Platinum. Rare, with high economic value and a wide range of uses. A perfect summary for the exclusive limited edition Musso from KGM: the £34,995 Saracen Platinum. Rare because only seventy will be available to mark the seventy years of this manufacturer’s heritage. Starting as SsangYong and now branded as KGM, this Korean company’s double cab pickup offers (like the precious metal) a wide range of uses over and above the Saracens outstanding workhorse ability. In this vehicle luxury goes hand-in-hand with capability.
A host of accessories have been added to the standard model, including a powered roll top over the load bay, black styling bars, extended wheel arches, black side steps – and inside a numbered plaque 1/70 (sadly not of platinum), nappa leather heated seats, a heated steering wheel, a twelve inch smart screen….the list goes on. Suffice it to ask ‘just how much more do you need’? Make no mistake, this is not just a regular product with a fancy label: it’s a highly desirable and supremely competent pickup with an extra layer of value and exclusivity.
Of course, I’d seen plenty of pickup trucks before, but this one was different. Not chalk and cheese different but a variation on a theme. I’m no art critic – just a motoring hack who knows a steering wheel from a bum steer. But right then I felt like that guy Vasari. Remember him? Four hundred years ago and then some he was the ‘go to’ guy for gilding the glories of Italian Renaissance art.(not that much laying on of the golden stuff was needed). That kind of art speaks for itself – just as the Saracen Platinum standing in front of my jaded eyes was speaking encyclopaedias to me.
I liked what it was saying. I’ll wager a king’s ransom that this is one of the smoothest, most stylish cutting edge pickups ever to smooth out the ripples on the canvas of rugged terrain. Ideal for a wintery Christmas time…collect the Christmas tree, take aunt Maud in comfort and luxury to visit relatives living at the top of a Welsh mountain: and then back to work using the towing capacity of 3,500Kgs and filling the load bed with over 1000 Kgs. Small wonder that the Musso has received numerous awards including ‘Best Value Pickup for 2024’.
it’s immensely practical, ultra capable and packed full of pedigree; always with well tested technology switching in to help things move along the modern way.
‘A workhorse’ I hear you say ‘Is not made for jolly boulevard cruising on sunny afternoons in Bournemouth. Utility has to trump sybaritic serenity’. But that’s not the case with the Saracen. You get your Christmas cake and you can eat it. The 199bhp 4 cylinder diesel combined with a six speed automatic transmission makes light of off-road work on track and trail. If you have one of these you’ll never be a stick-in-the-mud. On tarmac roads and motorways it is quiet, relaxed and rides particularly well – thanks in part to the coil springs at the rear rather than truck leaf springs.
So there we have it. Years ago pick-up drivers – who were usually unshaven and displayed a gluteal cleavage – were incarcerated in a spartan cell on wheels, but now comfort and style for them and their rear seat passengers ride high. On the outside there might be that glamorous Schwarzenegger sheen of a Mister Universe contender but the interior is another matter. Nothing effete you understand, but everything is effortlessly smart and comfortable. It’s also loaded with top electronics, climate control, reversing camera and power this’n that,
You could go to The Palace in one of these – not only to point the crumbling brickwork but to collect your MBE with the wife alongside and the kids in the back.
This Musso might not be uranium powered but courtesy of the gutsy engine you have the pulling power to haul an asteroid for a couple of astronomical units of distance without stopping for fuel. It’s reasonably economical for such a large vehicle. I got about 36 mpg when driving gently.
If you really want to hurry you can reach about 110/115 mph and enjoy swapping the ratios manually in the six speed auto box – but it’s best left in auto to do the job for you.
And importantly, a lot of off-road capability comes at the change into 4wd high or 4wd low. Put your Stetson on and it sure rides the rugged trail like a ramrod drover.
“My word” exclaimed Aunt Maud “Not a drop of my gin and tonic has been spilt’ I smiled and put on an album of my favourite band, Shock of Ages and selected the track ‘Lodestar’. A load of heavy metal? As nothing to the new Number 1 Musso Saracen Platinum Limited Edition.
