By Kamil Kaluski
Here is your chance to own a truly one of a kind pickup truck. Well, no, supposedly there is over two hundred of them in U.S., but when did you ever see one for sale?
This awesomely named Ssangyong Actyon Sport can yours for a low price of six grand. Yes, there is a catch.
From the ad:
2008 CREW CAB PICKUP – SSANGYONG – 3 MILES – NO DRIVETRAIN – $5995 (Pennellville, NY)
In 2008 a company called Phoenix Motorcars, based in California, bought over two hundred Ssangyong Actyon Sport short bed crew cab pickups from Korea. Their plan was to outfit them with electric motors and sell them in America for around $50,000 – $65,000 each.
These trucks are about the size of a Chevrolet Colorado.
However, by the time they were ready to sell them, the technology in their electric conversion was already surpassed by other manufacturers such as Chevrolet and Nissan. So they were stuck with hundreds of these unfinished trucks, with no engines or transmissions.
After closing their doors, Phoenix Motorcars were ordered by the courts to sell the remainder of their unfinished vehicles (with no engines or transmissions) to the general public to pay off their creditors – and they sold pretty fast.
I am a private seller – and not a dealer – and was lucky enough find out about these while they were still available.
I had a friend in California who looked over the trucks and picked out a perfect one for me. It has no damage whatsoever. No scrapes and not even a door ding. I then went through the expensive hassle of safely shipping it to my home in Pennellville, NY.
The photos shown were taken of the truck while it was still in California, at the clearing house, so I could see what I was buying. It still looks exactly the same today.
This is a top of the line model, with 4-wheel disc brakes, alloy wheels and even such options as heated wipers, a great sound system and a power seat. It also has a factory bed liner and an alloy spare wheel with a full-sized spare tire.
The interior still has the plastic on it and the odometer only registers 3 miles!
Since there is no title, it will be sold on a bill of sale, and may be titled as soon as it’s outfitted with a drivetrain so it can go through your state’s safety and emission inspections. Currently it’s viewed as more of a component of a project car rather than an entire vehicle, which actually makes the titling process easier.
The truck came with paperwork and a VIN of 1P9BA10B58B466025, but no title. Craig’s List didn’t have a selection for ‘No Title’ so I entered it as missing.
Since there is an easy to find paper-trail, back to Phoenix Motorcars, and a Bill of Sale from me, there will be no hassle with the DMV in proving that the vehicle is not stolen. Feel free to contact the State Police to look over the truck before your purchase, just to put your mind at ease.
Some purchasers of these trucks built them with high-horsepower engines for off-road racing – so they could install any engine in them, with no emission or state inspection. They don’t even have to be titled!
Others with large properties have outfitted them with snow plows and grounds-keeping tools to be used only on their property – again, no title required.
I was going to build it with a late-model Chevy LS engine and transmission for my daily transportation, but that kind of project is just going to have to wait…
This truck has to be seen to be believed. It’s a very good looking vehicle and would make a great winter project!
The best way to decide if this is right for you is to come out and see the truck. Please call Rick at show contact info to arrange a meeting – and thanks for looking.
I got to say, that is a very well written ad.
So, what would you do with it?
Source: Syracuse Craigslist
Jeff Glucker
Yours for a Ssong! The rarely seen particle called the Actyon! Previously only created in laboratories by smashing together two Scions!
For what you would spend buying this thing and engineering/installing a drivetrain. You could buy an insurable 2008 model pickup from a domestic manufacturer, already street legal, ready to roll (probably on tires newer than 8 years), and with good parts availability if something goes wrong.
In other words, it is time for Dr. Harrell to start a gofundme campaign.
Phoenix still builds electric trucks and buses,changed hands in 2009.
Cummins B3.3
If you want a Cummins in a Far Eastern Utility you’ll need a Foton Tunland Ute from Beijing Automotive. They have Cummins as standard fit and are doing quite well in the land of Holden.
Note the ‘C’ badge on the door.
http://www.themotorreport.com.au/content/image/2/0/2013_foton_tunland_launch_review_australia_05_1-1114-1056×606.jpg
I knew that dude, that’s why I put up that pitcher !
( kidding of course, had no idea – great info Rover )
Imagine if Beijing Auto started remaking FJ40,43,45’s or series IIa types again with this.
Exact copies, like they did with the trail70, but, you know, with decent quality. Galvanized frames, aluminum bodies, removable tops, fold down windshields, Cummins diesel power …..
Jeepster slipped off into dreamland again.
A link to any others successfully titled and registered for legal road use would be nice. As it stands it looks like an enormous exercise in futility. Unless there’s extensive documentation regarding how its electronics are interfaced with, good luck making the ABS, airbags, dash gauges and probably climate controls work. Then there’s the whole Chinese reputation for crash worthiness hanging over your head like a sword on a thread…
But this is South Korean with a Mercedes connection, evidently where Mercedes sent all of their designers who developed drug problems, but still!
I believe that Mercedes supplied know how for the drivetrain. … oh. This makes the carcass pure Korean.
My knee-jerk reaction was that it was Chinese. I should’ve known better as it’s obviously not rusting in the seller’s photos.
And plenty of electric startups did use Chinese models. The Coda was Chinese, that weird thing with three wheels and no brakes was too, so it’s a pretty common thread.
Except it is South Korean. And since there is no crash testing here in the states, getting it licensed for the road would be mighty dicey. I’d take a pass at it for that alone.
It is sold in Europe, so even though I know NCAP & Co. are not compatible with EuroNCAP & EuroCo., there’s reason to assume these perform within a safe range when crashed.
And they’re sold in NZ and Australia so they certainly meet current crash standards.
Current crash standards there, sure….
I’m also far from convinced this isn’t a re-badged Chinese won-ton cookie.
Australian, NZ, European, Japanese and Korean test standards are all aligned through the NCAP star system. Which is why Holden Commodore = Chevrolet SS= Vauxhall VXR.
Racist much? In fact, I’m sick of reading so-called “car guys” trash automobiles from the Far East. You sound just like the same dingbats that panned Japanese automobiles. We all know who got the last laugh there.
Please, just stop with the Asian stereotypes people.
Get bent and surf some sand… Did I hurt your feelings with something playing on the brittle nature of a wonton cookie? Grow a pair.
I’ve owned a few Japanese automobiles, liked them just fine. I said nothing about the Japanese, their automobiles, or culture, in fact. I referenced the intellectual-property stealing, clone making, communist Chinese, moron.
BTW, Chinese cars are allowed to be sold in Australia…since 2009, so Rover 1, your equating them with the SS and GTO is incorrect.
Assuming the seller bought it around the time Phoenix changed hands, that’s still six years this truck has been sitting unused. I think if there was an easy way to make this a legal daily driver, it would have happened by now.
I strongly suspect this thing cannot be legally registered. The fact that it has a VIN just means the manufacturer issued one. They weren’t sold in the US. No word on having paperwork that proves Phoenix federalized it. It clearly isn’t a home-built machine. Passing it off as such is probably the buyer’s only hope, but that isn’t easy.
“Makes the process easier” Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.
The front end is reminiscent of the Pontiac Aztek. It would make a good LeMons project, but it’s ten times too expensive.
I get the feeling this would be given an exception, especially if the right engine choice was made.
Hardcore rockcrawler on a Blazer chassis or something. Use the Blazer VIN for reg/etc.
Shoot. I test drove a GMC Syclone with a body that was completely rusted out only a few months ago. It had about 35K miles on it and ran amazing. Might have been a great donor to this.
All you need is a rolled Mercedes Benz ML320-500 and a spanner to have a running vehicle.
With working ABS,traction control Ac etc. These are big sellers here in NZ,but sales didn’t really take off until the Series 2 version arrived with it’s less ‘challenging’ looks. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/ssangyong/auction-1018441890.htm
And since this is NZ there is, of course, a competitive one make racing series
http://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/412492182.jpg
http://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/444388736.jpg
Racing at Taupo Circuit.
http://nzmotorracing.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SsangYongRacing_Rd1_2015-770×470.jpg
I saw a ton of these in Brazil. Lots of cool pickups there, like the mitsubishi crew cab, diesel Hi-Luxes and the VW Amarok.
Its missing something without the ROK (South Korea) Marine Corps sticker on the back.
Aah Ssangyong. Please start selling cars in the US just so I can drive around in the ultimate minivan splendor of your 11 seater Rodius. I have a lot of kids and they all need their space.
Whoa. Imagine having to climb back to the fourth row.
The great advantage of being in a Rodius is it’s the only place you can’t see the outside of the Rodius from:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/SsangYong_Rodius_dept_59.JPG/1280px-SsangYong_Rodius_dept_59.JPG
Interesting, I did not know that the Rodius had four rows. That’s a lot of barf bags.
I just can’t see this thing ever being worth the trouble. By the time you’re done you will have -at least- $10K tossed in this bucket, and zero potential for getting any of that back, because it will be a 10-year-old truck with zero parts support, with “the wrong engine” installed by an amateur. I say 10-years-old because by the time you locate an engine and get it installed with any kind of functionality it will be at least 2 years.
For $10K there are a lot of 10-year-old trucks out there with ‘the right engine’ that you could drive home today. If it’s just a fun truck with an engine swap you want, I’d go for this https://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/5414579516.html
And I could still end up close to $10K
Finally, I will pay money and bring the popcorn if I can watch while you try to get your insurance agent to spell Ssangyong correctly.
Am I only one who thinks these were influenced by late 30s Graham-Paiges?
http://paultan.org/images.paultan.org/images/Ssangyong_Actyon_SUT_7.jpg
https://lowdownblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1939-graham-paige-97.jpg
Got one of these. You can order the diesel engine from S Korea and install it yourself. Engine is a Mercedes clone with turbocharger and intercooler. Really fuel efficient, will knock the socks off any other small unit you can buy. You can buy the engine with all accessories (AC,Alt, etc.etc.) for less than $3k