It has been 10 years since the first SsangYong 4x4’s hit the Irish market with what was then a high selling model the Musso.

SsangYong has moved on in terms of its ownership, it was then part of the Daewoo Group, and now celebrates its Irish tenth anniversary with three new models to its range.

SsangYong has a new Kryon 4x4 for the market at a competitive entry price of €35,000 before delivery charges. It may be sluggish in terms of acceleration but it has space and good driving comfort, so move now before expected July 1 price increases.

The new entry model from this Korean based 4x4 specialist is the Kryon and that’s the 4x4 that I’ve had on test in recent days.

The Kryon is billed as a value for money 4x4, so that brought me back to the spreadsheets to assess what it offers in a value sense as well as its driving ability.

The Kryon is seen to compete head to head with the likes of the Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe, Toyota RAV4, Nissan X-Trail and many others. This is a sector that’s powered by either 2.0 litre or 2.2 litre turbo-diesel engines. It’s also a sector that going to be suffering from price increases in the VRT changes in July along with permanent Road Tax increases. So where does the Kryon fit in?

SsangYong has fitted the new Kryon with a 2.0 litre turbo-diesel engine. It claims that some of the engine and gearbox technology has been developed in association with Mercedes Benz. That may be more history than present.

In power terms, this engine develops 141bhp, which is at the lower end of the power spectrum from a comparison of 14 competitors in this sector of the market. Toyota’s RAV4 with its 2.2 litre diesel develops less power but then compensates in other ways.

The Kia Sorento, Land Rover Freelander and Nissan X-Trail all develop significantly more power over the average and over the Kryon performance.

The 2.0 litre Kyron diesel develops 310Nm of torque, which is just about average for the comparison group. That relatively high torque level boosts its towing ability giving it almost the best performance in the sector at 2.3 tonnes with a brake trailer.

The Kryon next judgement is acceleration. Compared with the competition there’s no denying that it’s sluggish. The Kryon is rated at 15.4 seconds in a 0 to 100km/hr race, which puts it at the slowest in the sector. It does not compare well against the likes of the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V or Nissan X-Trail, all of which deliver an acceleration of around 10.5 seconds in the same rating.