SsangYong

The SsangYong Rexton is often overlooked in the seven-seat 4WD category. Here’s why we think it shouldn't be.

For those looking at a 4x4 ute that punches hard on value, the SsangYong Musso is a dark horse.

SsangYong's four-wheel drive wagon might have fallen into the shadows of consideration, but it holds plenty of appeal.

For those who are willing to look beyond the usual suspects in the ute race, they might come across a real diamond in the rough.

If you missed Drive TV, you can catch up here. In this episode, Trent takes the SsangYong Musso on a road trip south of New South Wales.

The rebranding of the South Korean car maker has still not happened in Australia despite its UK and New Zealand arms having made the change.

This season, we embark on more great drives and fun-filled adventures featuring some of our Drive Car of the Year category winners.

Here's a list of every car brand in Australia which does not currently produce an electric car for local showrooms.

The Isuzu D-Max and Mazda BT-50 are Australia's most fuel-efficient utes, but how do the rest stack up?

If you're looking to drive your dollar further, these are our picks for the for buyers watching their budgets.

We compare popular dual-cab utes on sale in Australia to see which models have the largest tubs.

Got a tiny driveway but lots of baggage? These small SUVs offer properly big boots.

After an enormous amount of research into utes and owner groups, including SsangYong owner groups, I concluded that SsangYong Musso owners are indeed very happy with their purchase.Owner: Clark Kent

Long time reader of CarAdvice but I've never submitted an owner review. Some info about myself, i'm 47 years old, with partner and no kids. This is my mid-life crisis (part 2). Here is my review of my Ssangyong Musso MY20 Ultimate 2.2L Turbo Diesel, 6 speed Auto. Purchased brand new from a central QLD dealer over the phone. I live in the Toowoomba region, however. The deal was done over the phone and internet and the Musso was delivered directly to me on a transport truck (they kindly took away my trade-in 2012 Kia Rio Si). Delivery included full set of floor mats and full tank of diesel fuel as part of the deal. The reason for the purchase of this particular Musso was the Ultimate model, as they are very rare in this specification. A lot of research and hunting around Australia was done to find the vehicle I wanted. First of all, I have never owned a 4wd vehicle, they have always been small hatchback style cars (apart from my first car which was a 1993 VP Commodore). The reason I chose Ssanyyong is the specification, price, long warranty, cheap servicing and how car-like the vehicle drives. I did a couple a test drives from the dealers in Brisbane to get an idea about the car, but they couldn't source the car I wanted unfortunately, even from inter-state. So here we are today. After owning the vehicle for 3 months I have driven 4,500 km's! The Musso is my daily driver, toy and 4wd hobby all rolled into one and I couldn't be any happier. Standouts are the creature comforts and how car-like it drives. I considered Triton and D-Max but honestly they feel like farm vehicles compared to the Musso. I refuse to drive a vehicle that has rear drum brakes in 2020! The Musso is a rare beast in the world of 4wd's. Being Ultimate spec, my Musso Ultimate includes: - Full Nappa leather interior (front and back) - 8 way drivers' electric seat - 6 way front passenger seat - heated and ventilated front seats - heated rear seats - heated steering wheel - electric tilt / slide sunroof - Android Auto / Apple Car Play. I daily use Android Auto. - Front and Rear Disc Brakes - Tyre pressure monitoring 20" Wheels 255/50 (including spare!) - 360 degree surround-view camera system - hill decent control - lane-keeping guidance - folding rear seat and under seat storage - fully plastic lined tray, 4 tie down points and 12v socket as standard - Autonomous Emergency Braking (tested and works well!) - very cold air conditioning - electric folding mirrors, key-less entry, HID headlights - auto wipers, auto headlights, auto high-beam - auto chromatic rear mirror - digital dash and speedo I can honestly say I have tested my car under some very hard conditions (both on and off road) and i find very little to criticize. Road holding, comfort, brakes and steering all great. The best way to think about the Musso is that it is an SUV with a tray. Rather than a typical 4wd trying to be a passenger car. Because the Musso has a coil-spring rear suspension the on-road driving is much better and the off-road is great too. Most of the time I'll drive in 4h (rear wheel drive) on the bitumen and any loose surface is driven in 4H or 4L with the selector on next to the transmission. I'm sure people will complain about the low wading depth of the Musso. I dont care for that, as I wanted good ground clearance to explore 4wd tracks. I would have bought a boat if I wanted to do deep water crossing. I'm not a "typical" 4wd owner, I have no intention of installing a lift kit, bullbars, winches. All I have added is tinted windows and will look at a roll cover for the tray in the future. To me the Musso is not a show pony but a do-it-all car that I can enjoy on and off the road. Yes I actually do real low-range 4wd'ing in this car. On the wish list is to do some serious sand driving on North Stradbroke island or Fraser Island. I have zero concerns about reliability. Fuel economy is great (highway driving gives my 7.2l per 100km) very torquey engine (sits on 1500 rev at 100 km/h , 6th gear) gearbox is very smooth, I prefer to hold it in 6th manually on the highway) no problems with grunt with 4 adult passengers and a tray full of gear on a 38c day with air conditioning on maximum. interior is extremely quiet (no tyre noise, engine noise very muted). To sum up, I always choose my cars based on value for money. I dont follow other sheep or follow my neighbors with their car purchases. For Ssangyong to be be a better success their needs to more brand awareness, marketing and a trust of the product. Most people are snobs with their car purchases and won't give the "little" guy a look unfortunately. The perception is that Ssangyong is a Chinese company, not a South Korean company. My first mid-life crisis was purchasing my other car in 2015 known as Sponge-Bob, a Skoda Fabia 7 speed Auto in Racing Yellow! Happy to do a review on that car, as I now have 40,000 km on it currently. thanks for reading!

I have now owned this vehicle for over 7mths now and have put 17000klm on it so far. I was a bit apprehensive about buying a Ssyangyong at first but after speaking to a few owners , and driving the Musso I dove straight in. I drive a Ranger for work and found the Ssyangyong was on a different page to the Ford product. There alot bigger then most utes and the interior spec is alot more car biases then you basic ute. I have heated and cool seats a nice info screen and a dash display that has way to many options in it. I'm 6,4 and also have tall kids and there has been no complaints about space in the back. The leather is very soft and on long trips there just perfect.The engine is a very quite and has enough power and torque for most task, I've towed with hay bales and caravans and was never left lacking in power. The ride was very stiff for the first 15000klm but it is now alot more enjoyable on the crap country roads of NSW . The only issues Ive had so far are very small design faults with the Tow bar being to low and the soft springs on the rear. There is a upgrade to the soft springs but the Tow bar is just a stupid after thought. The standard dual cab tray is quite big and I have had a canopy fitted also. The long wheel base is very long but you could easily put 4 or 5 mountain bikes complete in with out any trouble. I havent been off road yet but I feel with a good A/T tyre it would be more then capable. As for servicing I have great service by the Ssyangyong dealer , but for Ssyangyong there very slow in help with a dealer complaint ( selling) . So far Ssangyong remind me of Jeep Australia with very under trained office staff and customer service. But as I found with Jeep not all dealers are the same and this makes ownership a bit easier. Now would I recommend a Ssyangyong for your next car , hell yeah after owning a Holden and Ford the engineering is a 100% improvement over what Australian manafucters offer. The price and warranty alone should prick your ears,

Summary: Good equipment levels and build quality but let down by ride and fuel economy. We traded in our 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe highlander on a new Ssangyong Rexton Ultimate in September 2019 at Cricks Ssangyong Sunshine Coast. We were attracted to the rexton for it’s towing ability (3.5t), having 7 seats and being a 4WD. The interior in the rexton is impressive with quilted leather heated and cooled ventilated front seats, sunroof and multimedia touch screen with android auto and Apple CarPlay. It is also very quiet inside with not much road noise intruding into the cabin. The build quality appears to be very good both inside and out and generally on par with the Santa Fe. There is also a vast array of driving assist technology built in such as AEB, lane departure warning, lane change assist, forward collision warning and 360 degree camera are just a few. The exterior look is not bad looking for a big car and it doesn’t have that ‘ute’ look that others in this segment have been model from. In relation to the ride, we were aware when we did the test drive that the ride was firm but thought this would become better with time and relatively normally for a 4WD. Whilst the ride is fine on the highway on other roads with slight bumps, potholes and corrugations the ride is very unsettled and shakes the whole vehicle. The Santa Fe was very smooth in comparison. The Rexton is fine towing our Jayco Swan outback. You do notice the weight of the camper when towing despite it only being 1800kg (approx. half of what it’s rated for). The fuel economy when towing is about 13.5 l/100km and around town in the 12s which is very high compared to the Santa Fe which got in the 10/11s towing and 9s around town. There are a few other niggles that my wife has discovered who mainly drives the car including sometimes the electric boot coming down randomly when loading and you need to jump out of the way ( very dangerous because it doesn’t stop if you’re in the way), the keyless door entry sometimes takes a while to recognise the key (most frustrating in the rain), the spare wheel, whilst full size, has the nice chrome side pointing downwards towards the road which is subject to scratches and chips from road debris and something else I just noticed when using Apple CarPlay was when I plugged in my iPhone the Cars multimedia screen when black and I had to unplug to get it back. In addition to the above there is a noticeable lag in the acceleration to the extent that you put your foot down upon takeoff and there is nothing. However, once the turbo kicks in it’s pretty sprightly. I’m think of get an iDrive unit to see if this helps with the initial lag. We haven’t taken it 4WD yet so I can’t comment on how good it is as a 4WD but by others accounts it is quite capable.