SsangYong Korando Sports arrives

SsangYong has extended the appeal of their budget SUV Korando by launching the Korando Sports, a cross between a family car and a pick-up.

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Ssangyong, the Korean car maker that isn’t the one you know (but now has the deep pockets of India’s Mahindra behind it to change that) has set its stall out as providers of cut-price compact SUVs with the new Korando SX, pitching hard against the established makers with a £1 million advertising campaign (which you won’t have seen if you live in an affluent area).

Now SsangYong are pitching in to the Bob the Builder market with their take on vehicles like the Mitsubishi L200 (which has just been given a five year warranty by Mitsubishi) with the SsangYong Korando Sports.

The Korando Sports is a double cab pickup with four doors and five seats that SsangYong says offers a working vehicle with 4WD, 2.3 tonne towing capacity and all the appointments of a family car. And at a starting point of £18,295 – £15,291 if you can get the vodka back – and an unlimited mileage, 5 year warranty, it looks to be a contender.

That £18k starting point buys you a Korando Sports SX with 16″ alloys, AirCon, tinted glass, Kenwood sound and USB and Bluetooth connectivity. Spend a bit more for the Korando Sports EX and you can add in leather, heated front seats, electric driver’s seat, power folding mirrors and parking sensors for £20k and an extra £1245 for the auto version.

The Bob the Builder bit offers a flat bed big enough to take a standard pallet with an add-on hard top with a hinged back window and side glass so your pick-up looks more like a rufty-tufty estate when you’re using it as a family car. Power comes from a 2.0 litre turbodiesel offering 153bhp and 265lb/ft of torque with an official economy figure of 37.7mpg.

Be interesting to see how many SsangYong Korando Sports start turning up when you next need a quote for some building work.

SsangYong Korando Sports Photos >>