[dramatic music]
Hello, and welcome to Bourg St Maurice in the snowy French Alps. Finally, here is my
review of the SsangYong Rexton Ultimate as a towing car. So if you've got a
caravan or a horse box or a boat trailer, this is for you! We are just approaching
the end now of a six-week trip all around southern Europe. We left the UK
and have been down through France, Portugal, right down to the southern tip
of Spain, back up here to the French Alps, and then we're heading back to the UK
tomorrow. So all in all so far we've done over 3,000 miles with the SsangYong
Rexton towing this beautiful Airstream Missouri. Now, there are three models in
the Rexton lineup and this is the Ultimate, this is the top of the range.
It only comes with an automatic gearbox, and with the metallic paint it goes through
the tills at approximately £39,000. Compare that to the next level down, the
ELX automatic that goes through the tills at about 5 grand less about £34,000
and then theEX model which is the base range, which still has quite an
impressive spec; with a manual box that goes through the tills at just over
£28,000. So no matter which one you choose, it does represent terrific value
for money, and what's great now is that with the new Rexton the warranty has
been increased and is now an incredible seven years! That's right,
seven year warranty, that's brilliant. So the way that this review is going to go...
as a tow car... as I say, we're going to start off with how it is for loading - how
much equipment you can get into the back - then we're going to talk about driving
and the towing... how it performs as a tow car, and we're also going to talk about
the technology and comfort in the cab. It's got an amazing amount of Technology
and Driver comfort. So to kick off let's go back a couple of weeks to sunny Spain
where I talk about the loading of the SsangYong Rexton Ultimate.
The Ultimate comes as a five-seater; the other ranges offer seven seats as an option. With the
rear seats in place you have 820 litres of load space and a cover, but as there
is only me and the dog I could fold these right away and avail myself of all
the load space... and there's almost 2,000 litres of it! And I had plenty of kit to
put in it. As well as my kite surfing gear and snowboarding gear, there were
photographic props for some of the images and videos I've been producing,
caravan accessories, snow chains and a good supply of British baked beans on
the way down, and jars of Spanish chickpeas on the journey home.
But it is the simplest of touches that impress me the most, and I love this
false floor rated up to 60 kilos, as I can have essential bits and pieces
directly to hand such as the nose weight gauge, torque wrench, and levelling blocks
for the caravan. Hitching up is a doddle thanks to a clear reversing camera; it's
a one-person job. The tow bar is manufactured by Witter. I've had to clip
a carabiner to the hole for the breakaway cable; that's simply because
the breakaway cable clip on my Airstream's BPW chassis did not fit the
coupling hook, so I could loop it through the carabiner instead. It's a simple and
effective workaround. But it's in this area I discovered the Rexton's
only fault.
Reversing with the caravan plugged in did not kill the reversing sensors.
This will require attention from SsangYong,
but I guess that's what seven year warranties are for. The selectable 4x4
came in very handy when I was towing off of muddy pitch; I could put it in to low
ratio, and towing off a snowy pitch. Towing on snowy roads leaving it in 4x4
high ratio proved to be invaluable; it was extremely stable and held the
road very well. So now we're hitched up, what is it like as a tow car?
So what is the Rexton like to drive? Well I think to sum it up in one word... comfortable.
If you want a car that you can throw around the corners, and it's going to handle as if
it's on rails - don't buy a Rexton. If you want a car that
is going to tow your Caravan or your horse box or your boat, and the TRAILER
is going to stick to the road as if it's on rails...buy a Rexton! The thing that has
impressed me the most about this car, as well as the comfort aspect and of course
the value for money and the warranty, is how stable the caravan has been -
obviously attributable to the the ladder chassis that the SsangYong is built on.
But really the caravan... we've done so far... hmm let's have a look...
we've done approaching 3,000 miles now and in all that time the caravan has
followed the car as if it is on rails. There's been no problems at all with any
stability issues, and where we point the car,
the caravan goes. So I am so impressed with the towing stability of this car.
Now, full disclosure here: normally I prefer manual gearboxes, and also I also
admit to driving with a very light right foot, I am NOT a speed freak, at least not
when I'm driving a car - that's why I've got a motorbike - for someone like me this
is absolutely ideal because of the weight of the car it is 2.2 tonnes and
you have a 2.2 engine. That combination isn't gonna set your pants on fire when
you're towing a caravan. So it's not exactly underpowered, it's more than
adequate for the job, it just it doesn't have that oomph that for example a 2.5
or a 3 litre would have. It really does work hard and that brings me to the one
huge downside of this car, that's really the only downside I can think of, which
is the fuel costs and the consumption. Towing the caravan the car has returned
approximately 22 miles per gallon solo. We've reached the very best the low
thirties miles per gallon, so that's not a great result for a modern car. However
you do have to offset that with fantastic purchase price, but it's just
something to be aware of. Obviously when you don't have a caravan or a horse box
attached, the car is absolutely fine and the other thing I've noticed is when
I've been solo, normally it's to trip down to the shops or go somewhere and I
need to park, it's really easy to park - especially the Ultimate with all
the cameras all the way round, I don't find it too big. I am quite used to large
cars but I don't find it frighteningly large - it's fairly easy to manoeuvre
around town, to park, so don't be put off by the size of it. It really is quite
easy to drive solo. But crucially going back to that original point about
driving this car, that number one quality as far as I'm concerned is comfort.
It's quiet, it's smooth, it smooths out the bumps but not so much that you can't feel
where you're driving, and as you can hear... it's just a nice quiet cabin The seats
are really comfortable, I really do like the seats, and trust me I do speak up if
I don't find the seats comfortable. Obviously they're fully adjustable,
heated, cooled... I don't use any of that, but I do find that it's just a really
comfortable driving position. And you've got all your climate control, all the
little toys, gadgets, and everything that you would expect to make the driving
experience a pleasurable one. I find the technology very good - we'll go into that
in a moment, Apple Car Play so I could play my podcasts and wile away the
long journeys... and I just find that when I get to my destination even towing the
caravan, because it's so stable, so comfortable, so smooth, that I'm not as
tired as I would expect to be after a long journey. The automatic gearbox that
comes with the Ultimate as standard and is a cost option on the other ranges,
I found that to be absolutely fine although I prefer manual boxes. It's been
really good for these long journeys where you can just put the cruise
control on, stick it in Drive, and off you go. It's also been obviously really
useful when we've been stuck in traffic so I'm not always using my clutch.
The one thing I would say about it is that while it's absolutely fine, when
we've been wanting to make a quick getaway from a roundabout or a junction,
sometimes it's just a little bit hesitant with the caravan on the back.
You put your foot down and it goes 'Oh, what, you want me to go? Oh, okay!' and it's
just that little gap that you don't get with a manual. I think that's more to do
with getting used to an automatic box than any fault with the car, but it's
just something that I noticed being someone who prefers manual gearboxes.
All in all, the driving experience is great. I enjoy it, I love it, I think this is the
perfect car that we could have ever asked for
to do a long trip like this - 4,000 miles towing a Caravan. It's performed well,
I really do like it. So that is the driving experience, now when we get to the site I
shall talk about the in-car technology.
We've covered the fantastic reversing camera which is great to assist in
hitching up, but it also helps when you're parking the car. All around
cameras and sensors make parking an absolute doddle. There are loads of
driving safety features on the Ultimate including lane departure warning and
blind spot detection; this was really useful on long tedious drives.
Locking the car as expected is by a smart key system that also closes the
windows. One great touch with the Ultimate is the smart tailgate switch.
If you stand next to it with the key in your pocket, it will open automatically.
You can isolate this function if you don't want it. Sat-nav is by TomTom, and I found
it to be very reliable. Apple Car Play and Google Android Auto is also built-in.
I didn't realise how useful this would be until I discovered that it could both
read and transmit dictated text messages, and allow easy access to my podcasts.
Do be aware that when using the phone it will kill the sat-nav display. You can of
course replicate the sat-nav directions in the dashboard display while you're on
a call, or as a workaround you can use Google Maps which still works even when
you're on the phone. For this little workaround I'd like to say a huge thank
you to Karina and Jules from the channel Here We Tow. They have owned a Rexton ELX
for the past 12 months, so do check out their channel for their review of the
SsangYong Rexton ELX. Now that I've had Apple Car Play,
I don't want to be without it. But there is one feature in this car that when we
hit the chilly weather in the French Alps, it became a game changer - that is
the heated steering wheel. Yes, the car has heated seats which are also very
comfortable, but the heated steering wheel is amazing in the mornings when
you've got chilly fingers. It also has a fast defrosting windscreen which was
brilliant in the icy weather.
So there you have it, there's my little review of the SsangYong Rexton Ultimate.
As you can probably tell, I rather like this car. Just one or two very minor reservations like the fuel
consumption but other than that it really is a terrific car. If any of my
friends said they were going to be buying one, I would be absolutely
delighted for them. Some people have raised a question mark
over the residual values of these cars; however you need to offset that with the
seven-year warranty. Personally I think if you're buying a new car it's always
with a view to keeping it for five years anyway, and if you can keep it seven
years I think residuals become far less of an issue than if you replace your car
every year or two. Anyway, if you do have any further questions about the
technical specs or anything like that with the car, please do check out the
SsangYong website I'll put a link in the description below, and in the meantime it
just leaves me to say from Dougal who's in his little travel box back there, and from me...
Thanks for tuning in!
[comic music]
Taking it easy under there, Dougal? Yeah, I'm busy working, and you're taking it easy.
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