Currently reading: Ssangyong can't pay staff
Manufacturer is more than £50m in debt and can't pay salaries for December

Korean carmaker Ssangyong cannot afford to pay its December salaries and has confirmed it’s more than £50m in debt.

“Due to lack of operating funds for December, it is impossible for the company to pay salaries any longer,” Ssangyong told workers in a letter last Friday.

Korea’s smallest manufacturer turned to its parent company Shanghai Automotive Industry in China for emergency funds, but the request was refused.

The firm employs about 8000 staff in Korean. Shanghai Automotive bought the majority stake three years ago.

The Ssangyong executive committee now plans a protest rally against its Chinese management, according to Korean newspaper Chosun.

Ssangyong sales in Korea have dropped by more than a third in the last year. It’s already shut 60 dealers in the country.

In the UK Ssangyong has sold 595 cars to date this year, compared with 1299 during the same period last year.

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Chunkster 29 December 2008

Re: Ssangyong can't pay staff

Yes, All Ssangyongs are ugly. Period.

People originally bought Ssangyongs because they had Mercedes engines and transmissions in them. Some were even compelled to put the Mercedes three-pointed stars onto them......................Shameless.

But before you ignorant Brits start chastising about how ugly Ssangyongs are. Just bear in mind that they are all designed by a Brit named Ken Greenley (ex-Jaguar). Don't let this bit of news startle you. Keep laughing!

TheStig 25 December 2008

Re: Ssangyong can't pay staff

DelgadosKnee wrote:
How can I find out who the 1,894 people who bought Ssangyongs in this coutry in the last two years were and shouldn't their names appear on some form of register of the clinically insane?

Absolutely agree. Even people who don't know much about cars must admit that SsangYong has the most ugly range of cars in the world. The only way a sane person could buy one is when having extremely bad eyesight (i.e. blind) and swayed by not-very-well-meaning friends by the price.

julianphillips 23 December 2008

Re: Ssangyong can't pay staff

You'd have to be barking mad to buy one.