The Ssangyong Rexton is here and it's getting into a crowded market with SUVs that have been fighting it out for a while for supremacy. But is there something special up its sleeve that'll help Mahindra get a jump on the competition?

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There are two types of vehicles in this world. There are some that don’t really deliver much but make their debut kicking and screaming, promising a lot more to the buyer than they were ever designed to achieve. And then there’s the quiet kind that is superiorly capable but chooses to let its abilities speak for itself. The SsangYong Rexton then, belongs to the latter – how many times have you seen it in a television spot? Or in a print ad? Or on a roadside hoarding? 

Well, I haven’t seen any. Yet, there is this weird sort of inquisitiveness that automatically surrounds the Rexton – even from people who’ve never even heard of the car ever before. Understandably so – it’s Korean and the Koreans are surely the next big thing in the automotive race at the moment. It’s built by Mahindra – which again, automatically gives that bit of belonging and oneness with a product that was conceived in Korea. It’s big – and the bigger it is, the more desirable it is. It’s butch – almost like it’s straight out of rugged Western action flick. And it’s loaded – not just with badges, but with gadgets as well. That seems like the perfect mantra to rope in the Indian buyer then.

Remind you of someone?

The previous generation Rexton wasn’t much to look at and that’s obvious considering it belonged to an older race of Korean products that were just only beginning to get a grasp of what was needed to make it big in the global battle for automotive supremacy. What we get though is the latest gen version and though we always say that looks are subjective and all that, but this one is sure to appeal to everyone who lays eyes on it! Part of that has to actually do with another SUV – bigger and way more expensive than the Rexton. It’s not just us folks at ZigWheels but a whole bunch of passersby including a small troupe of children en route to school who thought the Rexton looks pretty similar to an M-Class. 

Imitation or not, that’s a good compliment in itself and one that is brought about thanks to those swooping headlamps and the new SsangYong logo as well. That said, the Rexton isn’t really a car that is aggressive and intimidating for anyone who spots it in their rear-view mirrors. Instead of the ‘move over or I’ll drive over you’ image most SUVs have, the Rexton has a rather docile gentlemanly demeanour that you can’t help but give in to. And that’s where you really begin to unravel the Rexton’s character – in a nutshell, it’s soft.