LDV Deliver 9 vs Ssangyong Rexton

What's the difference?

There are currently 14 rivals competing for customers in the Light Duty or LD (3501-8000kg GVM) segment of Australia’s heavy commercial vehicle market. Business buyers and fleet operators are thick on the ground here and competition for their business is fierce.

Chinese brand LDV, a division of the huge SAIC Motor conglomerate which is now the seventh largest automotive company in the world, recently joined this battle with its new Deliver 9 van range that’s priced to entice. We spent a week aboard one to see how LDV’s claim of superior value stacks up when there’s work to be done.

Aussie buyers could be excused for being wary of SsangYong, given the marque’s chequered history involving numerous ownership changes, crippling debts and in 2021 its rescue from the jaws of receivership by Korean industrial conglomerate KG Group.

However, the KG Group’s corporate rehabilitation of the troubled carmaker was completed in 2022, allowing the renewed SsangYong Motor (renamed KG Mobility in Korea) to hopefully focus on its core business of producing 4x4 SUVs and pick-ups, with increasing use of electrification planned for future model development.

As part of this renewal, in late 2023 SsangYong Australia announced MY24 updates to refresh its local 4x4 Musso ute and Rexton seven-seater SUV ranges, which, combined with a Merv Hughes-hosted marketing campaign, is aimed at building brand appeal and sales through its 70-plus national dealer network.

We were recently handed the keys to the latest Rexton, which competes for buyers in Australia’s fiercely competitive ‘Large SUVs under $80K’ segment that hosts more than 20 rivals.