Recently we were introduced to the electric version of the current Ssang Yong Korando. The EV actually has nothing to do with the first Korando, which made its Dutch debut exactly 25 years ago.
After the Musso, the Korando was SsangYong’s second car in the Netherlands. The model had been around in Korea since 1982, when a licensed version of the Jeep CJ assembled since the 1960s was so named. The Korando Family, an all-terrain vehicle associated with the Isuzu Trooper, also appeared in 1988. The Korando that the Netherlands was introduced to at the AutoRAI in 1997 was therefore the third generation. The British designer Ken Greenley, who would later become immortal with the SsangYong Rodius, gave the Korando a distinct face of its own, which clearly matched the distinctive profile of the original Korando. That is to say: with a narrow grille and the headlights directly next to it, so that there was a relatively large amount of space left for the mudguards on both sides. Thus, the Korando also resembled a classic Toyota Land Cruiser and also the first Land Rovers.
Those who took a look under the car saw the typical layout of a robust, traditional all-terrain vehicle, which, like the earlier Musso, expressed to the maximum that it was ‘powered by Mercedes-Benz’. SsangYong has been working with the Germans since 1991, who were happy to make their fat five-cylinder diesels and 2.3 petrol engines available. Although the Korando was adequately motorized for terrain work, it left the demanding asphalt tiger out in the cold. This was not a problem for long, because an extra grip in the German engine arsenal resulted in a six-cylinder with 212 hp. With that, the Korando went like poison and, according to our editors, it kept whistling at a cruising speed of 180 km/h. The Korean technicians were also well aware that extra speed made demands on the handling, so they adapted the chassis. As a result, it ‘danced less on its springs’ than the other models and the tilt was limited. Nevertheless, he only played his greatest trump card when his price list was compared with that of equally fast competitors: tens of thousands of guilders cheaper anyway, but still good for more than 90 grand. Anyway, that was a lot of money, especially for a Korean.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl