KGM Motors Tivoli Review & Prices

If you’re in the market for a small SUV then you might take a look at the KGM Motors Tivoli with interest. After all, any bargain hunter knows that you can’t always judge a book by its cover, and that the weird gadgets from unknown companies can sometimes be as good as or better than the name brands, while being much cheaper.

However, in the case of the KGM Tivoli, you get what you pay for. If the great-value Dacia Duster is one of those budget bargain gadgets, the Tivoli is the one that you buy from a slightly dodgy website and suffer exorbitant postage and hidden charges.

And it’s not as if the Tivoli is in a class of one - there are dozens of really great small SUVs available all vying for your attention. The Ford Puma, Toyota Yaris Cross and Volkswagen T-Cross are all roomy, great to drive and cheap to run, while the Citroen C3, Dacia Duster and Renault Captur come close to the Tivoli in outright purchase price - but with fewer compromises.

Those with a long memory might remember that this car wasn’t always called the KGM Tivoli. KGM is the brand formerly known as SsangYong, and it’s sold the Tivoli since 2015. When SssangYong rebranded to KGM, the Tivoli underwent a visual upgrade, bringing with it the cool-looking asymmetric grille - though not much else has changed.

At least with a Tivoli you don’t have to compromise on space. The Tivoli’s boot is big at 427 litres in capacity, beating out the Skoda Kamiq though it’s bested by the Ford Puma’s 456 litres. The Tivoli also has a very roomy back seat, and it’s quite tall for a small SUV so you can sit nice and upright, improving legroom.

There’s lots of space in the front too though it’s here you’ll have to confront the Tivoli’s dashboard. Yes, it has a lot of functions - all models have a touchscreen infotainment system with smartphone connectivity and a reversing camera, heated front seats and climate and cruise control. 

However, everything feels very cheap and nasty. The system is filled with irritating bongs, the interface is poor and not at all easy to navigate, and generally the Tivoli just feels very antiquated.

It feels that way behind the wheel too. While the KGM Tivoli’s 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine actually puts out a decent amount of power - giving reasonably muscular performance - the price you pay is that it’s noisy, unrefined and incredibly thirsty. Fuel returns of less than 30mpg are to be expected during town driving - that’s dreadful.

However, if the combination of low purchase price and lots of equipment means more to you than driving dynamics or running costs, then perhaps this is the car for you - if so, check out the latest deals on Carwow here. You could also find used examples from before the manufacturer’s rebrand by browsing our used SsangYong deals - and remember that when the time comes, Carwow can help you sell your car online too.

The KGM Tivoli kicks off at just over £20,000, which is cheap considering the level of standard equipment and the powerful engine. It’s undercut by the likes of the Dacia Duster and Citroen C3 Aircross, but is significantly cheaper than a Volkswagen T-Cross or Ford Puma.

Stepping up to the higher trim level brings a few extra niceties including posher alloy wheels, more assisted driving tech and a bigger infotainment screen with nav. You can also step up to an automatic transmission for an extra cost.

Quite powerful, but feels old-fashioned to drive

In town

Visibility is good around town, but the Tivoli isn’t much fun to drive in the city thanks to heavy steering and suspension that can seem to accentuate bumps rather than ironing them out. You never feel like you’re going to bottom out - which is good - but you’ll want to take speed bumps quite slowly unless you want your passengers’ heads to hit the ceiling.

Power is delivered from the Tivoli’s engine in a fairly lumpy way, with flat spots followed by big surges. This doesn’t make it especially easy to drive smoothly, especially in stop-start traffic, and that’s not helped if you go for the optional six-speed automatic gearbox either as it can really make a hash out of gear changes.

On the motorway

The Tivoli’s relatively powerful engine does help out on the motorway, in comparison to other entry-level small SUVs which can feel a little gutless on sliproads or when trying to execute a decisive overtake. With 163hp on tap, the Tivoli gets up to speed pretty quickly and doesn’t feel out of its depth.

However, it’s quite a noisy affair, especially if you find yourself in the upper reaches of the rev range. Wind and road noise aren’t cancelled out too well either, so the Tivoli is far from a relaxing time on the motorway.

The suspension settles down a little when you’re going faster but you will still feel expansion joints and potholes, and the heavy steering can be a little vague leaving you to make constant small adjustments. At least the cruise control works well.

On a twisty road

The KGM Tivoli is far from fun on a twisting road. It jiggles about over poor road surfaces and can feel quite bouncy if you hit bumps in a certain rhythm. There’s also a lot of body lean and not much grip, so if you go into a corner too fast you can feel the front tyres struggling and you tend to wash wide.

The heavy steering isn’t very satisfying, and you don’t feel at all connected to what the front wheels are doing. The manual is a better choice for keen drivers than the dim-witted automatic, but if you’re looking for a small SUV that’s fun to drive on a good road you’d be much better off with a Ford Puma.

Space in the KGM Tivoli is a highlight with a big boot and roomy back seat, but it’s not particularly comfy

The KGM Tivoli sits higher than most small SUVs, and that means it’s really easy to get into and out of. It also means that you might find yourself wishing that the driver’s seat adjusted lower, as you can feel a little bit perched - though that does leave you with a good view out.

The front seats adjust for height but there’s no adjustable lumbar support, and they don’t have a lot of bolstering so you can feel as though you’re sliding around in them a bit.

Storage in the front isn’t bad, with door pockets shaped to hold a bottle of water - albeit not much else. There’s also a storage cubby under the front armrest, a good-sized glovebox, two reasonable cupholders and a tray for a smartphone ahead of the gear selector.

Space in the back seats

The rear seats are just as spacious as the front, with plenty of head and legroom aided by an upright seating position, reasonably flat floor and tall roof. Rear passengers also get a great view out with pretty big windows that roll a long way down.

There’s a folding armrest in the middle seat with two cupholders, good-sized door bins and webbing on the back of the front seats too.

However, it’s not particularly comfortable for long trips. The rear bench is very flat with quite a short base, so long-legged passengers lack under-thigh support. There are two ISOFIX points in the outer rear seats, and loading a child seat in is easy with the high roof, wide-opening doors and plentiful space.

Boot space

The Tivoli’s 427-litre boot is bested by the Ford Puma (456 litres) and Renault Captur (444 litres), but it beats the Skoda Kamiq and Citroen C3 Aircross in overall capacity. It’s nice and wide, with a full-width aperture to give easy access.

Some models get an adjustable boot floor which simultaneously provides some underfloor storage and a flatter floor when the rear seats are folded. Notice flatter - not totally flat, as there’s still a lip to lift items over. In general, though, the KGM Tivoli does well in terms of boot capacity.

Loads of kit but an awkward, old-fashioned and cheap-feeling interior

At first glance the KGM Tivoli’s interior doesn’t look bad - it’s quite glitzy with lots of chrome effect and piano black plastic. Beauty is only skin deep in this scenario, though, as you soon realise that everything feels very cheap and in places quite nasty.

The Tivoli does come with a digital dashboard, but it’s not very customisable and the graphics are quite ugly. It’s through this that you need to operate quite a few of the car’s controls, too, which can be difficult through the button-laden steering wheel. The infotainment system, meanwhile - 8.0 inches on the K30 model and 9.0 inches on the K40 - feels like an aftermarket system that’s had a KGM skin stretched over it. The interface is ugly and awkward to use, and the screen itself is pretty dull and low-res.

Further down you do get a separate panel for the climate control, which is nicer than having to operate them through the touchscreen, but it’s made up of touch-sensitive buttons that you can’t find by feel alone and don’t offer any feedback. Not easy to use on the move.

It’s also pretty old-fashioned in here, with a manual handbrake on all models taking up lots of room. Automatic models also get a massive, old-school shifter, which feels unnecessary.

Fuel consumption is where the KGM Tivoli really starts to fall down. Officially, the manual models claim just 40.1mpg and the automatics 36.9mpg. In reality over mixed miles we found the automatic averaged a dismal 28mpg - that’s worse than you’d get from a Porsche 911 over the same sort of roads.

That’s particularly pitiful when you think most of the Tivoli’s alternatives - such as the VW T-Cross, Ford Puma and Skoda Kamiq - will easily return well in excess of 50mpg. The Toyota Yaris Cross will even top 60mpg if driven carefully. It makes the Tivoli very difficult to recommend unless you’re a particularly low-mileage driver.

With a thirsty engine comes high emissions - 161g/km for the manual and 175g/km for the automatic. A performance-focused BMW M340i returns 177g/km, for context - that’s a car with a six-cylinder, 3.0-litre engine compared to the Tivoli’s four-cylinder 1.5. Those emissions put the Tivoli in the top two bands for company car tax and bring a hefty first year road tax bill.

The Tivoli was last tested by Euro NCAP back in 2016, when it was a SsangYong. Even then, it only scored four stars - under today’s more rigorous tests, it likely wouldn’t even do that well.

You do get a reasonable amount of safety equipment as standard including seven airbags, autonomous emergency braking and lane-keeping aids. K40 cars add some nice extras such as traffic sign recognition and blind-spot monitoring.

KGM’s warranty is a generous five years or 100,000 miles, matching Hyundai in this regard. The truth is, the brand simply doesn’t sell enough cars in the UK for there to be any meaningful data on their reliability. For what it’s worth, the Tivoli is a fairly simple vehicle without too much to go wrong, and KGM dealers tend to be smaller, family-owned affairs rather than huge corporate dealerships, so you often benefit from a more pleasant service experience.