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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