SsangYong steps up to the plate

But now SsangYong, one of South Korea's newer entrants into the Australian market, wants to play with the big boys.

It will launch a range of large, medium and small cars in many export markets, including Australia, by as early as 2010.

SsangYong Australia managing director Keith Timmins says the operation is ready for the cars when, and if, they are offered in right-hand drive.

“They present opportunity for us and we'd be really keen to get them,” he says.

The first of the new-look SsangYongs is the replacement for the luxury Chairman, codenamed the W200. The carmaker rolled out the W200 at this month's Seoul Motor Show and although no specifications were released, the car is tipped to have adaptive cruise control, parking assist and a lane-departure warning system.

The Chairman replacement provides some clues to the direction the Korean carmaker is taking with its crisply styled contemporary European exterior and funky interior. The current model Chairman has been around since 1997 and uses Mercedes-Benz technology from the W124 E-Class, which was built between 1984 and 1995. Although it is one of the most popular luxury cars in Korea and China, the Chairman has been a slow seller in Australia, largely because it remains an unknown quantity.

But this is set to change with the

W200, which goes on sale in left-hand drive at the end of the year in Korea, with other markets following late next year.

Proof that SsangYong is getting on board with less confrontational styling is the revised Kyron, which arrives in June with better looks and improved interiors.

Timmins believes the company's low-key strategy of establishing itself as a niche player with its sturdy four-wheel drives has paid off.

“We have a very good, solid following, albeit off a low base . . . we're ready to move forward,” he says.

The move to smaller passenger cars is a big shift in attitude for SsangYong, which is 49 per cent owned by the Chinese-based Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. SAIC also owns the rights to build Chinese versions of Rover cars through a new company called Roewe.

It has just launched a Rover 75 clone, called the Roewe 750, and has unveiled the smaller W2 concept at the Shanghai motor show.

However, Timmins says none of the new SsangYong export cars will be rebadged Roewes.

Given the increasing segmentation of the Australian market, he says SsangYong's window of opportunity for expansion is narrowing with the imminent arrival of Indian carmaker Mahindra and some new, as yet unnamed, vehicles from China due next year to be imported by the Ateco Automotive Group.

But he is confident SsangYong can fight off any newcomers.

After NZ-based Rapson Holdings took over distributorship here in 2002 it set about rebuilding the marque, entering a licensing agreement with Mercedes-Benz to use its technology.

SAIC has bold forecasts for its models out of Korea and China, predicting that by 2010 it will sell 200,000 new sedans, with 25 per cent slated for export.