Outlook FINE
KGM’s Tivoli is a perfectly good small SUV. It just needs to be the right price
Sometimes looks can be deceiving. Take the KGM (formerly SsangYong) Tivoli, for example.
Approach it from the front and you would think it was an all-new model, with its angular headlights, slim upper grille and curious red “tabs” being far-removed from the previous model’s more traditional nose.
But step slightly to the side and you will see that the nose is literally all that is different about the Tivoli, with the rest of it being very much business as usual.
Why just slap a totally different nose on it while not bothering to do much anywhere else? Well, that’s all to do with SsangYong’s new identity as KG Mobility (KGM).
The rebrand from SsangYong to KGM follows the company’s purchase by the KG Group in 2022, a Korean chaebol (a family-run conglomerate) that has interests in chemical products and steel, with the company officially changing its name a year ago. Since then, the new branding has been rolling out around the world, with SsangYong New Zealand’s turn coming last month.
And the Tivoli’s new face was one of the early steps in that process. So despite that fresh face (which, let’s face it, looks like an EV, and that certainly won’t have been an accident), the Tivoli is largely the same thing that debuted in 2015 as the first all-new model under Mahindra’s ownership of the brand. It’s actually also still sold in some markets as the Mahindra XUV300 and XUV400 EV.
Which does mean that things are quite dated inside and, well everywhere except for the bits just in front of the bonnet. This is starkly apparent from the tiny 8inch infotainment screen that at least offers Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but little else in the way of modern tech.
The interior is perfectly . . . adequate. Decent quality, but hard plastics dominate proceedings here, which is . . . fine, I guess, while its central stack of infotainment and HVAC controls is reminiscent of an earlier time and utterly tolerable. The thoroughly acceptable (but largely flat) seats are, well, seats and the sound quality of the audio system is spectacularly passable.
Unlike the interior, which is perfectly satisfied with being stuck in 2015, the Tivoli received a new
1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine in 2019, which is hooked up to a six-speed automatic transmission. This too is perfectly adequate, without being exciting in any way. It does that job and that is enough. The transmission shifts gears. I mean, you could be tempted to add in some superlatives like “well” or “fine, I guess” on the end there, but the reality is it simply shifts gears.
SsangYong’s own brochure for the Tivoli heads up the section about the powertrain with “solid performance” and this description really is perfectly adequate too. Solid, but utterly unspectacular.
All of which is rather viciously damning the Tivoli with faint praise, which it largely deserves. But being perfectly adequate isn’t a crime, and it certainly isn’t necessarily a bad thing in a car. After all, if the price is right, being perfectly adequate could be a very good thing.
Just look at the Mitsubishi ASX — a perfectly adequate car for between $27,990 that does everything you really need, but not a lot more. But then, for under $30k, you don’t expect a lot more. You can get more expensive versions that offer more tech, leather and panoramic sunroofs, but it still tops out at $36k.
Unfortunately for the Tivoli Turbo Limited, when we drove it the retail price was $42,990, which is where you do expect more than just perfectly adequate.
Funnily enough, at the time of writing the official price dropped to $35,990 (or $32,990 for the entry Sport). Better, much better.