• Mostly logical dashboard layout…
• …but the heating controls aren’t great
• Quality is good, but not exactly luxury

How is the quality and layout?

At first glance, the interior ticks all the boxes for a luxury car. There are lots of soft-touch plastics and leather, and nothing immediately budget-feeling is within reach. The material and build quality are solid, but on closer inspection, it still isn’t quite as good as its Korean and European rivals. A Peugeot 5008 looks and feels leaps and bounds above a Rexton — there is still an underlying utilitarian feeling. The Rexton can’t completely hide its pickup underpinnings with a coat of leather and suede.

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Layout-wise, it’s mostly positive, but we found an issue with the heating controls. When it was badged as a Ssangyong Rexton, there were buttons and dials to control the flow of cold or hot air. We really rated the setup, and it is now gone — replaced by a far more confusing set of buttons that offers none of the tactility. To top it off, the readouts aren’t easily legible while wearing sunglasses, not ideal for maxing the air conditioning during the peak of summer.

Where KGM use buttons, the layout is brilliant. The rotary controller for the Rexton’s selectable four-wheel drive system in particular falls neatly to hand and works similarly to the system fitted to the old Land Rover Discovery.

Infotainment and technology

All models get a 12.3-inch infotainment screen as standard and it’s good. The flat menu structure makes navigation straightforward, even if the graphics aren’t the slickest. The built-in TomTom navigation system is clever, too. It presents the locations of nearby speed cameras without needing to use a third-party smartphone app like Waze or Google Maps.

While a wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is included as standard, we couldn’t get our iPhone to connect successfully. That was with two different cables plugged into the centre console too.

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The unit in the old Rexton didn’t like our Android Auto connection, quickly becoming overwhelmed by the simplest of requests. We defaulted to streaming music over Bluetooth and using the built-in sat nav for longer drives.

The 12.3-inch driver display is better. It’s clear in its default setting and can be configured to show different metrics easily with buttons on the steering wheel. It’s not the crispest unit on the market, but it works.

Comfort

• All the seat-based bells and whistles you can think of
• Heated rear seats also standard kit
• Commanding driving position

It appears KGM has taken inspiration from La-Z-Boy for the front seats because they are so accommodating and comfortable, if not terribly supportive. No matter your shape and size, we’re confident that you’ll be able to get settled behind the wheel.

The seats are also packed with technology, even in base K30 spec. All models get electrically adjustable, heated and ventilated front seats, and heated rear seats. All the systems work well, and nothing comes close to this level of kit for the money.

In fact, until you have to move anywhere in the Rexton it’s a wonderfully relaxing place to sit.