Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the suv segment and utilize the same 3-door suv body style and the 4 x 4 wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Mercedes Benz-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 18-valves 218hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 8-valves 82hp engine designed by Lada.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the suv segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the Korean car offers a self-explainatory difference of 52% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Lada does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of SSangYong with an average rating of 4.4, and models under the Lada badge with 4.3 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Korando as average reliability-wise, and Niva is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the Korean car rank it on average as 4.6, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.0 out of 5.

SSangYong is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 9.2 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 188 kilometers per hour, 51km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the Russian car, averaging around 10.6 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (27 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 50% difference compared to the Korean car!

Lada appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the Korean car beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. It all continues in the same direction, with SSangYong outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... It's really tough to make a final decision here, but if I'd need to, I'd say SSangYong. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser™, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.