SsangYong Rexton running costs and reliability

The SsangYong Rexton lags behind a lot of the competition when it comes to diesel costs in particular. No version returns more than 40mpg on the combined fuel economy cycle, which will translate into 30mpg if you’re lucky during real-world use.

As you’d expect, it’s the manual five-seater with the most impressive fuel economy figures at 36.2mpg. The seven-seater with this gearbox is capable of up to 34.8mpg, while a five-seat automatic should return up to 34.8mpg. Choose a seven-seat auto and you’ll see up to 34.0mpg. 

However, these figures aren’t disastrous and the sorts of journeys most buyers will do are typically poor in this sense anyway. Its CO2 emissions of between 204 and 218g/km are also well behind the times, meaning high tax bills for private buyers and prohibitively so for company car drivers.

Insurance could be a different matter, though – this is a safe car and we don’t expect overly expensive premiums. Servicing costs shouldn’t pose too many issues, but fixed-price schemes are available for added transparency.

We don’t envisage particularly cheap leasing costs at this point simply because SsangYong’s UK operation is so small that it can’t compete with volume sellers, but that’ll depend quite heavily on the predicted future resale values.

SsangYong’s diesel engine isn’t very clean in the two-tonne Rexton in any of its four configurations, but it conforms to Euro 6 emissions regulations.

The cleanest in the line-up is a five-seat manual Rexton, emitting 204g/km of CO2. Opt for a seven-seat version and it increases slightly to 208g/km. 

Choose an automatic version, and a five-seater produces 213g/km, while a seven-seater is slightly worse at 218g/km. 

Should diesel really fall out of favour, there’s a petrol engine that could make its way into the line-up, but we’ve got no figures for this at time of publication.

• We wouldn’t worry about Rexton reliability
• The company has a good record
• The car feels solid and well-built

The SsangYong Rexton shouldn’t pose too many reliability issues. The previous car only had one recall for the whole time it was on sale (well over 10 years), which is quite unusual these days, and this model feels even better-built

This is a firm that dines out on tough, durable machines, and there’s no evidence to the contrary with this latest example.

And if anything does go wrong, there’s a five-year, limitless mileage warranty to keep you covered.