Still, if you’re after a truck with more than a sheen of car-like appeal and cabin quality, the Amarok takes some beating.
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Pros: Value for money, loadbed flexibility, cabin space
Cons: Few luxury features, rough ride
If you’re after a left-field affordable pick-up option, there’s always KGM (the car maker formerly known as Ssangyong), which offers the Musso – whose name means ‘rhinoceros’ in its homeland of South Korea.
It’s a far cry from the vaguely sporty, Ken Greenley-designed SUV of the same name that came to the UK in the mid-1990s, but we found that it delivers respectable performance and handling, as well as strong towing capacity and utility for value-savvy buyers.
The Musso’s 199bhp 2.2-litre diesel engine offers more grunt than some in the class, and its rating to tow 3500kg (although only with an automatic transmission; the manual is 3200kg) on a braked trailer also trumps certain rivals.
We think it looks a little peculiar in standard form with its short load bay, but it does offer four seats big enough to be usable by adult passengers. That it’s also one of the shortest cars of its kind stands to make it appeal to those who’ve struggled to get vehicles like these into UK-typical parking spaces.
If you need a full-length bed, you need to opt for the highest trim level, Saracen, which opens up the option of the Saracen+. That extends the load bed length from a mere 1300mm to 1610mm, which is more than you get in the Ranger.
When we drove it, we discovered the Musso corners with very decent grip and roll control, and the fairly light steering (and helpfully small diameter steering wheel) has better centre feel than many of its rivals. The same goes for the low road and wind noise.
Ride comfort only just clears the threshold of acceptability, but the engine feels torquey low down and impressively quiet when you’re cruising, the six-gear spread giving it very long legs.