A large chair does not make a king*, as the Korean carmaker discovered.
The brand name SsangYong is derived from Oriental legend and means Two Dragons. It stems from a fable about two dragons who longed to fly to heaven. In order to be able to embark on that journey however, they each required a magical gemstone – but they had only been given one to share between them. For a thousand years each insisted the other go first but to no avail. Moved by their altruism, a heavenly king sent down another magical gemstone so that at long last they could complete their heavenly journey together.
The Pyeongtaek-based car builder formed a technical alliance with Mercedes-Benz in 1991, the first vehicle benefiting from this agreement being the Musso SUV that debuted in 1993, its engines being Mercedes-Benz units produced in Korea under license. Over time SsangYong has not shied away from presenting, shall we say, visually unorthodox products – look no further than the Korando or Rodius as examples of this approach.
For its first and up to now, last entry in the executive class however, the Korean company took a very different path, the ambitious Chairman using many more Mercedes-Benz elements than simply power units. For in addition to the above, it was styled under the direction of seasoned veteran Mercedes-Benz designer Josef Gallitzendörfer.
Development of the Chairman, introduced in 1997, started four years before; in essence SsangYong’s new executive car was a heavily re-engineered and rebodied Mercedes-Benz W124 – platform, suspension, steering, brakes and engine were all sourced from the then recently retired Sindelfingen bestseller.
Powered by the 3.2 litre M104 inline six with 24 valves delivering 220 hp, anyone inspecting the Chairman was left in no doubt about its connection to the famous Stuttgart carmaker. Apart from a few minor non-Teutonic flourishes such as the font used for the badges and the small crests in the corner of each rear side window, its appearance was clean and disciplined of line, and contained several obvious styling cues referring back to the products of the three-pointed star. That Josef Gallitzendörfer was enlisted to supervise the design process was only fitting, since he was also one of the main driving forces behind the appearance of the W124.
The comprehensive 36-page brochure from 1998 makes no secret of the Mercedes-Benz connection of course and on the contrary refers to it many times, starting on the cover. Interestingly, some photos in the brochure show a duo, each time consisting of a middle-aged (presumably German but certainly European) engineer or designer with his Korean apprentice (clearly several years his junior) in a ‘watch and learn’ pose behind him, imbuing a faint air of neo-colonialism.
Although the Chairman was based on the W124, its dimensions were as near as makes no difference to the S-class realm. And should a length of 199 inches not be enough, a long wheelbase version stretched by twelve inches was also available.
Equipment was generous: electrically adjustable driver’s seat with memory, rear seats that automatically moved forward for easier entry and exit, a rear seat armrest with controls for audio, heated seats, rear window sunshade and a navigation system operated by touchscreen. This unit also controlled the air conditioning, audio system and on top of that had a memo pad function as well as TV functionality. Just three business-like colours (Classic Black, Grand White and Pertinent Silver) were offered.
SsangYong and Mercedes-Benz agreed that the Chairman would only be offered in the domestic Korean market and a few other selected areas among which were Australia, Russia and a few Eastern European countries. Outside of Korea however, sales of the Chairman were miniscule, partly due to a lack of SsangYong dealerships. An effort was made to tackle this problem by badging the car as the Daewoo Chairman in some markets but this did not help much. A high price and lack of brand recognition in this segment only exacerbated the problem.
The Chairman was updated in 2005 when it received smaller headlights that were presumably meant to refer to the Mercedes-Benz W210 but also recalled the controversial 1995 Ford Scorpio facelift. Six years later the car was restyled again with headlights that now appeared to be a halfway house between the C219 Mercedes CLS and the Porsche 996’s items.
The original Chairman was renamed Chairman H in 2008 owing to the addition of the all-new Chairman W (also sold as the Roewe 850 in China) to the line up. The Chairman H would continue to be produced until 2014 alongside the Chairman W, whose production ceased in 2017. The Chairman W also utilised various Mercedes-Benz elements but in this case borrowed from the more recent W211 and W220 models. Its performance in the marketplace remained disappointing however; SsangYong was acquired by Mahindra & Mahindra in 2011 and filed for bankruptcy in December of 2020, its future uncertain.
* Sudanese proverb
Thank you for sharing this unknown Chairman, Bruno. My first thought was of a Lexus LS. The see through photo where you can see the engine and drive shaft was used in a similar way in a Lexus add, showing that they were positioned in a straight line. In case of the Chairman this doesn’t seem to be the case, maybe it’s my eyes or the screen, I don’t know.
In the Netherlands I reckon Ssang Yong is best remembered for the Rodius, the car with the added dormer. Nicknames can be cruel, but it’s not hard to see why it was called that.
https://imgur.com/keAl3Ax.jpg
Good morning Freerk. Your photo of the Rodious* highlights one rather neat feature of the design; the way the shape of the tail lights nicely mirrors the DLO above.
* This is not a mis-spelling…😁
Good morning Bruno. The Chairman is an intriguing car in comparison with the 1991 W140 S-Class and its 1999 W220 successor. Stylistically, the Chairman could almost be an interim model, less massive and intimidating than the W140, but more formal and stately than the latter. Of course, in an alternate reality where it was the successor to the W140, that Lexus (and Peugeot 405) side DLO would have to go:
https://i.imgur.com/jbd5Uz8.jpeg
The Chairman looks quite like a four-door C140, so perhaps the best Mercedes could do with it is lower the roofline just a little bit (the sans-quarterlight DLO could stay) and launch it as the C138 CLS at around 1993 🙂
I had a look at a 1989 Mazda 929 the other day. Was the chairman supposed to be along those lines or more like the Toyota Century? Having a car like this in Europe would be impossibly cool. It´d baffle every one,
Hi Richard. You would have to remove the Ssangyong badges and replace them with Mercedes-Benz ones for the full effect!
That thought had crossed my mind. I don´t like badge removal though. I like cars to be OEM, as per the showroom. That said, my XM is now painted a shade of gold not offered by Citroen and the SEi badges are still in the oddments bin in the centre console.
As baffling as the DFSK minivans which had a curious BMW resemblance? I happened to see one at a distance (the best way) today, and it looked like someone had actually applied a BMW badge to it.
If anyone fancies a 2021 Chairman, this Netherlands-based van dealer has two: https://www.basvans.com/vehicles/used/car-ssangyong-chairman-2021-70146827
Used Century imported to the UK. Their own website shows a variety of Japanese imports (though no Figaros, unusually), but the Nissan van in the second link is certainly eye-catching.
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1248600
https://www.thecarwarehouse.co.uk/vehicle/1493/nissan-caravan
Hi Tom. That Century is a lot of car for the money, and nicely understated too. Doubtless, it will run for ever too.
The van is not just eye-catching, it’s positively startling!
Thank you, DTW, for shining your light on all of these wonderful corners of the automobile universe. I have once had the distinct pleasure of being a passenger in a SsangYong Chairman Kaiser. (Kaiser, as far as I understood, denotes the long wheel base version. Is there a better named car?)
It was on a taxi ride from Incheon Airport to Seoul and thanks to a two tier taxi system of black-coloured, higher-end cars metered at a slightly higher fee, vs. the totally acceptable fleet of omni-coloured Hyundai Sonata cabs. During my stay in Korea I made an effort to try as many different black cab models as possible, with the Chairman Kaiser top of the list of course. The legroom was enormous!
Hi Lukas. That ride in a Chairman Kaiser might make you unique amongst DTW’s readership! I am irrationally obsessed with the first model’s ‘S-Class doppelganger’ appearance. The second generation model, the Chairman W, was handsome but more generic and hid its links with Stuttgart rather better:
https://i.imgur.com/HPkeOho.jpeg
There were some fascinating cancelled Ssangyong and other South Korean models.
https://drivetribe.com/p/cancelled-korean-cars-ssangyong-Za95v7yaTZqCTI9rFpgsyA?iid=ThK0c2wiRmSdtmbJLhhmOg
wow…im currently owned a cm400s ie the m111 2.3 litre from w210 …its quite silent inside…the 2.3 cruise effortless on highway ..good fuel consumption too as it comes with 5 speed auto.. the 2.8 & 3.2 comes with the 4 spd auto…soft suspension…everything powered with some bizarre awkward control element..its long but not that wide ..lots of leg room in which i never been in with somebody driving my chairman…