The parent company has been celebrating a record month for exports, while SsangYong Motor UK rolls out multiple new models. Glenn Brooks climbs into a Turismo MPV to see what has changed following owner Mahindra’s investments in new products.
Neither the Mahindra-controlled parent company nor the British importer will thank me for calling the Turismo a major revamp of a nine-year old vehicle. Yet that’s a fair summary of what this model is. The engineers and exterior stylists charged with updating it have, however, done an extraordinary job. New for our market this past summer, it was first seen in South Korea in February.
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You need to put images of the original side by side with shots of the latest one to see just how clever the transformation has been. All the awkward angles are gone, while inside, things have been reconfigured so that for the UK market at least, this is a seven-seater. In South Korea, buyers may select various formats, with up to 11 seats possible. If you’re trying to picture that, it’s 2:3:3:3.
We used to know this model as the Rodius but in some countries it was, and still is, the Stavic. One of the more unusual vehicles sold anywhere, it has a lengthy 3,000mm wheelbase and its rear- and four-wheel-drive architecture was originally designed back in the 1980s by the then Daimler-Benz. Two big and pricey limos, the SsangYong Chairman H, and the newer Chairman W, also have this architecture as their basis. They’re sold mostly in Korea, China, Russia and/or Middle East.
SsangYong had close links to Daimler for many years, selling one of its delivery vans in Korea and other markets fitted with the three-pointed star badge (I saw a few of these still going strong in Sydney last month). Even after M&M bought 73 percent of the firm and its main assets from the receivers in 2011, the ties to Stuttgart have remained. One example is the Turismo’s automatic gearbox, which is a Mercedes-Benz design. OK, it’s not an eight- or even six-speed unit but its five ratios are well spaced and perfectly adequate for something which was never designed to be an autobahn-stormer.
What this vehicle is great at being, in a UK market context, is an executive shuttle. The importer rightly believes that hotels near Heathrow and Gatwick, or owner-operator taxi drivers in regional cities should be especially attracted to the Turismo and what is termed a ‘limitless’ five-year warranty. The 5,130mm length could be less than ideal when a rapid U-turn or slide into a tight parking bay is required, but the unstretched 155PS (114kW) 2.0-litre e-XDi 200 diesel is the kind of engine that high mileage drivers love, especially when torque is a muscly 360Nm.
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By GlobalDataOne of the largest pieces of evidence that you could, should you wish, think of this as a new model, is the engine I just mentioned. Where there had been a Mercedes-Benz 2.7-litre five-cylinder diesel in the original Stavic/Rodius (development code: A100), the only diesel model in the new A150 is SsangYong’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder unit. Mercedes’ 3.2-litre inline six-cylinder petrol engine is also available in some markets, but the UK is not one of them.
Like the firm’s other models, the Turismo is manufactured at Pyongtaek in South Korea’s mid-northwest. The company stated at the vehicle’s launch that it was hoping for 20,000 global sales each year, with half of those in the domestic market. Europe and Russia are seen as important markets. In the latter, the model name is Stavic, while in South Korea, it’s Korando Turismo and there is a fantastically named Chateau Limousine variant (see the final pic) as the range topper. Rodius is the car’s name in China and multiple other markets, while Stavic is also used for Australia, New Zealand and Chile.
The brand isn’t relaunching just in the UK, either – SsangYong has been busy releasing fresh products in multiple other European region markets. Witness the recent arrival of the facelifted Korando C and Rexton W, with a model likely to be called Korando B due to appear at the Geneva show in just three months’ time. This will be a rival for the Chevy Trax both at home and in Europe. We’ve seen multiple concept previews of this, the X100 project, in the last few years, the most recent of which was the e-XIV at the 2012 Paris show. This additional model is in the final stages of a joint development programme undertaken by M&M and SsangYong engineers.
Buying into the Korean company does seem to have proved a good move for Mahindra now that the fruits of so much hitherto unseen R&D work have begun to ripen. The latest available numbers show that in October, the brand enjoyed the highest month for global sales since 2005, with 14,244 vehicles delivered. Of that, 6,202 were in the domestic market, and 8,042 abroad, which must be a boon for those at M&M who championed the major investments which were needed to boost capacity utilisation at Pyongtaek. That export total was a record, while the company boasts of what matters even more so: profits, for two successive quarters now.
Back to the Turismo. Certainly it leans into curves, as you would expect something with so much heavy glass high on its sides to, but it handles decently enough. It’s also refreshing to be in something without low profile tyres when all of our spines know what the result of budget cuts to local authorities’ road maintenance budgets continues to be. So comfort levels were the chassis engineers’ priorities when tuning the suspension and they have succeeded. This is not the kind of vehicle you will get satisfaction from pushing hard into a corner, but the steering isn’t as vague as it might be.
The Turismo reminded me of the Kia Sedona, which has been discontinued by the UK importer. It’s all about interior flexibility and roominess. Even in seven-seater mode, there’s still luggage capacity of 875 litres but stow/remove the rearmost two rows and capacity leaps to 3,146 cubic litres. Unusually, it’s not the middle but the third row which has three seats: there are captain’s chairs in the second row.
The British market’s highest model grade, EX, brings with it selectable 4×4 and standard mud & snow tyres. There is even a low ratio should you need or want to tackle particularly sticky conditions. Considering how much weight I suppose you could get into one of these vehicles – seven people and all their gear – that might not be a gimmick, especially given the unpredictable turns that Britain’s weather can take. The maximum towing capacity of the EX 4×4 variant is 2.5 tonnes, which will appeal to those with horseboxes, larger boats and caravaners.
SsangYong might never be a mainstream brand in Britain, but as a niche manufacturer, the sales target for next year will inevitably be more than 1,000 vehicles. As at the end of the first ten months, registrations have totalled a mere 567 vehicles but two newly facelifted models will soon be making an impact. Moreover, the importer has just appointed its 52nd dealer, 14 of which have taken on the franchise during the last 12 months.
Considering that the first full sales year of the X100 small SUV will be 2015, and that the next Actyon SUV might also be launched around then if not in 2014 (as previewed by the SIV-1 at this year’s Geneva motor show), the second half of the decade could well be warming up as the brand’s best yet in the UK, Europe and globally.
