Moving on up

The styling and build quality of the Kyron takes it into new sales territory.

Korean vehicle importer Russell Burling expects the new range of SsangYong Kyron four-wheel-drives to be priced between $40,000 and $50,000 when they go on sale here early next year.

"I'll have the first Kyron here for my Christmas party and the range will be available from January," he says.

"It's a very Euro-looking vehicle with independent rear suspension and I expect it to compete with offerings from some of Europe's luxury makers."

SsangYong's model renewal moves up a gear with the Kyron. It has been created by the carmaker's British designer, Ken Greenley, one of the most influential automotive designers, to spearhead a Korean attack on the growing sports activity vehicle market.

SsangYong, Korea's fourth-largest carmaker, plans to export 37,000 Kyrons to Britain and Europe next year, where it believes there is potential for massive sales growth.

The five-door, five-seat Kyron replaces the Musso and continues the carmaker's association with Mercedes-Benz.

The range will use earlier-generation in-line Benz engines - the five-cylinder 2.7-litre turbodiesel and 3.2-litre six-cylinder petrol unit. Both are in use in the bigger Rexton range and other Ssangyong models.

It will also continue to use Benz's five-speed automatic gearboxes across the range.

But the Kyron will introduce a third engine, a 2-litre entry-level four-cylinder turbodiesel based on the 2.7-litre unit.

"They've dropped a cylinder off the five-cylinder engine to make the new common-rail four," Burling says. "They might add a cylinder to make an in-line six later on."

The new four-cylinder produces 107kW (143bhp) and around 300Nm of torque.

SsangYong says the Kyron's styling and improved Korean build quality takes it into new sales territory.

The vehicle will be unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show in September. It will be equipped with electronic safety systems including anti-lock brakes, active rollover protection and hill descent control.

Extreme styling will ensure future SsangYong vehicles get noticed in the market, says Greenley, at the launch of the Rodius people-mover in London.

He said the large vehicle would not appeal to every buyer.

"If you produce a car that polarises opinion, then the people who like it are more likely to buy it.

"If you produce a mainstream product, it would depend heavily on pricing to get noticed. A distinctive identity is the best answer for a small company. "Future SsangYong models will continue the provocative design theme, though perhaps not in as extreme a manner as the love it or hate it personality of the Rodius."

Over the next 18 months SsangYong will launch an assault on export markets with four new model ranges.

The company started selling the Kyron in Korea this month. It will also start building a small SUV, code-named XCT, in October, and it plans a five-seat pickup and a premium SUV to compete with Toyota's Land Cruiser.

From January to April, SsangYong's exports to western Europe rose 167 per cent to 11,967 units compared with the same period last year.

It will assemble its first models in China this year and will also set up complete knockdown kit (CKD) assembly plants in Russia and Iran.

It could also emerge as the technology mentor for China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., which bought a 48.9 per cent stake in it last October.

Since SAIC called off its planned acquisition of Britain's MG Rover earlier this year, SsangYong has been poised to become the Chinese company's primary provider of design and engineering.

Until the investment by SAIC, SsangYong had been operating under tight financial restrictions resulting from the collapse of its former owner, Daewoo. "We got to where we are with very little in the way of resources," said Greenley. "Now, we have a rather large company behind us."

SAIC's involvement has enabled SsangYong to embark on what Greenley says is a pretty ambitious programme for the future, though it will remain faithful to its core sector of SUVs.

SsangYong's global sales target this year is 170,000 units.