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The new and improved Ssangyong in the name of Ssangyong Actyon

Ssangyong Actyon is a series of SUV built in rather compressed form and is new and improved when compared to Ssangyong Korando and Ssangyong Musso Sports. The engine is more fuel efficient than any other Ssangyong models. The Ssangyong Actyon Sports SUT is like a pick-up truck not just in its size but also is its capabilities. The design of this vehicle , however, is not very attractive according to me and rather looks like a shark with a gaping mouth. It has a lower ride height thus ensuring easy exit and entry in the passenger cabin. Unlike Toyota, Ford and Isuzu who made their SUVs from a truck platform, Ssangyong Actyon made its trucks from the SUVs platform thus giving them a look of almost a passenger car. The interior of the car is nice, pretty much like all the modern trucks and the seats as well as the mirror are electrically adjustable.

The rear bench has three headrests and is a little slanted for better comfort. The rear legroom is plenty but an over-sized person may have problem sitting at the back comfortably. The foot-well is quite narrow for tall people but its fine for average and great for short heighten people. Padding of the seats, especially the rear ones, is not very good. In short, a tall and/or healthy person cannot sit properly inside this vehicle. One of my friends who had a test drive in it told me that the test cars had an automatic digital air conditioning panel but the production cars have those usual three-knob manual air conditioning controls. There are 2 cup-holders almost hidden by a sliding cover, a glove-box and another storage area in the arm rest. There is also one sunglasses holder and a ticket holder. The handbrake is in a strange position. It is on the left of the gear shifter instead of being on the right. The large steering wheel has audio controls on it. The engine and the gearbox combo of Actyon has a 4-speed auto but it has a VGT engine. A VGT is short form of “Variable Geometry Turbocharger” which belong to the family of turbochargers of course. It is usually designed to allow the effective aspect ratio (air/fuel ration) to be altered according to the speed. Due to this the Actyon`s engine is amazingly smooth and vibration free. The engine is a 4-cylinder third generation direct injection turbo-diesel with inter-cooler that puts out 141 PS at 4000 rpm. The engine is controlled by a 32 bit ECU. The 4 speed automatic gearbox has normal, power and winter modes.
Testing of Ssangyong Actyon:

The top speed that can be achieved on a normal and straight road is around 190 km/h and in the downhill areas it is about 195 km/hr at around 4250 rpm. The red line is 4500 rpm. For the safety measures, there are driver and front passenger SRS airbags. The seat-belts have pee-tensioners with load limiters, i.e., they tighten up at first in a collision and then the load limiter loosens it progressively as the airbag deploys. The steel ladder frame chassis has a triple layer construction and the truck body is reinforced to work as a safety cell for collisions. The door locks automatically when the car reaches a speed of 50 km/hr but also unlocks when there is a collision. The steering wheel is collapsible and the doors have side impact beams.