Over the last few years, SsangYong has become a manufacturer in the 4×4 market worth keeping an eye on. The Korando SUV is an impressive contender in the soft-roader family four-wheel drive market, and the Sports SX pick-up version was certainly not disgraced in our Pick-up Of The Year test – and it was up against some serious contenders. All of which makes the display of the SIV-1 concept SUV that was revealed at Geneva very intriguing. Actually, SsangYong call it a CUV (Crossover Utility Vehicle) and it apparently represents the company’s new design philosophy of ‘Nature Born 3 Motion’ and the SIV stands for Smart Interface Vehicle… all of which is frankly bunkum. Despite that, don’t be tempted to ignore it because of this silliness, the SIV-1 has all the indications that it will develop into a production vehicle. The concept here has a tech spec that includes both petrol and diesel engines of 1.6-litre capacity. It’s packed with all the latest communication and ‘smart’ technologies, which apparently (here we go again) offer a ‘venue for communication on the move’. None of this jargon will be of any significance should a version hit the showrooms in the future.
