SsangYong Tivoli (2015 – 2024) Review

The SsangYong Tivoli majors on great value in the small SUV sector, offering plenty of space at very keen prices. The diesel engine has been dropped from the range, leaving the slightly rowdy, quite high CO2-emitting petrol as the sole option. Some will be tempted by the SsangYong Tivoli’s low prices, while others will look to the MG ZS, the popular Dacia Duster or, best of the lot, the Ford Puma. Read on for our full SsangYong Tivoli review.

With a budget price tag and little-known badge, the SsangYong Tivoli might seem cheap and cheerful – but it’s much better than that. (And the little known badge is about to be replaced, anyway, as the firm rebrands to KG Motors).

Offering space for a family, plenty of standard equipment and impressive material quality, it’s easily the best car SsangYong has ever made – good enough to give rival small SUVs such as the Renault Captur and the Nissan Juke something to worry about.

It’s a more practical car than the similarly-priced Nissan Juke, with space in the back row for adults to sit in comfort and a good-sized 423-litre boot, which is only let down by a high load lip.

In the cabin there are plenty of cubby holes and usefully-sized storage bins, including a glovebox designed to house a laptop and a centre storage bin big enough for an iPad.

The interior quality of the Tivoli is head and shoulders above anything SsangYong has made previously. Materials throughout the cabin are fairly plush and durable, plus there is good quality leather upholstery on all but entry-level Ventura models.

It also gets heated seats, Bluetooth connectivity and a user-friendly, well-integrated touchscreen system.

The single 1.6-litre petrol engine comes with manual or automatic gearboxes. The 163PS petrol needs to be worked quite hard and it isn’t the most frugal engine on the market, but it has enough power for rural roads or motorways.

Ride comfort is good, while grip levels and handling are acceptable. An enthusiastic driver won’t necessarily relish driving the SsangYong Tivoli, especially compared to the Nissan Juke, but most will find it perfectly capable and easy to drive, whether in town, on the motorway or on a rural road.

It might have a few shortcomings, but thanks to a well-made, family-friendly cabin and a very generous level of standard equipment, they are easily forgiven.

Factor in the very competitive pricing from a little more than £20,000, along with an impressive five-year warranty, and the SsangYong Tivoli holds plenty of appeal.

Fancy a second opinion? Read heycar’s SsangYong Tivoli review.

Comfort has been prioritised over sharp handling with the SsangYong Tivoli, so the ride quality is impressive.

Ripples, speedbumps and potholes are all dealt with fairly well, although the larger 18-inch wheels on EX and ELX trim levels create more road noise and thud over imperfections than the 16-inch wheels on the basic SE model.

There is some body roll through corners, but it is never alarming. The steering is fairly accurate and its weight can be altered with a button.

It’s best suited to rural British roads in the normal or sport settings, since it is a little on the light side in the comfort mode. However this can be useful in town, or when pulling out of a tight parking space.

The SsangYong Tivoli is available with a 1.6-litre 163PS petrol engine, which suits the car very well. It has a slick-shifting six-speed manual as standard, but a six-speed automatic is optional.

All now stick with front-wheel drive, as SsangYong has dropped the option of all-wheel drive.

This petrol engine replaces the slightly dull previous diesel unit of the same size. This turbocharged motor has a broader spread of power and picks up keenly from low revs, with peak torque of 280Nm available from 1500rpm all the way to 4000rpm.

You still need to work the engine a little harder than sometimes feels comfortable to make decent progress, but you don’t miss the lugging power of the diesel as much as you might think. Only when paying for fuel will you pine for the old motor.

When cruising on the motorway, driving on a country road or stopping and starting in town, the petrol engine remains fairly quiet for the most part.

The automatic is smooth and fairly responsive, and it also offers three drive modes – normal, sport, and winter.

Every SsangYong Tivoli comes with seven airbags, forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking, plus lane departure warning and lane keep assist, traffic sign recognition and high beam assist.

It also provides cruise control, reversing camera, rear parking sensors and automatic wipers.

The Ultimate spec adds front parking sensors to the mix.

The SsangYong Tivoli is capable of towing with an unbraked trailer of up to 500kg. Swap to a braked trailer and the maximum permissible weight goes up to 1000kg.

The centre stack has a clear and sensible layout, as does the instrument binnacle, particularly in the top Ultimate Nav model with its colourful dial backlighting.

There is plenty of space – passengers will be more than happy in the back row, thanks to generous head and legroom.

There is a reasonable boot with a capacity of 427 litres, expandable by folding the rear seats forward. However the load area does have quite a high load lip, which might pose problems for those who carry bulky items or dogs.

The cabin has plenty of little cubby holes and storage areas, including bottle holders in the door pockets, a glovebox capable of holding a laptop and a centre storage bin large enough to hide away a tablet computer like an iPad, which can be linked up via USB or aux. 

The SsangYone Tivoli really shines when it comes to standard equipment. Even the basic Ventura model comes with air-conditioning, alloy wheels, Bluetooth connectivity, reversing camera and cruise control, but we’d recommend moving up to Ultimate trim.

This includes high-quality grey or beige leather upholstery, larger 18-inch alloy wheels and front parking sensors.

The SsangYong Tivoli marked a big step forward for the company, and this is probably most apparent in the cabin.

The layout and material quality is as good as you’d find on Korean made cars from more established brands Kia or its stablemate Hyundai, despite the SsangYong carrying a much lower price tag.

There are a few areas that remind you this car is at the cheaper end of the price scale, including some faux-metal painted plastics.

However, for the most part the Tivoli is as good as or better than rivals, particularly the cheap-feeling Renault Captur.

The Ventura and Ultimate trims of the SsangYong Tivoli come with an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system. It has DAB radio and works with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to hook up to your smartphone, and it’s a simple system to master.

It also has short-cut buttons down either side of the screen and there are physical dials for the speaker volume and tuning.

The Ultimate Nav gains a nine-inch screen, which also has physical buttons for the sound control and radio tuner. It’s just as easy to navigate, but other than the slightly larger size we wouldn’t bother with this trim as you can access sat-nav from your phone.

The SsangYong Tivoli in base Ventura spec comes with the 1.6-litre petrol engine and manual gearbox, which costs £20,245. To upgrade to the Ultimate trim with this mechanical package costs a further £2250.

If you want the Ultimate with an automatic gearbox, it costs £23,995, which is £1500 more than the manual version.

An Ultimate Nav with manual transmission is £22,995, while the auto takes that to £24,495.

Used Tivolis cost from around £7000 for a seven-year old example with 50,000 miles under their wheels.

The SsangYong Tivoli Ventura trim is the most economical model of the range thanks to its 16-inch wheels, which help it return a claimed 40.5mpg.

Choose the same engine and manual gearbox in Ultimate spec, and its 18-inch wheels cause that figure to drop to 40.1mpg.

Those numbers are at the lower end of the spectrum in this class of car, while the automatic gearbox sees fuel consumption reduced to an average of 36.9mpg.

There are corresponding differences in carbon dioxide emissions, with the Ventura offering an unimpressive 158g/km.

The Ultimate with manual transmission emits 161g/km, while the auto raises that to 175g/km.

The outcome of this is the manual gearbox cars require first-year road tax of £645 and the autos come in at a steep £1040. After that, they all require £180 for 12 months’ Vehicle Excise Duty.

Servicing is not expensive at SsangYong dealers and the car comes with a strong five-year, 100,000-mile warranty, although this is down from the previous 150,000-mile, seven-year cover.

The Ventura will be the cheapest SsangYong Tivoli to insure, with its group 15 rating, while the Ultimate is the priciest as it resides in group 20.

Oddly, the Ultimate Nav is marginally cheaper with a group 19 position.

Choose the enntry-level SsangYong Tivoli Ventura and you get 16-inch alloy wheels, reversing camera, rear parking sensors, auto headlights and wipers, keyless entry and ignition, roof rails and front foglights.

Inside, you’ll find air-conditioning, cruise control, leather-look and cloth upholstery, heated front seats and steering wheel, and an eight-inch infotainment touchscreen with Bluetooth, DAB, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

To that impressive array of kit, the SsangYong Tivoli Ultimate adds 18-inch alloys, front parking sensors, power fold door mirrors, LED front foglights, rear spoiler, rear privacy glass and suspension more tuned to European roads than the Ventura’s

For the cabin, SsangYong provides leather seats, dual-zone air-conditioning, a 10.25-inch LCD ‘supervision’ screen in place of the standard dials, and a 9.0-inch infotainment touchscreen with TomTom sat-nav.