2023 Ssangyong Musso XLV

The Musso stands out in this segment for its slightly unorthodox styling, though it doesn’t have the polarising lines of the brand’s past ute models like the Musso Sports and Actyon Sports.

The way the door comes in under the C-pillar makes it look like an SUV with the rear lopped off, sending strong Honda Ridgeline vibes. And yet, SsangYong has given the Musso a decidedly more brash front end than the related and more elegant Rexton, though there’s still attractive metal trim on the grille.

Headlights are increasingly uncommon HID units – better than halogen lights, but not as effective as LEDs.

The interior overall has quite an upscale ambience for a ute, with soft-touch perforated leather-look trim across the front of the dashboard and soft-touch plastic across much of the dash top.

Silver-finish speaker grilles and black patterned dash trim also provide some welcome contrast; there’s some gloss black trim, but it’s used relatively sparingly.

There’s also but one button blank, while the headliner is nicer than the mouse-fur rubbish found in most utes.

All that’s missing for the ambience is some leatherette trim on the sides of the centre console (like in the Triton) and the quilted leatherette door cards of the GWM Ute; only the arm rests on the Musso’s doors are soft.

The number of luxury features is surprising for this segment. There’s a single-pane sunroof, a rarity for a ute this size, though its operation is clunky – pressing the open button doesn’t open the shade as well, and to do so you need to both push and pull a handle.

Seats are heated and ventilated up front; to get ventilated seats in any other ute in Australia, you’d need to pony up for something like a Ram 1500 Limited. There’s also a heated steering wheel which helpfully remembers what setting you had it on when you restart the vehicle, and a simple nicety: illuminated vanity mirrors.

Some touches belie the Musso’s age, at least compared to the likes of the Ford Ranger. There’s no electronic parking brake, while the shifter is of the gated variety, and the manual mode is located on the left-hand side.

The bottle holders in the doors can fit larger water bottles, the centre console bin is fairly deep, and there’s an insert atop the centre stack with a rubberised base.

At the base of the centre stack, where you’ll find two USB-A outlets, there’s a rubberised insert you can pull out. This little niche isn’t quite large enough for most modern smartphones, and there’s no wireless charger.

Step into the rear and you’ll find air vents and heated outboard seats, though there are no USB or power outlets. Map pockets can be found on the front seatbacks.

The rear of the cabin isn’t overly spacious by class standards, with rather average knee room. But the floor is relatively flat, and there’s plenty of headroom; at 180cm, I was able to sit in the slightly higher, firmer centre seat without my head touching the roof.

Along with storage space beneath the bench, there are top tethers on the back of all three seats, and ISOFIX on the outboard seats.

Astonishingly, SsangYong persists with a centre lap belt in the Musso in 2022 – a black mark in terms of safety.

As part of a recent update, the 2023 Musso gained a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, as well as a new overhead console with LED map lights and seat belt reminders.

The digital instrument cluster is attractive with multiple different views, but I tended to leave it on a conventional gauge display and not the angular, vaguely BMW-like view. Interestingly, as you get closer to a speed, that number gets larger.

Less impressive is the infotainment system. The interface is relatively attractive if somewhat dated, but response times aren’t the snappiest, there’s no home button, and the screen gets washed out in sunlight no matter how much you fiddle with the display settings.