CarBrandLogos archive · SsangYong · 1997

SsangYongChairman

A licensed Mercedes platform, built in Korea, aimed at the chauffeur trade.

Photo: Chu · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in SsangYong history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the SsangYong Chairman, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Korea's luxury market in the 1990s was effectively Hyundai's, and SsangYong's response was to buy credibility rather than develop it. The Chairman, launched in 1997, was engineered around a licensed Mercedes-Benz W124 platform with Mercedes-derived engines, and its proportions and detailing made no attempt to hide the relationship.

Daewoo Chairman · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

It worked in a specific way. Korean business and government buyers who wanted a full-size rear-drive saloon with German engineering but a domestic badge and price had somewhere to go, and the Chairman became a familiar sight outside company headquarters and hotels. A more modern Chairman W followed in 2008 as the flagship, with the original continuing below it.

ssangyong new chairman w 2 · Chu · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

Production ended in 2017. SsangYong's later owners have shown no interest in returning to the segment, and the Chairman remains the only time the company built something aimed above the mass market.

00 SsangYong Chairman 500s · Benespit · CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance