Auto Trader Ten Point Test Rating - 62%

SUVs: essential driving for school run mums and the scourge of environmentalists. Now you can get your own showroom-fresh kerb-stomping Kyron from a paltry £16,995. But in a market where kudos is everything, can a Ssangyong cut it?

In the Kyron’s defence it‘s spacious, a smooth drive and undeniably affordable. But even at a practically pocket-money price, surely it can’t hold a candle to the likes of the BMW X5?

Looks | Looks Inside | Practicality | Ride and Handling | Performance
Running Costs | Reliability | Safety | Equipment | X-Factor | Rivals

1. Looks

Start at the front and it looks okay. A bit busy perhaps, a few too many lines, but the headlight clusters look good. The sides are no more than bland.

But turn to the back and – ye gads – it’s hideous! As if the top and bottom of two completely different cars have been welded onto each other. If you’re planning on buying one of these for the sake of the rest of us please make sure you back it against a wall when you park it.
4/10

2. Looks inside

On the inside everything is a lot more tolerable – mainly because you can’t see that ghastly rear end, unless you pull up behind another Kyron. The switches around the driver are made of nasty plastic and there are blank buttons everywhere in anything but the top-end SX model.

One thing that alarmed me was the choice of material for the steering wheel – it’s simply too slippery. And the handbrake is, for no obvious reason, apparently modelled on the Sword of Excalibur.
5/10

3. Practicality

The Kyron is certainly roomy and the rear seats collapse quickly and easily to give you maximum space.
7/10

4. Ride and Handling

The marketing encourages you to think of the Kyron as a ‘beast’. In which case, it’s more of a lumbering hippopotamus than a lithe cheetah. Even with a light load it wallows and lurches its way from bend to bend.

Oddly for a 4x4 it felt much more at home in the city. The ride is cosseting and comfortable, and with the automatic gearbox the daily commute was almost relaxing.

The driving position is good and forward visibility fine, but after five minutes of driving the automatic I was crying out for somewhere to put my left foot. Visibility at the rear is not quite good enough though, and conspired with the car’s bulky proportions to make parking a nightmare.
7/10

5. Performance

The 141ps diesel in our test model had a good deal of grunt – a shame so much is wasted by the combination of an indecisive automatic gearbox and the 1,929kg kerb weight. Overtaking can be a laborious process and not at all easy on a single carriageway road.

It does compose itself very nicely on loose surfaces with 4x4 switched on, but again the automatic ‘box saps the pleasure out of driving it.
7/10

6. Running Costs

With a hulking great 75 litre fuel tank you’ll fill up only occasionally, but when you do it hurts. Ssangyong boast a combined 33.6 mpg which roughly tallied with our real-world use.

But with a manual gearbox you’ll get an extra three miles to the gallon, so that great big fuel tank will take you 100 kilometres further in the manual than the auto. With that in mind I can’t make any case for going with the automatic.
6/10

7. Reliability

No dramas whatsoever to report, but the car and manufacturer are something of an unknown quantity. You’re getting what you pay for here.
7/10

8. Safety

Disappointingly the Electronic Stability Programme is only available on the SE and SX models – and you can feel a real difference when you switch it off. The top two models also come with Hill Descent Control and side airbags.

Apart from that you can the standard complement of airbags and all models come with a Thatcham alarm and immobiliser.
6/10

9. Equipment

Our model featured a five-disc CD changer, an aftermarket job which jarred horribly with the rest of the fascia. There is a decent array of kit for the price but for one major omission - in a car this big you expect satellite navigation as standard, but it’s restricted to the top SX model only.
7/10

10. X-Factor

Looking for the size and status of an SUV at a bargain price? The Kyron may not be a bad choice. But if you’re after a good drive, tolerable features and a pleasant interior, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
6/10