Ssangyong Korando

The Korando has been updated for 2017, the face lifted car includes a new grille and headlights which gives the car a more premium look, the Korean car manufacturer has fitted the Korando with new fog lights, lower valance and bonnet and fully-LED daytime running lights. We are still waiting for new prices from SsangYong.

The SsangYong Korando was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, (Volkswagen Golf, DeLorean DMC-12, Lotus Esprit S1, De Tomaso Mangusta), famed for his love of square lines and flat surfaces ‘Il maestro’ succumbed to the rounded line in order to produce a SUV and such was his success the Korando was awarded ‘2012 SUV of the year’ in Macedonia. The Korando has its good points and its bad points, on the plus side it looks good, it’s big – three adults can sit in the back in relative comfort and the lipless boot has 486 litres of luggage space, 70 litres more than a Nissan Qashqai, it can tow up to 2000kg and it offers a good level of equipment on the entry level car. On the downside, it’s not the sharpest handling in the class, the Ford Kuga probably gets this award, and as a result of being ‘good value’ the interior does feel a little dated.

 Three trim levels are avaialble to the Korando, the SE, The EX and the range topping ELX. The SE has 16″ Alloy wheels, manual air conditioning, cruise control, CD & RDS radio with iPod and Bluetooth connectivity and hill-start assist, sadly rear parking sensors are a £198 extra. Move up to EX trim and you get a 7 inch touchscreen that includes a parking camera, perfect for hitching the caravan, heated front seats, privacy glass, automatic air conditioning and 17 inch alloy wheels, the range topping ELX add a sat nav, leather upholstery, heated front and rear seats and 18 inch alloys.

You are more than likely to see a Korando in front of a caravan, with good reason as it has a towing capacity of 2000kg as either a front or all wheel drive car and the towbar weight is a healthy 80kg. These towing figures are due to the Korando being a relatively heavy car at 1701kg, the Kia Sportage weighs in at 1508kg, but it’s also down to the 2.2 litre diesel engine. This 176 bhp unit can propel the Korando to 62mph in just 9.9 seconds yet return a claimed 53.3 miles per gallon. The best part is that it can deliver a whopping 400nm of torque from as low as 1,400rpm and it’s maintained through to 2,800rpm. In layman’s terms it has lots of low down grunt. This engine can be paired to a six speed Manual or six speed Aisin automatic gearbox.

The Korando can be two-wheel drive or SsangYong’s on-demand four-wheel-drive system. The all wheel drive system also has a manually operated differential lock if you find yourself in a really sticky situation, allowing a higher percentage of torque to be sent to the rear wheels at low speeds.

The Korando offers good value as a front wheel drive car in the lower trims but once you start looking at a four wheel drive or Automatic gearbox car then the competition, particularly in the likes on the new Ford Kuga, comes into play.  Our advice would be to go for the entry level car and tow a caravan to sit in for a cup of tea.