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2020 SsangYong Korando ELX And Ultimate: Private Fleet Car Review.
This Car Review Is About: The mid and top level 2020 SsangYong Korando. The car has been given a complete makeover inside and out. No longer does it look like a poor cousin to the curvy Korean sourced and no longer available Captiva. Rather it’s now a vehicle of its own styling, and yet there’s a whiff of familiarity as well.
How Much Does It Cost?: The three model range starts at $26,990 with the EX, $30,990 for the petrol ELX and $36,990 for the petrol Ultimate. All prices are driveaway. There is a diesel available for the ELX and Ultimate for a $3,000 extra cost.
Under The Bonnet Is: A rorty and exuberant 1.5L turbo petrol engine. Power and torque are rated at 120kW and 280Nm from 1,500rpm through to 4,000rpm. It’s got a nature very much like an excited puppy, with a free revving nature, plenty of pull when it’s up and running, and will have the front wheels scrabbling for grip from a hard launch. But there’s a price to pay and that’s at the petrol pump. We didn’t see anything under 9.0L/100km at any time. Ssangyong quotes only a combined figure and that’s 7.7L/100km, an indicator the suburban drive is over 9.0L/100km. The fuel tank is just 47L,
The transmission is a six speed auto and drives the front wheels. There is a transmission tunnel visible in the rear seat section, suggesting the Korando has been engineered for AWD later. And being a six-speeder also means it’s starting to be left behind considering the now virtually standard eight speeds found elsewhere.
On The Outside It’s: Squarer, boxier, and more assertive looking than the original. There’s a hint of Suzuki Swift and Volvo XC40 at the rear with the fin-shaped pillar insert, a touch of Volkswagen at the front with the layered horizontal lines in the centre.
A chromed strip runs across in a line just under the leading edge of the bonnet, dipping down under each self-leveling headlight. The Ultimate sports a triple-tiered driving light cluster underneath; the ELX has blacked out inserts. Both have a triple layered set of lines in the main air-intake which echoes the driving lights in the Ultimate.
The rear lights mirror the front, with three chevrons either side and another chromed strip that runs under each cluster. Solid looking black polycarbonate finishes off each end whilst the sides and flanks have heavily sculpted lines to ease a slightly slabby look. The wing mirrors are folding and heated, a nice touch on those coolish, foggy days.
Good looking tuning fork style 18 inch alloys on the ELX have Kumho Crugen 235/55 rubber. The Ultimate has double spiral alloys at 19 inches in diameter and rubber from Hankook at 235/50.
Overall it’s compact in size; 4,450mm in total length is shorter than it appears. A wheelbase of 2,675mm sits inside that. It’s tall at 1,620mm and broad at 1,870mm. It’s not excessively heavy at 1,435kg dry.
On The Inside It’s: Classy in the Ultimate, only a little less so in the ELX. The Ultimate has a full LCD display for the driver; on startup two spinning discs become the speed and rev counter displays. The look can morph into a couple of other looks depending on information required.
For The ELX it’s traditional analogue yet still good looking. There are options to change the dial lighting and for both daytime and night time running in choice. Sadly the centre dash touchscreen is severely lacking in comparison. No DAB, no satnav, no real menu structure…It’s worse than basic, looks as dull as dishwater, and frankly detracts strongly from the Korando’s otherwise quite enjoyable ambience. 
The centre stack is piano black, the aircon controls are laid out cleanly, and in the case of the Ultimate are soft touch rocker-switch style tabs. A slightly odd touch is the size of the door handles inside. Very slimline and the kind a slippery finger would easily slide over and off.
The manually adjusted for reach and rake steering wheel is on the larger side to hold. That’s not entirely a bad thing as it makes for easier push-pull driving. The Ultimate has it as heated as well, along with the leather seats being heated and vented. For the ELX the cloth clad seats do the job, and nicely thank you, with perhaps both needing a little more under thigh support.
Both have a drive mode selector dial in the centre console, with Sport and Winter modes available. The buttons around the gear selector for the Ultimate look burrowed from the brand’s Korean cousins. The tiller is also familiar in look, if not heft.Room isn’t a major issue all round. The boot is 551L and grows to 1,248L. Headroom is 1,011mm and 987mm.
On The Road It’s: A bit of fun. The steering and ride quality are twitchy; the steering requires constant input, the Lane Keeping Assist is, like its Korean counterparts, over-eager, and the ride is a little on the firm side. The front suspension crashes through at times, rather than providing initial compliance before dialing out impacts. But the steering is just light enough that you can feel a little bit sporty hustling the Korando through switchbacks and adjust for the slight oversteer and medium range velocities.
Actual engine engagement is solid. As mentioned it’s an eager thing and will happily chirp the front rubber. Once hooked up, there’s decent acceleration from a smallish turbo engine in a decent small-mid sized SUV. The auto, for “all” of its a six-speeder, is slick, changes well up and down through the cogs, and only occasionally felt as if it was in the wrong place. It also engine brakes downhills nicely, and a gentle tap of the paddle shifters at the bottom brings everything back into line.
The brakes are a touch on the soft side. There’s some space between the touch and push before engagement is felt and it’s a soft press still from there. But they do grab and haul up the Korando well enough, and stopping distance can be judged once some time with the car has been taken. Suspension wise, the Ultimate had a “feel” that it was more aligned with the sporting driver.
What About Safety?: AEB or Autonomous Emergency Braking is standard across the range, along with Forward Collision Warning. Lane Keep Assist is standard for all three, whereas Lane Change Assist isn’t for the EX. The Ultimate is the one to receive Adaptive Cruise Control, all three also get Lane Departure Warning, Driver Alert Warning, and seven airbags including driver’s knee. The EX dips out on Blind Spot Warning and Rear Cross Traffic Alert. Ultimate also gets Tyre Pressure Monitoring.
What About Warranty and Service?: Warranty is class equaling; seven years and unlimited kilometres. Service intervals are 12 months or 15,000 kilometres and are capped at $295 per service across the seven years for the Korando petrol. Roadside assistance is available for those seven years.
At The End Of The Drive. SsangYong have delivered a pretty decent vehicle in the form of the Korando ELX and Ultimate with petrol power. Sure, there’s some utterly unnecessary quirks but the lack of DAB and satnav is bordering on unforgivable. The poor user interface for the touchscreen makes accessing the apps on smart phones virtually impossible. The upside is the really cool driver’s display in the Ultimate, a ride quality and handling package that isn’t terribly unenjoyable, decent room, and good looks outside.
Some dollars by their marketing arm wouldn’t go astray as the car, and the brand, are invisible to the daily driver. That’s a shame as, aside from the quirks, the vehicles in the range are viable alternatives….or is it the quirks that stop the sale?
Dive into the Korando here.
2020 Toyota Camry Ascent Sport Hybrid: Private Fleet Car Review.
This Car Review Is About: One of the increasing range of hybrids from Toyota. In this case, their large sedan range and the Camry Ascent Sport Hybrid, which, because the petrol engine is a four cylinder, is classified as a medium category vehicle.
Under The Bonnet Is: The aforementioned four cylinder, at 2.5L in capacity, and a battery & electric motor. The petrol engine produces 131kW and 234Nm of torque, and with the electric engine, together they make for a total of 160kW and a slightly detuned 221Nm. Fuel is 95RON minimum. Transmission is Toyota’s e-CVT.
Economy is superb. We loaded up and went on a socially distanced sanctioned drive to the NSW south coast and back. The average was a wonderful 5.0L/100km, with a best at one point of 4.8L/100km. That’s with four humans, a mid sized pooch, and luggage for two days.
How Much Does It Cost?: The Camry range has 4 variants, starting with the Ascent, Ascent Sport, the SX (V6 only) and topping out with the SL. The entry price for a Camry Ascent Sport Hybrid is region dependent; for our area it’s $34,435 with plain white colouring. $34,950 is what the bank balance will lose with any of the seven metallic colours including the Steel Blonde shade our test car had.
On The Outside It’s: Really a big car. Total length is knocking on the door of five metres overall. It’s also more a shortened bootlid, longer bonnet, and sits or at least looks as if it sits lower in roof height than Camrys of the last fifteen years. This measures 1,445mm. It looks sporty and aero simultaneously. It definitely has a lower clearance and combined with the softer, comfort oriented suspension tune, would invariably scrape the black polyurethane protective material exiting some very gently sloped tarmac. All due care was taken to avoid this but it was unavoidable.
The wheel and tyre combo are ten spoke alloys and Michelin Premia 215/55/17.
With the redesign that the Camry received a couple of years ago, the front end became noticeably slimmer and allowed for a more assertive look. The headlights in the Camry Ascent Sport aren’t full LED but do have the LED driving lights integrated. They try to minimise the somewhat heavy handed look for the grille and bumper. The rear is taut and tight in comparison.
On The Inside It’s: Benefited from the extension in body and wheelbase (2,825mm). There’s ample legroom for the rear seat passengers even with the seats moved back to accommodate 180cm front seat occupants. Cargo space isn’t an issue, with a boot capacity of 524L belying the rear window line making it seem the boot is smaller.
We’ve bemoaned the heavy nose styling, and we’ve bemoaned the heavy dash styling inside. The passenger faces a multiple of folds, four in number, and it looks horrible. The driver doesn’t quite have the same issue. There’s been a clear effort to provide a cockpit feeling, complete with chrome line that wraps a slab of black and falls away at an angle from the top, This then arrows towards the passenger. This line and angle are mirrored in the driver’s display. The two dials on either side have miniaturised versions of this hook motif.
Otherwise it’s standard user friendly Toyota. The audio is app connected, there’s a DAB tuner with strong reception via the 8.0 inch screen, and the typically clean, ergonomic, layout expected from Toyota…except for that messy section the front seat passenger sees.
The driver has a powered, eight way adjustable, pew. No need for heating or cooling thanks to the cloth covering. This, by the way, is a tasteful shade of black-grey. Only the front seats have access to a USB port, and one only at that.
On The Road It’s: Simple to drive. It’s a push button start after entering the cabin and being greeted with muted whiners and clicks as the computer system awakens from its slumber. Foot on the brake, hit the starter, and in typical electric hybrid mode there’s nothing to indicate anything is happening. Hit the go pedal and it’s battery power up to 20kph before the petrol cuts in. And that’s irrespective of pressing the superfluous EV MODE button in the centre console. Use that and press the accelerator as normal and the system automatically disengages the EV. Try it at speed and you’re going too fast…
Under way the system will automatically kick the petrol engine in and out of the room as driving conditions see fit. There’s only a hint of vibration from the Priceline when the petrol engine is engaged, making the transitions smooth and seamless. There is a Sport mode for the engine but that also really is superfluous.
Ride quality is on the plush side, and this isn’t entirely a bad thing. Some of the NSW back roads are on the, ahem, rough side, yet the Camry Ascent Sport tended to glide over these with only the truly coarse surfaces intruding and upsetting the suspension. There were occasional rear end skips, one or two front end bump steers, otherwise the ride was smooth and luxurious. Certainly not a sporting oriented ride.
The steering goes the other way. Driven at highway legal speeds the steering is well and truly en pointe. There’s no need for constant adjustment in corners, even in the tightening radius turns. The nose simply goes where the wheel says it wants to. It’s light enough for easy pedaling in tight areas, heavy enough to have minimal input on the road.
We drove back to Sydney via Cobargo, the NSW town devastated by bushfire in the early part of 2020. Either side of this heartbreaking sight are some truly magnificent driving roads, and suitable for exploring the dynamics of a car such as the Camry. There’s ample urge from the hybrid drivetrain, the transmission is sweet and smooth, and the occasional “backlash” is when the car is at low speed and the e-CVT is a little confused as to where it needs to be, providing a small “bump” as it sorts itself out.
What is also sorting itself out is nature. The regrowth in some areas is nothing short of spectacular.
The touchscreen has a display that shows energy distribution on the fly. At rest there’s no movement, naturally. Accelerate hard and the flow is from the petrol engine to the electric and battery system. Ease off as the car comes to a set of traffic lights or downhill, and the flow shows energy going into the battery. There’s also a graphic that shows the level of battery charge.
What About Safety?: There’s the basic but for the Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Blind Spot Alert, you’d need to upshift to the SL. Otherwise there’s the Toyota SafetySense package. Lane Departure Alert, Pre-Collision Safety System with pedestrian detection, Automatic High Beam and All-Speed Active Cruise Control. is what you’ll find. Seven airbags are also standard.
What About Service And Warranty? Toyota says: “We’ll increase the standard guarantee on your new Hybrid battery to up to 10 years as long as you undertake your annual inspection as part of routine maintenance according to the vehicle logbook.” Check with your dealer for conditions. For the driveline: “Stick to your annual service schedule, and we’ll extend your engine and driveline warranty from five to seven years, so you can drive stress-free for longer.” Standard warranty is five years.
At The End Of The Drive. Toyota is the leader when it comes to getting the hybrid message out there. With strong rumours swirling the next LandCruiser will pack a hybrid, and the update to the fuel-thirsty Kluger will include hybrid, the Japanese company is spreading the message far and wide. The Camry Hybrid offers a a rare chance to get into an easily accessible hybrid and by being a sedan, rather than a SUV, it continues to offer that alternative. Find out more here.
2020 Hyundai Ioniq Premium Plug In Hybrid: Car Review.
This Car Review Is About: Hyundai’s tilt at a mainstream PHEV or plug in hybrid vehicle. It sits below the purely electric Ioniq and above the standard hybrid.
How Much Does It Cost?: The Ioniq PHEV starts at $46,734 and ranges to $52,530 driveaway. The standard hybrid has $39,084 as a starting price and tops out at $45,510 driveaway, with the fully electric version ticking a box that says $53,446 to $58,726.
The car driven, the PHEV, comes in two trim levels, being Elite and Premium. Five colours add to the mix, with Fluid Metal, Amazon Grey, Intense Blue, Polar White, and Fiery Red.
Under The Bonnet Is: A combination of a 1.6L petrol Atkinson Cycle engine producing 77kW & 147Nm, and an electric motor with 44.5kW/170Nm. The combined total is 104kW & 265Nm. The battery is rated at 8.9kWh and 360 volts. Charging timer is 2 1/4 hours using a Type 2 charger. Economy is rated as 1.1L/100km for the combined cycle but we average more like 5.0L/100km but on a more urban focused drive. The transmission fitted is a six speed dual clutch auto. The Ioniq PHEV Premium weighs 1,495 kg dry.
On The Outside It’s: A sleek looking five door hatch. It’s more a liftback in look than a “traditional ” hatch, with a shortened tail in a coupe style. In overall presence it’s around i30 in size but has little obvious physical resemblance to it. The wheels have a turbine blade design to them to help funnel air and aid aero. They’re 205/55/16 in size, with rubber from the Michelin Energy range.
Lighting front and rear is LED, with a three chevron motif at the rear. The front lights are a slimline design and bracket a familiar but different Hyundai grille. In profile it evokes the “grandfather” of hybrid hatches, the Prius.
The battery charge port is up front on the left with the fuel tank port on the left rear flank. Fuel tank capacity is 43L.
On The Inside It’s: A startling mix of high tech and basic Hyundai. For example, the buttons around the gear selector are standard Hyundai. The tiller looks the same, and comfort comes from the heated and vented front seats. The touchscreen is standard Hyundai, however it includes a cool looking display for the way the petrol and battery systems work together to distribute power.
The touchscreen also displays the nearest charging stations, plus has DAB, Android and Apple apps. For the driver, the display is a full width and full colour LCD affair, and looks fantastic. It eschews the traditional speedo and tacho look for a more contemporary and modern look.
Piano black plastic suits the look of the Ioniq, with the 10.25 inch touchscreen and aircon surrounds clad in it. The aircon controls themselves are more of a tactile soft touch which adds to the semi-futuristic look of the Ioniq.
On the left is the usage indicator, as in whether the engine system is charging or running on battery power. To the right is the battery and petrol levels. Front and centre is the extra information such as speed, or eco usage. There are paddle shifters on the column but these don’t change ratios, instead they change the amount of resistance for regenerating power harvested from the braking system.
Interior room is good, with space approaching the i30. 341 L is the starting size, with a maximum of 1401 L. Head room measurements are 970 mm & 951 mm respectively, with the crucial leg room distances at 1073 mm & 907 mm.
Front and rear rows each feature a pair of cupholders and each door has bottle holders, plus the rear seats have a centre armrest that folds out.
On The Road It’s: Not quite the whipcracking performance expected. The Dual Clutch Auto feels more like a CVT, a constant variable transmission, and comes across as the same when driving. There’s even no typical DCT lag when going from Drive to Reverse and back. It’s sluggish, swallowing power just as a CVT does. However, the integration of petrol and battery on the drive is seamless.
Gentle acceleration has the pair working together nicely, if slowly, whereas a hard shove of the throttle brings more life but still not as zippy as expected. In context, Toyota’s Corolla, the most logical competitor, sees a better and quicker response due to the slightly different CVT fitted. Unlike the Corolla and indeed Toyota’s hybrid system where the electric engine cuts in at 20kph even with EV Mode selected, the Ioniq’s system is more battery oriented. It really only switches to the petrol when that extra urge is needed or when the battery is well down on charge.
The petrol engine winds up easily and it’s a quiet unit to boot. Although actual drive response may seem slowish the pedal does elicit a quick response from the engine itself, making it a willing revver. The whole package is super quiet too, even on the coarser chip tarmac roads.
The Ioniq has two drive modes as such too, and both are to do with how the engines work. HEV or Hybrid are the two modes and one, HEV, charges the battery system on the go. The touchscreen display also shows the various ranges and charge levels as the Ioniq goes about its business.
Ride quality is on the taut side for the Ioniq Premium PHEV. Driven on the freeway it flattens out the usual imperfections well enough, but hit some of the road joins and it’s a bit more bang crash. It rides as if the compliance is more on the bottom end and compresses a little too quickly otherwise. The rear is a multi-link setup which for the most part ensures the grip levels are high, but it will skip occasionally on corners with road joins.
What About Safety?: Name it and it’s here, and across the range. Blind-Spot Collision Warning, Driver Attention Warning, Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist (FCA) – City/Urban/Interurban/Pedestrian, High Beam Assist, Lane Following Assist, Lane Keeping Assist – Line, Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning andSmart Cruise Control with Stop & Go. There is also Parking Distance Warning – Reverse (PDW-R) with 4 sensors and with guidance display, Rear View Monitor with Parking Guidance, and individual wheel tyre pressure monitoring. Airbags? Seven, thank you.
What About Warranty And Service?: Hyundai offers a pre-paid service plan. Warranty is five years and unlimited kilometres and the battery in each model has eight years or 160,000 kilometres.
At The End Of The Drive. It’s a solid if unspectacular performance from the Ioniq PHEV. It’s got enough to titillate the technical and eco minded, enough Hyundai-ish to make it relatable to the family, unlike the overblown and overdone Kona Electric, and drives well enough to not frighten people unfamiliar with the technology. But buyers of this would be familiar enough anyway. Here is where you can find out more.
VFACTS Says The Cliff Is Here, New Car Sales Plummet.
Figure released by VFACTS on May 5th show that the Australian new car market has taken a hammering from the Covid-19 lockdown. Compared to April 2019, sales are down by a massive 48.5% in new vehicle numbers, with just 38,926 units sold. in context however, it’s still a tick under 1,300 units per day. The YTD or year To date figures aren’t quite as drastic, though, with figures for April totalling 272,287 sales, down from 344,088 in 2019. This measures out as a 20.9% decline.
In brand respect, Toyota’s Corolla, Kia’s Cerato, and the Hyundai i30 took the top three places in the sub-$40K segment, with 27.3%, 19.6%, and 15.9% respectively. In the $40K and above price range, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class sold 217 for a whopping 44.1% market share. BMW’s 1-Series came second with 116 units or 22.1%, with the Audi A3 and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe tying for 3rd, with 65 units each and 12.4%.
In the medium car segment and sub-$40K, the Toyota Camry smashed the field, selling 675 units for a 74.5% share. The next was the Mazda 6, with a paltry 71/7.8%. Skoda’s Octavia just edged the outgoing Kia Optima by 5 units, 39 vs 34, for a final share of 4.3%.
BMW took the crown in the above $60K bracket, with the 3 Series moving 254 for a 43.9% share. 2nd and 3rd went to Mercedes-Benz, with the CLA-Class and C-Class. Respectively 94 and 87 found new homes, making a share of 16.3% and 15.1% each.
For the Large Sedan segment for under $70K, there were three, being the Kia Stinger, the outgoing Holden Commodore, and Skoda’s Superb. The Stinger sold 75 units for a 70.1% share, the Commodore a shadow of its former glory with just 30 and 28%, whilst the Superb was invisible with just 2 or 1.9%. There was a surprise in the over $70K bracket with the Maserati Ghibli claiming 3rd spot. 11 were sold for an 11.8% share, but it was Germany taking the crown, with the E-Class from Mercedes-Benz holding off the BMW 5 Series, with 36 and 30, for 38.7% and 32.2% each.
In the People Mover segment Kia’s aging Carnival still won hearts aplenty, with 220 units or 68.3%. The Hyundai iMax was 2nd, moving 30 units for 9.3%, just ahead of Honda’s Odyssey, for 26 and 8.1%. In the pricier $70K and above area, Toyota’s Tarago replacement, the HiAce based Granvia, battled a similarly LCV based duo from Mercedes-Benz, with the V-Class and Valente notching 9 and 7 behind the 10 for the Granvia.
Ford’s Mustang continued to dominate the Sports Car market in the sub-$80K segment. 146 or 43.5% sold, more than double the BMW 2 Series with 62/18.5%. Above $80K and it was the 4 Series from BMW, selling 50 for 31.3%. The sibling Z4 was 3rd at 16/10.0% whilst Mercedes-Benz slotted in at 2nd with their C-Class Convertible/Coupe moving 38 for a 23.8% share.
In the hotly contested SUV brackets, inside the SUV Light, Mazda’s CX-3 doubled its nearest rival, the VW T-Cross, with 394 and 188, or 38.3% and 18.3%. In the Small SUV, sub-$40K segment, Mazda again featured, with its new CX-30 2nd behind the Toyota C-HR. 480 vs 452 for a share of 14.0% and 13.2%. 3rd went to Hyundai for the Kona, pipping the Kia Seltos by just one unit, with 379 and 378, making a share of 11.1% and 11.0%. BMW nailed top spot in the above $40K, with the X1 selling 22 for a 27.2% share.
Things were much, much tighter in the Medium sub-$60K battlefield. The bulldog faced RAV4 won the day with 1,911/32.4%, ahead of the 648/11.0% Mazda CX-5. For third it was an amazing tussle, with the Subaru Forester just edging ahead at 510/8.7% over the Hyundai Tucson (494/8.4%), Nissan X-Trail and Mitsubishi Outlander (469/459 and 8.0%/7.8%) and Kia’s Sportage at 439/7.5%.
Above $60K and it was the same, with BMW’s X3 1st at 263/22.5%, and tying for 2nd with the X4 and GLC-Class from Mercedes-Benz both on 162/13.9%. Just behind was The NX from Lexus, with a 12.0% share and 140 units. In the Large SUV and under $70K, Toyota’s Prado swept all before it, with 947/25.9%. In a distant 2nd place was Izusu’s MU-X at 339/9.3%. 3rd went to Toyota and the Kluger with 313/8.6%. The BMW X5 took the crown above $70K, with 232/29.3%, ahead of the GLE-Class from Mercedes-Benz at 117/14.8% and the Lexus RX just behind at 106 units for 13.4%.
In the Upper large segment, Toyota’s soon to be replaced 200 Series LandCruiser blew away the Nissan Patrol, itself recently refreshed, at 924/86.0% vs 150/14.0%. In the same segment but at $100K and above, BMW’s X7 lead the field ahead of the GLS-Class from Mercedes-Benz and the LandRover Discovery, with 34/19.1% and 28/15.7%.
Heading into the Ute segments and Toyota’s HiLux won both the 4×2 and 4×4 sectors. In the 4×2 the HiLux was a clear leader on 456/36.9% but not quite so tight in the 4×4. Here is was 1,883 for 26.9%, ahead in this sector to the Ford Ranger on 1,419/20.0%. The D-Max 4×2 was 2nd in that class with 198/16.0, putting the Mazda BT-50 to 3rd on 147/11.9. 3rd in the 4×4 was the outgoing Holden Colorado, with 780/11.0%.
Finally, in overall sales for April 2020, Toyota was a clear leader with 10,325, ahead of Mazda (3,022) and Kia (2,492). On a YTD, it’s Toyota, Mazda, and Hyundai replacing Kia, with 60,396, 23,766, and 18,941, just under 1,000 units ahead of Kia.
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