SsangYong Kyron: New 4x4 is in your face

The styling of SsangYong's new Kyron is like a blast of the vuvuzela - smack in your face. It's certainly out to be noticed with its bold face fronted by huge, slanted lights.

Let your eyes wander along the sides and the design continues to please but, oh dear, when you reach the rear it seems the designer was a mite distracted and slapped on something from another vehicle with strangely disjointed bottom and top sections and undersized rear window.

Maybe it just takes some getting used to?

Whatever, at least the strange rear has created a generous 625-litre boot - with a hidden compartment - and not at the expense of rear legroom.

Up front there's more space: plenty of legroom and, for taller folk, plenty of headroom, while the driver faces a simple, attractive fascia with clear instrumentation.

OK, so we're sitting pretty, but how does Ssangyong's latest perform? Under the bonnet is a new two-litre, common-rail diesel with extra oomph provided by a turbo - 104kW and 310Nm of torque.

The launch vehicles had pronounced turbo-lag that left the engine woefully flat below 2000rpm but we were assured this would be sorted out before the vehicles hit the showrooms.

Above that engine speed the Kyron is a happy cruiser, eating kilometres on the highway at a relaxed 120km/h with less than 3000rpm showing - notbad, considering there's nearly two tonnes to lug around.

Fairly hard seats and soft suspension (there's a multi-link set-up at the rear) provide a comfortable ride.

Off-road performance is hampered by limited ground clearance and the aforesaid soft suspension, which means a fair amount of bodyroll and some scraping over smallish obstacles.

That said, the Kyron is a competent off-roader, taking in its stride all that was thrown at it during the launch, which included tracks rutted by erosing during heavy rains up north.

Electronic control systems include anti-lock brakes with EBD, emergency braking help and gradient descent control. Steering is pretty direct and the gear lever falls easily to hand with a pleasant action (there's a choice of five-speed manual or five-speed manual/sequential automatic).

An easy-to-use round knob on the fascia provides the driver with four-wheel low, four-wheel high or two-wheel drive.