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By Richard Aucock
12 June 2008 09:29
With the relaunch of SsangYong in the UK, we're testing all their latest products. Dealers say they sell the Rexton large SUV to buyers with an inkling for an X5, but not the cash.
It’s SsangYong’s oldest but best-looking machine, with cohesion to its lines that approaches smart class. It’s OK inside as well – influences are clearly Japanese hi-fi, with techno-look plastics and lots of digital displays, but it’s reasonably upmarket and quite well built. Even the backlit dials are copied from the Mercedes S-Class.
Is it cheap 'n' cheerful then?
There’s a vast array of standard kit and, for £500 on most models, the option of seven seats. The same common-rail Merc engine as in the Rodius offers gameful shove, but seems noisier here. We drove an auto, which accentuated this by not quite being on the ball; the lazy rise and fall of revs became irritating. It’s faster, though, and there is also a top-spec model boosted to 186bhp and 296lb/ft of torque, which proves as fast as a base Range Rover Sport TDV6...Click 'Next' to read CAR's verdict on the Rexton
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Ssangyong Rexton 270 S (2008) CAR review
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resis says
RE: Ssangyong Rexton 270 S CAR review
If I wanted to tow stuff/go off road a bit, I'd have one of these over, say, an X5 or X6 or M class any day - looks better and I could invest the vast pile of cash I'd saved in my kids' trust accounts! Smug doesn't even come close lol!......
16 June 2008 11:03
-Joe- says
Hold on a minute, I've seen these dials before, but this is a new extreme why does your speed. Not that it weill get up to any speed anyway. Thats because you'll be using it off road, and you wouldn't want to scratch the lovery bodywork. Arrr the irony.
14 June 2008 10:24
AReader says
Subaru + Sbarro = Ssangyong
13 June 2008 19:32
jacomoseven says
Yup, the Actyon (uncomfortable to read, let alone pronounce) is truly ahead of its time with its fastback shape. If they cleaved off the rear dormer window of the Rodius they'd have a fastback MPV, too, and that would be truly ground breaking!
13 June 2008 12:17
kubrick says
Ah, the Rexton! The difference in styling compared with more modern Ssangyongs may be explained by the fact that the Koreans were lent a helping hand designing it by Italdesign - those were they days before Professor Greenley came and added his own, very special spice to Ssangyong's car design. Which is why it lacks what some have come to call 'Ssangyongness' - that strangely sympathetic, utterly absurd and very brave lack of complying with almost any accepted rule of car styling. So yes, the Rexton is easy on the eye, but it won't be remembered in decades to come like the Rodius, which has even surpassed the Pontiac Aztek as the 'were they sniffing glue?' car of the noughties. I'm most looking foward to Mr. Aucock's review of the Actyon, especially after having seen its spiritual descendant, the X6 - which looks like a dog's dinner.
13 June 2008 12:05
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