SsangYong Tivoli (2024) Review

ON a bitterly cold day the delivery driver points out two very important switches.

“You might need these in this weather,” he says, explaining the controls. One has the moniker of a heated seat, the other a heated steering wheel and both are welcome features of this KGM SUV – I love it.

Tivoli is a quirky, appealing, SUV from Korean manufacturer KGM (which used to be SsangYong by the way).

Those two switches give you a warm sensation in your lower intestines both metaphorically and literally.

I might have known that doing a bit of work in local primary schools would bite me and sure enough a few days later I’m full of cold. When it’s cold outside and you have the lurgy work becomes a tough gig and all you want really is to take to you bed.

But man flu doesn’t exist, apparently, and the Tivoli helps me solider on. Crank up the heated seats and leave the heated steering permanently on and you feel as good as you would necking a Lemsip. It’s not to be underestimated.

The heated seats sooth away your aches and pains bringing instant comfort to your virus infected body and having warm hands instead of cold numb ones leaves you able to kid yourself you are feeling better.

The features certainly make you warm to the Tivoli, an unconventional looking, but striking, small SUV, as do the easy to use controls and decent infotainment centre. It’s touchscreen technology but there are also plenty of switches so you needn’t worry if you are a bit of a technophobe.

Given it’s not the biggest of SUVs there’s a surprising amount of interior space. When you are sitting in the driver’s seats and glance across to your passenger it looks remarkably roomy and I manage to get a tree in the back quite easily by dropping the larger section of the asymmetrically split rear seats, leaving room for a passenger in the back. Sorry about the needles valeters.

Tivoli is also great to drive. There’s a turbo-charged 1.5 litre under the bonnet and it has bags of power, 163PS to be precise. Couple that with an excellent six speed automatic gearbox and you have a vehicle with decent performance for cruising, overtaking and climbing hills, all of which it does in a more than accomplished fashion.

That level of performance does hit economy. The best I can manage is 36mpg and under normal driving conditions it loiters around the 32mpg mark. It could probably do with being a hybrid for better fuel consumption to be honest.

Handling is good and the ride is nice and comfortable. The positive steering makes it a pleasure to drive along twisty roads and there is hill decent control, a life-saver when the surface become slippery.

Tivoli takes its name from the Italian town near Rome with a reputation for style, cultural heritage and beauty. There are so many SUVs to choose from but few as distinctive and good value for money as the KGM, with looks that are angular, aggressive and extremely contemporary.

With heated seats and steering wheel you can’t fail to warm to the KGM and when you are feeling under the weather it proves to be the perfect vehicle to drive.

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