA allegations.

“There are zero SUA allegations in other Asean countries and they carry the same units that we have here. If there is a problem in the unit, that should also manifest in the units being sold in other countries,” he said.

The Montero Sport units in Asean are all made in Thailand.

“We will ask the DTI to take a second look at its reported inclination to order a recall. Its effect on the businesses of MMPC, its dealers, ancillary industries, their employees and even the image of the Philippines as an investment destination will be severely affected. More importantly, what will be its basis since there is no defect in the units?” he said.

MMPC said the SUA story first came out in a blog in 2011 when Montero Sport was the leader in the mid-size SUV market.

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