I'm sure everyone will be lining up to get their hands on a knock-off Ridgeline, since there are month-long waiting lists to get the original. Styling is rather derivative. The promise of a good, small diesel is nice, but with NO presence in the US, getting EPA certification is not for the faint-at-heart. So far, only the Germans have been have been successful at this trick. Everyone else has decided that it is simply not worth while... yet

With a real small bed plus Diesel 40 cents higher then gasoline, would not be very cost effective so not sure why anybody would buy it, FYI Chevy announced the Cruz will have a small diesel in the near future

Strangely Ssangyong is the only Korean producer of Pickups. Hyundai/Kia does not produce any.

@ Dave

They're not aiming at North America with their diesel (yet) so the 0.40/ gal higher than gas here is not relavent. More diesels are sold in Europe versus their gasoline counterparts.

Guy1- "When I grew up, my dad had an old Dodge truck"
Guy2- "When I grew up, my dad had an old Ford truck"
Guy3- "When I grew up, my dad had an old Chevy truck"
Guy4- "When I grew up, my dad had an old Ssangyong truck"

.....just doesn't have the same jingle

@ Mike

Any idea when this will be sold in the US?
I dont think it would be overly successful.

So you get a 3 ft x 3 ft bed with a little end piece before the wheel wells?

I sure hope that this thing does not make it on our shores. I am sure that a Subaru Baja has more utility...and look where it is now.

@P. Daddy: No idea. I'm guessing 2013 or 2014. Depends on a lot of things, though, like how the Mahindra truck issue is resolved.

@Mike Levine, I very much doubt it is aimed for the US. Ssangyong sells mainly in Asia, which is its main market.

this thing looks like a Subaru with a much needed upgrade, not saying much huh? oh an the Germans can make great diesels, because thay can charge big$$$$$$$$ for it too.

That thing fell through the fugly tree hitting every branch landing on a fresh cow pie .

Just what compact truck buyers need for that trip to the gardening center.
Put a 1,000 lb ft diesel in it that gets 40 mpg and it will sell as well as pork sausage at a bar mitzvah.
Something has to replace the Ranger....

@Lou, Something has to replace the Ranger....

F-150, Transit Connect, Fiesta, Focus, etc.

Ssssangyongson go karate!

@Jason
The Ranger is irreplaceable

This truck is tooo bigggg

That truck is tooo sooftt

This oatmeal is jussst rrrright :)

Another Ranger is not the solution. The Ranger is the problem.

Mr. Gorbechev, Tear down this Ranger.

Ronny Raygun!

How's Elvis?

No it's Naked Raygun

Go to youtube and search for "chinese crash test", then tell me if you would let anyone in your family drive a chinese car/"truck".

@Ryan
Ssangyong is Korean, like Kia and Hyundai and Daewoo. LOL the Chinese turned down Hummer because it was a non-Chinese car brand worse than their cars! HA!!

@everyone
Of course they're not going to sell this sedan utility vehicle in the US! However I do like to see more variety in trucks. The Ridgeline is going, the trucky Avalanche and EXT are being axed, and the Sport Trac and Baja are already 6 feet under! I think the Ridge would have sold better if it had an in-cab bed extension, similar to the Ava...I mean it was all one piece!! Good luck to Ram with the unibody "Dakota"!

If you want a Ridgeline or one of these knockoffs you probably don't need a truck and would be better off with a crossover or something small.

No. Don't even bother selling this stupid thing.

If you're going to sell a compact truck, do it RIGHT. Body-on-frame, Ranger sized, with four-cylinder engines that work well and get good mileage.

There is no way in Hell this would sell in the U.S. in any justifiable numbers. Build a proper compact truck or don't even bother, you won't even sell enough to justify building a factory for it.

The chicken tax makes it an unrealistic option here. And then there's the Mahideous factor making the product and company a certain failure.

Don't they ever have anything larger than a flat screen TV to haul in the rest of the world? I just don't understand how they build things anywhere else.

@ The Luigiian

I agree. The Ranger is the perfect size for compact truck buyers and it should remain a body on frame RWD/4WD design ''As should all trucks''. I love Ford and I love the new 2011 F-150 with its new engines and all, but I for life of me cannot understand Fords logic that potential Ranger buyer should either get a new F-150 ''because it gets the same MPG's''. Or a Transit Connect.

Two issuse here,

#1 - Ranger buyers most likely are not getting a Ranger based soley on its fuel econmy but also on the fact that its ALOT smaller than the F-150.

#2 - I currently own a Ranger myself ''Trading for a 2011 F-150 this summer'' so you could say Fords logic has played threw on me. But really I wanted an F-150 even before I learned of the Ranger being axe'd. So the fact the F-150 gets the same or close to milage as my 2003 Ranger does will just be the icing on the cake for me...HOWEVER, this does bring to the Transit...I would never consider a Transit, I'm sure its a decent car and would do all the hauling chores my Ranger would, BUT I can't stand the way the Transit looks...There is nothing truck about it...It looks like a downsized minivan, and Truck buyers of ANY flavor don't want to project that kind of image.

But anyway, I say bring a revised Ranger with a 2.0 Ecoboost a 3.7L Mustang V6 and a 3.0L Diesel all engines coupled with a 6-speed Auto AND Manual...Boom problum solved.

@Johnny Sure do have a lot of heavy things to move , in fact very heavy things to move in many cases. They are not going to do that with that Ssangyong SUT or any other Ssangyong product for that matter.

Why does everyone bring up the Ranger whenever there is a small truck featured here? This Ssangyong is not a bad idea. A small truck, (car) with a diesel would be great as gas gets closer to $4/gal in America.

The Ridgeline failed on two aspects:

1. Ugly. The way the bed rails slope down from the "cab" to the tailgate takes away from the truck look. The front end never quite looked right with all the mess in there. A plain honeycomb grill with an "H" in the center would have worked so much better.

2. The V6 was never retuned for truck work. It was powerful (250hp/247ft.lbs) but that was only available at higher RPMs (5700/4300 rpm respectively). This doesn't make for a good truck. For comparison the Ranger's (4.0L) power is 207hp@5250 and 238ft.lbs@3000. I don't know the torque curves but having owned a ranger and driven a Honda I can attest to the ranger feeling more torquey at lower speeds.

For the Ssangyong to succeed where the Honda didn't is looks, power and economy. It must look and act like a truck. So make sure that it can tow (safely) a true 5,000 lbs. It needs to be able to go off road, not the Baja but at least a forest trail. Turbo the diesel. Give it some more horsepower and keep the torque useful. 40MPG! Nothing less or why bother?

I guess it needs one other thing. Sell it as a Hyundai or Kia. The Mahindra connection and name will kill this before you ever get started.

Mahindrance!!!

why are you all saying ranger size, last time i checked the Tacoma killed the ranger in sales. Maybe it should be Tacoma size.

The unibody pickup idea is not exactly my personal cup of tea and the idea hasn’t really taken hold on a mass level in the US as Honda (Ridgeline) and Subaru (Baja) have recently shown. Is there a place for it here? Probably. But I don’t know if Mahindra could make enough money with the SUT 1 for it to be worth their while if they brought them in complete or even as CKD kits to be assembled them here.

I have to stick by my theory that Mahindra’s body-on-frame next generation pickup, the Genio, will replace the TR20/TR40 for the US. Mahindra and GV have both defended the crappy EPA numbers for the TR40, but I think the intention is to bring over the Genio as a new TR20/TR40.