Thread: Ssangyong Musso......

My understanding is that they are currently facing bankruptcy.
Regards PhilipA

Ssangyong Aus “business As Usual” Despite Bankruptcy In South Korea (drive.com.au)

Originally Posted by PhilipA

My understanding is that they are currently facing bankruptcy.
Regards PhilipA

Ssangyong Aus “business As Usual” Despite Bankruptcy In South Korea (drive.com.au)

The OP should buy both..................might be enough to keep them solvent.

DL

Someone's telling you porkies, Dennis. They have a tenuous link back to 1954. Both Ford and General Motors (Holden) were well established, even in Australia, by then.

Ford back to the early twenties in Australia, General Motors slightly later, but not much.

one driving round up here with a big sign on the back saying "gutless comfort box"

Note they talk about doubling sales but not the actual numbers

FIAT were doing this in Australia during the late eighties not long before they left the market. At the time they had sold 400 cars against 200 in the period before. Factually correct I suppose

BWW here will tell you about their cars keeping a higher % of value at 3 years old compared to competition. Not mentioning that the actual £ involved where you lose more. Once again factually correct

I'm no financial expert, but I find it unlikely that the Korean govt will allow SY to go down if a solution isn't found privately ..

anyhow, onto the vehicles itself.
Bro has one, a bit over a year now.

If I were in the market, I wouldn't consider any other DC ute.
Compared to Ford and Toyota, the Musso feels far more refined.
Haven't driven a NP300 to know the difference.

In terms of gutless, can't comment say for towing a heavy trailer/van .. brother doesn't have one. But with 500 kg on the back you can't really feel it(whereas with my 3.2V6 Rodeo I had years back, easily felt)

it has more than ample torque down low for a small engine.

But you don't buy it for the go hard factor!
I found the ranger and hilux felt less relaxed in some way relative to the speed at the time. Either induction noise or louder engine , but the Musso feels more relaxed.

In terms of comfort, Musso kills them. Only problem is bro wanted his stupid bling!
He got the 20" wheel option and the stupid side panels behind the C pillars. If you are seriously looking .. I can recommend DON'T!!
The 20's and low profile tyres make the ride very jiggly, and if you want to get onto gravel .. well .. 50 series tyres could be treacherous(or you may need a few spare carcasses).
The side pod things are the most idiot idea if you actually want to use the tub in any way! Just makes it hard to access half the tub area.

Suspension is well set up in terms of ride. Where the cart sprung rubbish throws you around badly ..eg. a trip to Horsham on the Western hwy, in a Ranger a few years back was nightmarish!
A Musso would just soak it up .. just his stupid choice of the 20's makes it jiggly on smooth roads. He got some type thing with the coil sprung rear end.
I have this very bad road around the corner from my house. I use it as my bump/noise test track. No idea why this road hasn't been resurfaced it's so bad, yet the council rip up good roads and resurface them! His Musso rides better than my D1(but my D1 has been butchered with some silly spring/shock setup). D2 does ride better(just at the moment really loud bang noises in suspension I need to track down).

We've been discussing him now getting some 17's or 18's with proper tyres for it soon .. lockdown has made it hard. The annoyance is that the wheels aren't the easiest things to source if you want "all options" available.
IIRC(I can check my texts) we found that the PCD and offset is about the same as some VW Toureg or whatever. Not common, so small range to go with.
This is the main problem with these small scale volume vehicles.

In terms of suspension, Ironman has a lift kit with the option for an airbag rear ride control too. He also wants this too. Reasonably priced and Ssayong sanctioned mods, so doesn't void warranty. I think you can get this specced by the dealer if you want it from new.
If you want to tow, do not get the Ssayong tow bar option. Sits far too low!
Why they thought this to be a good design(other than a very cheap price for them to max their profit) dunno. Surely there must be better options around.

He didn't buy it to go bush bashing, he had the D2(now I have this) for that but he's not into that.

For the price, it can't be beat. Although the LDV looks good as an alternate cheapie option. Mate has a brand spanking new one at work.
Two weeks in and the windscreen developed a crack long the bottom edge tho .. he loves it coming from a Hilux. Young chap on budget with a family .. so made sense.

As an offroader to replace a LR vehicle .. I can't see it going to places that the LR could have. Someone else pointed out that the rear end sits very low, which I never noticed. I'd never looked at is as a 'bush basher' doing difficult tracks tho.

For completeness. Bro looked at Ranger Hilux and Triton as his options(early last year).
He reckons he liked the Hilux(better than ranger), he liked the price of the Triton, but then preferred the ride of the Musso and its price and its 7 year warranty.
I proposed the hypothetical ... if money were no option ... he'd still choose the Musso again, and then just spend the unlimited $s to get better(say more power if needed).