KGM Musso
The artist formerly known as Ssangyong brings toughness, capability and value together in one flatbed package For the companies now aiming to carve out a foothold at the value end of the UK’s boom-and-bust pickup truck market, a brand name that people will recognise would seem to be a rather large asset.This is no longer the niche that is occupied by the Toyota Hilux; nor really the Ford Ranger, or VW Amarok - with neither a Mitsubishi or Nissan to be seen, either. Pickups of that kind have now either left the stage entirely, or migrated well beyond the kind of territory in which you can go shopping for a fully-fitted, double-cab, four-wheel drive vehicle which - after VAT, assuming you’re buying on like-for-like terms with a family SUV passenger car - can be yours for a usefully less than £40,000.It’s a little ironic, perhaps, that the company behind the KGM Musso used to have a brand name that at least some buyers might have known. Ssangyong was never the most celebrated of Korea’s car-makers. Even so, it might just have been enough to better lift the outfit now known as KGM a little further above the value melee in which it now finds itself, as other Asian brands like Maxus pile into a space where Isuzu still fights on.The KGM Musso certainly has some pretty no-nonsense credentials with which to go about making its reputation afresh, however. Ostensibly a flatbed version of the ladder-on-frame KGM Rexton offroader, it offers a double cab layout, mechanical locking four-wheel drive, and very modern-seeming equipment levels, from an entry price (after VAT, remember) of only just above £37,000: a figure which, in 2025, won’t even get you into a Skoda Karoq crossover with all-wheel drive.The Musso has other claims to unequalled capability and usefulness besides, to which we’ll come. The question is, is it also rather too rough and ready to be worth taking out of the construction yard, and making room for on your family driveway?
The artist formerly known as Ssangyong brings toughness, capability and value together in one flatbed package
For the companies now aiming to carve out a foothold at the value end of the UK’s boom-and-bust pickup truck market, a brand name that people will recognise would seem to be a rather large asset.This is no longer the niche that is occupied by the Toyota Hilux; nor really the Ford Ranger, or VW Amarok - with neither a Mitsubishi or Nissan to be seen, either. Pickups of that kind have now either left the stage entirely, or migrated well beyond the kind of territory in which you can go shopping for a fully-fitted, double-cab, four-wheel drive vehicle which - after VAT, assuming you’re buying on like-for-like terms with a family SUV passenger car - can be yours for a usefully less than £40,000.It’s a little ironic, perhaps, that the company behind the KGM Musso used to have a brand name that at least some buyers might have known. Ssangyong was never the most celebrated of Korea’s car-makers. Even so, it might just have been enough to better lift the outfit now known as KGM a little further above the value melee in which it now finds itself, as other Asian brands like Maxus pile into a space where Isuzu still fights on.The KGM Musso certainly has some pretty no-nonsense credentials with which to go about making its reputation afresh, however. Ostensibly a flatbed version of the ladder-on-frame KGM Rexton offroader, it offers a double cab layout, mechanical locking four-wheel drive, and very modern-seeming equipment levels, from an entry price (after VAT, remember) of only just above £37,000: a figure which, in 2025, won’t even get you into a Skoda Karoq crossover with all-wheel drive.The Musso has other claims to unequalled capability and usefulness besides, to which we’ll come. The question is, is it also rather too rough and ready to be worth taking out of the construction yard, and making room for on your family driveway? 
