New twist in the Ssangyong India foray - Rexton W (facelift) to come through

27/06/2012 - 09:00 | ,   | Shrawan Raja

Our friends at BS Motoring who have well-placed sources in Mahindra, informed their Facebook fans a few days of days back that Indian UV major has changed its mind on the Rexton launch.

Ssangyong Rexton W

The company is reportedly now considering the Rexton W for the Indian market. This could be after a lukewarm response the pre-facelift's outdated looks received at the Auto Expo.

The Rexton W on the other hand gained positive praise from the online media during its reveal at the Busan Auto Show. The facelift has certainly unlocked a new lease of life in the car and can help it play out respectfully till the all-new Rexton is ready by mid-decade.

Ssangyong is testing the pre-facelift Rexton in India for a year now, and we've featured the car in the form of spyshots along with complaints about its looks. The 20 lakh rupee SUV space is an unforgiving territory. People can either buy the Fortuner or stretch and drive away the Q3 or the X1. Ssangyong has to get the pricing spot on and the looks, a key factor for the Fortuner's success, has to be 2012.

Read complete details on the Ssangyong Rexton W

When Ssangyong had the classy W variant at its disposal, we did not think it was a wise move to introduce the outgoing model, that too as a first product to launch a brand in the hugely competitive Indian premium SUV market. The Rexton is a 10 year old product based out of an old Mercedes M-Class.

Ssangyong Rexton W rear

Under the bonnet of the W is an all-new 2-liter diesel engine that makes 154bhp/367Nm. A bi-turbo version capable of putting out 200bhp/500Nm is also in the works. It returns 13.7 km/l (2WD A/T), an improvement of 20% over the existing Rexton. A 5-speed automatic transmission from Mercedes drives the car.

[Source - facebook.com/bsmotoring]

Ssangyong Rexton W Image Slideshow

[Can't see the slideshow above? Head over to the Flickr page]

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