There are plenty of pickups now that seem to have slightly forgotten what pickups are actually for. Some have become lifestyle statements, some are trying very hard to be premium SUVs with a load bed, and some feel like they were designed for people who want to look outdoorsy, but whose toughest weekly job is reversing over a kerb at the garden centre.
The new KGM Musso Rhino does not feel like one of those. This is still, first and foremost, a working pickup. It has a proper ladder-frame chassis, selectable four-wheel drive with low range, a 2.2-litre diesel engine, a 3.5-tonne towing capacity and, most importantly, the ability to tow that weight while still carrying a serious load in the back.
That last point matters far more than most people realise. Plenty of pickups will shout about a 3.5-tonne towing capacity, but once you start looking at payload, gross train weight and what you can legally and practically carry at the same time, the picture often becomes a lot less impressive. The Musso Rhino is different. In standard Rhino form, it has a 1,090kg payload and a 6,750kg gross train weight. Step up to the longer Rhino+ and that increases to a 1,200kg payload and a 6,900kg gross train weight.
In plain English, this is not just a truck that can tow. It is a truck that can tow while still doing work. For farmers, contractors, equestrian users, rural businesses and anyone who regularly finds themselves with a trailer on the back and something unpleasant, heavy or awkward in the bed, those numbers are not just brochure filler. They are the numbers that decide whether a pickup is genuinely useful or just good at looking the part.
Prices start from £38,995 plus VAT for the Musso Rhino, with the Rhino+ costing £1,000 more. Including VAT, that puts the standard Rhino at £46,794 and the Rhino+ at £47,994. That is not cheap, because nothing is anymore, but in the current pickup market it still looks like strong value, especially when you consider the equipment included as standard.
And that, really, is where the Musso has always made sense. It may not have the badge pull of a Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger or Isuzu D-Max, but for people who actually sit down and look at the numbers, the Musso has long been the thinking person’s pickup. It tows well, carries well, comes loaded with kit and tends to cost less than the more obvious choices.
The new Rhino aims to keep that formula, but with a tougher look, more technology and a more polished cabin. So, after driving it on-road, off-road, towing lightly and back-to-back with the new Musso EV, is it still the pickup farmers should be paying attention to? I think the answer is yes, but there are a few things worth understanding first.
What Is the KGM Musso Rhino?
The Musso Rhino is effectively KGM’s new flagship diesel pickup. KGM, formerly SsangYong, has always had a slightly strange position in the UK market. Among people who know, the brand has a strong reputation for towing, value and warranty cover. Among everyone else, it still suffers from a bit of badge snobbery, which is a shame because the actual vehicles have often been far more useful than people give them credit for.
The outgoing Musso was a great example of that. It was not the most glamorous pickup on sale, but it had proper capability, strong towing credentials and a very generous specification for the money. This new Musso Rhino builds on that.
KGM says the Rhino is 75% new compared with the outgoing model. From behind the wheel, some of that is more obvious than other bits. The basic working formula feels familiar, and the drivetrain is not a wild departure, but externally, it looks like a completely different animal.
The old Musso was never ugly, but it did look a little soft in places. Capable, yes. Sensible, definitely. But it did not exactly storm into the yard and make a statement. The new Rhino does. The front end is much squarer, more upright and far more assertive. It now has the sort of blunt, tough face that suits a working truck.
I know we are all meant to pretend styling does not matter on a commercial vehicle, but it absolutely does. If you are spending the best part of £50,000 including VAT, you want to park it in the yard, look back at it and think, “yes, that’ll do.” The Rhino gives you that.
Thankfully, KGM has not gone completely overboard. It does not look like it is trying to invade a small country, and it has not been ruined with fake vents, ridiculous plastic add-ons or styling nonsense for the sake of it. It just looks tougher, broader and more purposeful than before. It looks like a pickup designed for people who actually need a pickup, which is a very good start.
The Key Numbers
Before getting too carried away with heated seats, screens and whether the front end looks good in a farmyard, we need to talk numbers, because for this sort of vehicle, numbers matter.
The Musso Rhino uses KGM’s 2.2-litre e-XDi turbo diesel engine, producing 202PS and 400Nm of torque. That is paired with a six-speed Aisin automatic gearbox, not an eight-speed, which is what I initially thought, because apparently my brain now assumes everything modern has eight gears, a mild-hybrid system and an app to open the glovebox.
Drive is sent through a selectable four-wheel drive system, with 2H, 4H and 4L modes. That means you can run it in two-wheel drive on the road, shift into four-wheel drive when conditions require it, and still have low range when things get properly awkward.
Towing capacity is 3,500kg. Payload is 1,090kg on the standard Rhino and 1,200kg on the Rhino+. Gross train weight is 6,750kg on the Rhino and 6,900kg on the Rhino+. Those figures are what make the Musso stand out.
It is not just the 3.5-tonne towing figure that matters. Plenty of pickups can claim that. The more important bit is the gross train weight, because that tells you whether the vehicle can still carry a proper load while towing heavily.
If you are towing livestock, machinery, fencing gear, feed, equipment or anything else that tends to be heavy, awkward or both, this is where the Musso makes a strong case for itself. In Rhino+ form especially, the ability to tow 3.5 tonnes and still have a 1,200kg payload is a serious selling point. For a working user, that is much more useful than a fancy badge.
Rhino or Rhino+?
This is probably the most important buying decision in the range. The standard Rhino is the shorter version. It has a load bed measuring 1,300mm long, 1,570mm wide and 570mm deep. You still get a bed liner, LED load bed lighting, rear bumper corner steps and eight tie-down hooks as standard, which is all good stuff.
The issue is the bed length. I daily drive an old D40 Navara with the longer bed, and I use it properly. It tows, it carries parts, tools, wheels, rubbish, oily things, wet things, dusty things and plenty of stuff that probably should have been strapped down better than it was. Once you are used to that extra bed length, you notice when it is missing.
The standard Rhino’s bed will be fine for plenty of users. If you are carrying tools, feed bags, smaller equipment, dog boxes, fencing gear, chainsaws, buckets, boots, waterproofs and the general collection of things that seem to live in a working pickup, it will do the job. But if you regularly carry longer loads, or you want the most useful version for farm work, I would be looking very closely at the Rhino+.
The Rhino+ increases the bed length to 1,610mm, which is a meaningful difference. It also raises payload to 1,200kg and has a 6,900kg gross train weight. It is only £1,000 more plus VAT than the standard Rhino, and to me, that seems like money well spent.
The standard Rhino looks slightly neater and will be a bit easier to live with in tighter spaces, but for actual work, the Rhino+ is the one that makes the most sense. If you are buying one to be a family pickup that also does occasional jobs, the standard Rhino might be enough. If it is going to earn its keep, take the longer bed. That is not me being dramatic. It is just the reality of using a pickup. You rarely wish you had a smaller load bed.
The Route
Our test route started from Mollie’s Diner near Faringdon, before heading along the A420, up the A417 and towards an off-road course near Cirencester. That gave us a useful mix of driving, including fast A-roads, dual carriageway, traffic, roundabouts and, because traffic decided to be traffic, some proper rural lanes.
That is where a pickup needs to feel at home. Narrow roads, broken edges, muddy verges, blind bends, potholes, gateways, tractors, vans, trailers and people in SUVs who suddenly forget how wide their vehicle is when they meet something coming the other way. Familiar territory, basically.
It was also useful because we drove to the off-road course in the new Musso EV, then drove back in the diesel Musso Rhino. That gave us a very good back-to-back comparison between the two. The EV is smoother, quieter and quicker off the mark, which is no surprise, as electric vehicles always feel punchy at low speed because the torque is instant. Around town, on short journeys and for lighter-duty use, I can see why some buyers would be tempted by it.
But for farming, towing and proper work, the diesel Rhino still feels like the one you would actually want. The EV has its place, but the diesel has the numbers, and numbers matter more than novelty when you have a trailer behind you.
On the Road
On the road, the Musso Rhino feels like a pickup. That may sound obvious, but it is worth saying because a lot of modern pickups try very hard not to. Some are so determined to feel like SUVs that they lose a bit of their working character along the way.
The Rhino does not hide what it is. You can feel the ladder-frame chassis, the heavy-duty suspension and the fact it has been built to tow and carry rather than waft around pretending to be a luxury estate car. Unladen, the ride is firm. There is also a slightly bouncy sensation over uneven surfaces, especially on rougher rural roads. It is not uncomfortable, but it is noticeable.
Personally, it did not bother me too much. Again, I spend most of my life cutting about in an old D40 Navara with heavy-duty springs, so my idea of ride comfort has probably been ruined by years of leaf springs, rattles and pretending “it’s meant to feel like that.” But for the average user, especially someone coming out of a softer SUV or a pickup that spends most of its life empty, the Musso may feel a bit odd at first.
It is not harsh in a horrible way. It just feels like a vehicle that has been set up to carry weight, and that is the trade-off. A pickup that can tow 3.5 tonnes while carrying over a tonne in the back is not going to glide over the road like a Range Rover. It needs proper suspension. It needs to be able to control weight. It needs to feel composed with a trailer on the back and a load in the bed.
Empty, that can make it feel firm and busy. Loaded, I suspect it would make far more sense. That is often the way with proper working pickups. Judge them completely empty and you are only seeing half the story.
The steering is light enough around tighter roads and yards, and it does not feel too cumbersome once you are used to the size. Visibility is good, and the 360-degree camera system is genuinely useful. That is not just a gimmick on a vehicle like this. Around gates, sheds, walls, trailers, machinery and low posts that appear to have been placed specifically to ruin your bumper, cameras are a real help.
Road noise and wind noise were also better than expected. The road cars were fitted with Maxxis all-terrain tyres, and even then, the cabin stayed impressively quiet. We were able to talk normally without raising our voices, which is more than can be said for some pickups where motorway speeds make conversation feel like you are standing next to a running PTO shaft. For a working truck, the Rhino is surprisingly civilised. It is firm, yes, but it is not crude.
Engine and Gearbox
Under the bonnet is KGM’s 2.2-litre e-XDi diesel engine, producing 202PS and 400Nm of torque. That puts it roughly where you would expect a modern diesel pickup to be. Not outrageous, but competitive enough on paper.
The six-speed Aisin automatic gearbox is smooth and generally well suited to the truck. Aisin gearboxes have a good reputation, and in a working pickup, I would rather have a proven six-speed automatic than something more complicated that looks better in a brochure but gives you a headache later.
The engine is quiet enough, smooth enough and perfectly happy once moving. On faster roads it settles down well, and it never feels strained in normal driving. However, I did find it a little flat off the mark.
It does not have quite the initial shove I expected. Compared with the Musso EV, it obviously feels slower, because electric motors make everything feel slightly lazy by comparison. But even compared with the outgoing diesel Musso, this new Rhino felt a touch more restrained. Not slow, just slightly tamed.
I suspect KGM has tuned it with durability, towing, emissions and long-term reliability in mind, rather than giving it an aggressive throttle map to make it feel punchier on a short test drive. To be honest, for the intended buyer, that is probably the right decision.
This is not a performance car. It is a working pickup. Nobody is buying a Musso Rhino because they want to launch it away from the lights like a Golf R with a load bed. What matters is whether it pulls properly with weight behind it, whether the gearbox behaves sensibly and whether the engine feels like it will keep doing the job for years.
Still, I would have liked a little more low-down urgency. A simple remap would probably wake it up, though obviously that is not me officially telling you to remap your brand-new pickup and upset the warranty department before the first finance payment has cleared. But the thought did cross my mind.
Towing and Carrying
We did tow with the Musso Rhino, although I should be clear that it was with an incredibly light trailer. So light, in fact, that it did not really give the truck much to think about.
The Rhino pulled it without any drama, but then it should. A trailer that light behind a pickup with a 3.5-tonne towing capacity is not exactly a full examination. It is a bit like asking a sheepdog to keep an eye on one lamb in a garden.
Still, it gave us a chance to feel the basics. The engine and gearbox worked smoothly, the truck felt stable, and there was no sense of it being unsettled with a trailer behind it. Visibility was good, the reversing aids were useful, and the general towing manners felt perfectly natural.
But I would not call it a proper tow test. For that, I would want to get the Musso back to Wales and put it to work properly. A stock box, a loaded trailer, some hills, wet lanes, awkward yards and the sort of roads where you actually find out whether a pickup is any good would tell us far more.
That is where the Musso’s figures become interesting. The Rhino can tow 3.5 tonnes, which is the maximum braked towing figure you would expect from a serious pickup. More importantly, it can do that while still carrying a proper payload.
That is where the Musso stands apart from a lot of the market. For farmers and rural users, towing is not a theoretical number. It is not something you mention once a year when someone asks what the truck can pull. It is part of the job.
Livestock trailers, stock boxes, flatbeds, plant trailers, horseboxes, feed trailers, machinery, fencing gear, cars, hay and whatever else needs dragging from one place to another because apparently the day was not already busy enough. A pickup needs to feel stable, predictable and strong when doing that.
The Musso has always had a good reputation here, and the new Rhino continues with the same working-first attitude. The gross train weight figures are the headline. 6,750kg for the Rhino and 6,900kg for the Rhino+ are serious numbers in this class.
That means the Rhino+ can legally combine a 3.5-tonne trailer with its 1,200kg payload, provided everything else is loaded correctly and within the rules. That is exactly the sort of detail that makes a difference in real use.
Because carrying weight in the bed while towing is not some obscure edge case. It is what people actually do. You hook up a trailer, then realise you also need tools, bags, fencing posts, feed, buckets, straps, oil, spare wheels, waterproofs and three things you forgot were already in the back. That is working pickup life.
Based on the light tow we did, the Rhino feels composed and natural with a trailer behind it, but the real test will be getting it back on Welsh roads with something properly heavy on the hitch. That is the test I am most interested in.
Off Road
The off-road section of the launch was where the Rhino started to really make sense. The course was not a deep, axle-deep bog, and it was not some ridiculous rock-crawling course designed to make a press photo look heroic. It was hard-packed, rough, uneven and fast enough in places to feel like real rural use.
In other words, more relevant than most off-road demonstrations.
The off-road Rhinos were fitted with Bridgestone AT K03 tyres, which immediately gave them a more purposeful feel. Combined with the increased ride height, the truck looked and felt far more confident than the outgoing model.
That increased ride height is one of the biggest real-world improvements to the new Rhino. This is not just a case of making it look a bit tougher for the brochure. It genuinely feels more capable because of it.
In the outgoing Musso, you were always slightly aware of the underside when pushing across rougher ground. It was capable, but there was that little voice in the back of your head reminding you that rocks, ruts, banks and hidden lumps in fields are not especially kind to anything hanging low. The Rhino feels far more confident.
You can actually shove it down a field or across rough ground without constantly worrying that you are about to smash the underneath to bits. That makes a huge difference in real use. On a farm, off-roading is not usually about dramatic angles and carefully posed photos. It is about getting across a field quickly, reaching a shed, checking stock, dragging something back, or taking the most direct route because the gateway you actually wanted is somehow always at the wrong end.
That extra height gives the truck a much better sense of clearance and confidence. It feels less precious, less vulnerable and much more like a pickup that has been designed with proper rural use in mind.
What impressed me most was how composed it felt over rough ground at speed. There was one section that felt very similar to cutting across a field quickly. Not extreme off-roading. Not staged nonsense. Just the sort of thing a pickup on a farm might do regularly. Across a field, down a track, through a yard, up to a shed, out to check stock, back to pick something up, then off again because the job you thought would take five minutes has somehow eaten half a day.
The Rhino handled that very well. It felt planted, solid and robust. It did not crash around, it did not feel fragile, and it did not give the impression that the off-road styling was just there for show.
The selectable 4×4 system gives you proper control, with two-wheel drive for normal road use, four-wheel drive high range for slippery or loose surfaces, and low range for slower, tougher work. That matters. There are many vehicles now that look rugged, but rely heavily on electronics and optimism. The Musso still has the hardware you want from a proper working 4×4.
The extra ground clearance was also noticeable. It gives you a bit more confidence over ruts, banks, rough tracks and uneven ground. Again, this is not about pretending everyone will take one green-laning every weekend. It is about the sort of everyday off-road use that rural vehicles deal with all the time, from muddy gateways and steep tracks to wet grass, loose stone and fields that were definitely firmer yesterday. The Rhino felt built for it.
Ride Comfort and the Bouncy Feeling
The ride comfort deserves its own section because it is something buyers should understand before they drive one. The Musso Rhino is firm when empty, and there is no point pretending otherwise.
On smoother roads it feels composed and quiet, but on broken lanes and rougher surfaces, there is a bouncy, slightly unsettled feel that some drivers may not expect. Again, I did not find it a problem. I am used to pickups. I own and use my old D40 with heavy-duty springs everyday, so I am very familiar with the way a truck can feel when it has been built to carry rather than comfort you.
But if you are coming from an SUV, a softer pickup or even a car-derived van, the Rhino will feel different. That is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of that firmness is the price you pay for proper payload and towing ability. If you want a vehicle to legally carry over a tonne and tow 3.5 tonnes, it needs to be sprung and damped accordingly. You cannot have everything.
You can either have a pickup that feels soft and plush when empty, or one that feels properly controlled when loaded. The Musso clearly leans towards the latter, and for farmers, contractors and working users, that is probably the better compromise. An empty ride that feels a bit busy is easier to live with than a loaded truck that wallows about like a boat.
I would be very interested to drive the Rhino with weight in the bed or a proper trailer behind it, because I suspect that is when the chassis setup would start to feel much more natural. Empty, it reminds you it is a working pickup. Loaded, I think it would feel like it has been waiting for you to stop messing about and give it a job.
Interior: Better, But Still Sensible
The interior is a big step forward. The old Musso was functional and well equipped, but it never felt especially modern. This new Rhino feels much more up to date, with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 12.3-inch infotainment screen giving the cabin a cleaner, more contemporary look.
The infotainment system was responsive during our time with it, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are now included. That alone makes day-to-day use much easier, especially if you jump in and out of vehicles often and cannot be bothered with cables dangling everywhere.
You also get wireless phone charging, dual-zone automatic climate control, Nappa leather upholstery, heated and ventilated front seats, heated outer rear seats, smart key, remote engine start and a 360-degree camera system. That is a lot of kit, but the best interior feature is not the screen. It is the physical climate controls.
That might sound ridiculous, but in a working pickup, it is genuinely important. This is a vehicle that will be used by people wearing gloves, with cold hands, wet hands, muddy hands or hands covered in something that absolutely should not be smeared across a touchscreen.
Physical buttons and dials are common sense. KGM has understood that, and I am grateful for it. You can adjust the temperature, fan speed and main climate functions without digging through menus or stabbing at a glossy screen like you are trying to operate a cash machine in a thunderstorm.
Modern manufacturers have become obsessed with moving everything onto touchscreens, usually in the name of “minimalism”, which often just means “we made it harder to use but it looks cleaner in a photo.” The Rhino avoids that mistake.
For a farming audience, that matters. A pickup interior does not need to be overly simple, but it does need to be usable. You should be able to get in with work clothes, boots, gloves, dogs, dust and general chaos, and still operate the basic controls without feeling like the vehicle was designed by someone who has never left an office. The Rhino’s cabin feels more realistic than that.
Comfort and Space
The Musso has always been strong on cabin space, and the new Rhino continues that. For a double cab, it is roomy. There is plenty of space up front, and rear passengers are not treated like an afterthought. That matters if the truck is going to double as a family vehicle, staff transport or just something that regularly carries more than one person and a collection of coats.
The seats are comfortable, and on the warm day we drove it, the ventilated front seats were a genuine highlight. I know ventilated leather seats in a pickup sounds a bit fancy, but spend a day getting in and out of a truck in hot weather and they suddenly make a lot of sense. They go from “luxury nonsense” to “why does everything not have this?” very quickly.
The front seats are also heated, and the outer rear seats get two-stage heating. Again, heated rear seats in a pickup might sound excessive, but if you have ever climbed into the back of a truck after a cold morning outside, you will understand.
The cabin also feels much quieter than you might expect. Wind and tyre noise were well controlled, even on all-terrain tyres. That makes a difference on longer journeys, especially if the vehicle has to do both work and family duties. This is one of the Musso’s strengths. It still feels like a working truck, but it no longer feels like you are being punished for using it every day.
Practicality and Storage
A pickup cabin needs to do more than look smart. It needs to deal with real life. That means storage, wipeable surfaces, easy controls, cupholders that can handle more than a decorative espresso, and enough room for all the random things that end up in a working vehicle.
The Rhino does well here. The cabin feels spacious, the driving position is good, and the general layout is sensible. The materials feel more premium than before, but not so delicate that you feel guilty getting in with dirty boots.
That balance is important. There is no point making a pickup interior so precious that the first muddy coat feels like vandalism. Equally, there is no need for a modern truck to feel like a shipping container with seats. The Rhino sits somewhere in the middle. It is comfortable, well equipped and modern, but still practical enough to suit working use.
The 360-degree camera system is one of the most useful features. Around town it helps with parking, but in rural use it could be even more valuable. Manoeuvring around buildings, reversing near trailers, checking clearance around gates, avoiding low walls and generally trying not to reverse into something expensive are all made easier. Pickups are big now, so a camera system is not just a luxury. It is damage prevention.
The Load Bed
The load bed is where the Rhino needs to prove itself. On the standard Rhino, the bed measures 1,300mm long, 1,570mm wide and 570mm deep. Cargo volume is 1,010 litres. On the Rhino+, the bed length increases to 1,610mm and cargo volume rises to 1,262 litres.
Both versions come with a bed liner, LED load bed light, rear bumper corner steps and eight tie-down hooks. The tie-down hooks are worth mentioning because there are eight of them and they are positioned at varying heights. That is exactly the sort of detail that makes a pickup easier to live with.
Anyone who actually uses a load bed will know how annoying badly placed tie-downs can be. You end up fighting straps, improvising angles and securing loads in a way that technically works but makes you feel like you have committed several health and safety crimes. The Musso’s setup is much better.
The rear bumper corner steps are useful too. Climbing in and out of a pickup bed is rarely graceful, especially if the ground is wet, the bed is full, or you have just remembered you are not as flexible as you were at 19. Anything that makes access easier is welcome.
There are also options for a canopy or an electric roller shutter, which will matter to a lot of buyers. Tool theft, pickup theft and general rural crime are all big concerns now, so anything that helps secure the load area is worth considering. In a world of nabbed Hiluxes, a bit more security is never a bad thing.
For me, though, the Rhino+ remains the more appealing version. The standard bed is usable, but the longer bed gives the vehicle a broader working ability. If you are buying this for farm use, I would find it very hard not to spend the extra £1,000 plus VAT.
Diesel Versus Musso EV
Driving the Musso EV and diesel Rhino back-to-back was useful, because they are clearly aimed at different buyers. The EV is quieter, smoother and quicker away from a standstill. For short journeys, urban fleets, local authority use or businesses looking at tax and emissions, it could make a lot of sense.
But for traditional rural work, the diesel remains the serious option. The Musso EV’s towing and payload figures are lower than the diesel Rhino’s, and that immediately changes who it suits. If you are mostly doing shorter trips, lighter loads and predictable journeys, the EV is interesting. If you need to tow heavily, carry weight and head out without thinking too much about range, charging or what the day might turn into, the diesel is still the safer bet.
That is not anti-EV. It is just realistic. Farming rarely sticks to the plan. You might start the day thinking you are doing a few local runs, then end up towing, collecting, delivering, moving, checking and generally being dragged into jobs that were definitely not on the list.
A diesel pickup still fits that world better. The EV will suit some people. The diesel Rhino will suit the people who need a pickup because they actually need a pickup.
Equipment
The Musso Rhino comes very well equipped as standard. You get the twin 12.3-inch displays, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless charging, Nappa leather seats, heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, dual-zone climate control, 360-degree camera, smart key, remote engine start, bed liner, LED load bed lighting, eight tie-down hooks and rear bumper corner steps.
That is a strong list, and it is one of the reasons the Musso continues to make sense. With some rivals, you have to climb far up the range or start ticking options to get this sort of equipment. With the Rhino, much of it is included.
For private buyers, that makes it feel good value. For business users, it means you can put someone in a truck that feels properly equipped without needing to go near the very top end of the pickup market.
There is also KGM’s five-year / 100,000-mile warranty, which is important. A pickup used for real work has a harder life than most vehicles. Towing, rough tracks, winter salt, muddy yards, heavy loads and constant short trips are not easy on anything. A decent warranty gives some peace of mind, especially from a brand still working to build its reputation in the UK.
What Would It Be Like to Live With?
Based on this first drive, I think the Musso Rhino would be very easy to live with if you understand what it is. It is not trying to be a soft lifestyle SUV. It is not the plushest pickup on the market. It is not the quickest off the line. And if you drive it empty over rough roads expecting it to feel like a luxury car, you will probably wonder why it feels a bit bouncy.
But use it as intended, and it starts to make far more sense. The cabin is quiet and comfortable. The equipment level is strong. The towing and payload figures are excellent. The bed is well thought out, especially with the eight tie-down hooks. The 4×4 system is proper. The off-road ability feels genuine. And the price, while not small, is competitive for what you get.
The increased ride height is one of the most meaningful changes. It does not just make the Rhino look tougher; it makes it feel more usable. You can push it across rough ground with far more confidence, without constantly worrying about catching the underside on ruts, banks or whatever else is hiding in the grass.
For me, the Musso Rhino feels like a pickup built around real use rather than image. That is exactly why it should appeal to farmers and rural buyers. It may not be the default choice, but it is a very logical one.
Things I Liked
The first thing I liked was the way it looks. That might sound shallow, but the new front end has transformed the Musso. It now has presence. It looks more confident, more modern and more like a proper working truck.
The increased ride height is also a major improvement. This is not just a visual change; it genuinely makes the truck feel more capable. You can shove it down a field, across a track or through rough ground without that constant worry that you are about to take half the underside off.
I was also impressed by the off-road composure. Across rough ground, especially at speed, it felt solid and capable. It did not feel like it was pretending. The cabin is much better than before too, but still sensible. The screens are good, the kit level is strong, the seats are comfortable and the physical climate controls are exactly what a pickup needs.
The load bed details are another strong point. Eight tie-down points, a liner, lighting and corner steps all show that someone has thought about how the truck will actually be used. And finally, I liked the numbers. A 3.5-tonne towing capacity, up to 1,200kg payload and 6,900kg gross train weight in Rhino+ form make this a genuinely serious working pickup.
Things I Did Not Like
The engine could do with more initial shove. It is not underpowered in a way that ruins the vehicle, but it does feel a little flat off the line. I would have liked a bit more low-down punch, especially given how strong some modern pickups feel now.
The ride is also firm when unladen. Again, that is not a deal-breaker, and I understand why it is set up that way, but it is something buyers should be aware of.
The standard Rhino bed is the other main issue. It is usable, but for serious work, I think the Rhino+ makes much more sense. If you are used to a longer-bed pickup, the standard version may feel compromised. None of these are huge problems, but they are worth knowing.
Who Should Buy One?
The Musso Rhino makes most sense for people who use a pickup properly. Farmers, smallholders, contractors, equestrian users, rural businesses, forestry workers, builders and anyone who regularly tows or carries weight should have it on their list.
It is especially strong for buyers who care more about capability, warranty and value than badge image. If you want the most fashionable pickup, you will probably still buy a Ranger. If you want the one everyone expects to see on a farm, you may still end up in a Hilux. If you want something that makes a very strong case on towing, payload, equipment and price, the Musso Rhino deserves serious attention.
For private buyers who just want a nice-looking pickup, the standard Rhino will be more than enough. For working users, I would go Rhino+. The longer bed, higher payload and greater gross train weight make it the more useful vehicle, and the price difference is small enough that it seems like the obvious choice.
Verdict
The new KGM Musso Rhino is a proper pickup, which sounds simple, but is becoming less common. It has not forgotten what this sort of vehicle is supposed to do. It can tow 3.5 tonnes, carry over a tonne, run in proper low-range four-wheel drive, deal with rough ground and still be comfortable enough to use every day.
It is not perfect. The engine could do with more low-speed punch, the ride is firm when empty, and the standard bed will be too short for some working users.
The towing test we did was only with a very light trailer, so I am not going to pretend it fully proved the Rhino’s 3.5-tonne credentials. What it did show was that the basics feel right. The truck felt stable, settled and completely unbothered. The real test will be getting one back to Wales, loading it properly with a stock box or a heavier trailer, and seeing how it copes on the sort of hills, lanes and yards that actually matter.
As a package, though, it is very convincing. The Musso has always been a sensible choice for people who look past the badge and focus on what a pickup can actually do. This new Rhino keeps that sensible core, but adds a stronger design, a better interior, more useful technology and a very generous specification.
For farmers and rural users, the appeal is obvious. It has the numbers that matter. It has the towing capacity, the payload, the gross train weight, the 4×4 hardware, the extra ride height and the warranty. It also has enough comfort and equipment to make long days behind the wheel much easier.
The Rhino+ is the version I would buy. The standard Rhino is good, but the longer bed and higher payload make the Rhino+ the more complete working truck.
The pickup market is full of vehicles trying to be everything to everyone. The Musso Rhino feels more focused than that. It is a working truck with a bit of polish, and for a lot of people, that is exactly what a pickup should be.