SSANGYONG has faced some difficult times in the past, but, with the help and investment from Indian car manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra, the result is the Tivoli – which has impressed all that have seen and driven it.

On top of interest from customers, this new SsangYong is now raising the eyebrows of corporate buyers, so we spoke to the UK CEO, PAUL WILLIAMS, to see how they were going to accommodate the SME buyer.

• Is the new Tivoli catching the eye of the SME sector – how are you doing with it?

“Tivoli is the first opportunity we’ve had to tackle that SME marketplace, with it we’ve got a car which appeals to everybody and that is already evident from the general retail sales.

“The Tivoli is a car that’s very well priced and specced; it’s in a sector that’s growing, we’ve got good CO2, fuel economy and because of the price the benefit-in-kind story is very positive. Plus, if you check out CAP and Glass’s, we’ve got very good future RV forecasts.

“The three-year residual on a Tivoli diesel is 47% at 30,000 miles, which is 4.2% better than the sector average.

“The sector average includes key models such as the Nissan Juke, the Vauxhall Mokka and Renault Captur. Even with petrol, we’ve still got a 43% residual, which again is above the class average.

“All this lets us go into the leasing/contract hire market with competitive leasing rates, which have never been contemplated by SsangYong in the UK before. We’ve never had requests for our cars before, but now we know it’s happening, as people have seen Tivoli and are asking about it.”