SsanYong makes big impression with the outstanding Tivoli

I got a tip off from a friend that the SsanYong Tivoli might just present a couple of surprises for me when I took it on a week’s test drive. Brand snobbery has always been prevalent in the Irish market and it takes time for a brand to shake it off. A few have been successful while others still fight the good fight. Thankfully, there are always some brave buyers out there who take a punt and often come out the right side of a real bargain.

SsangYong may have disappeared for a while from the Irish scene, but now they are back with a complete range of tough, new vehicles. Their latest compact SUV, the Tivoli, is a dandy piece that hurtles into the compact SUV battleground demanding serious attention like a mad two-year-old after too much candy.

Brands like SsangYong are not normally foremost in everyone’s mind, but somewhere in the clatter of these small chunky run-arounds there is a place for the Tivoli; a car that offers a whole lot of good vibes and brings a fair dollop of additives and some class leading features.

Visually it has its deficiencies and while it may not look the real deal, there’s enough car at a decent price that shuffles it into the world of functional motoring. It is not as off-the-wall as other models created by SsangYong in the past, yet it has a buckets of charm that make it stand out from the norm without losing what people want right now.

I have been driving it for the week and although its quirky advertising campaign that says, when spelt backwards, ILOVIT, it may need some time for it to gravitate to that level of admiration. Prices start at €21,495 for the basic ES version. But, the model that I have been driving is the higher specified EL version. At €24,995 it comes with a host of add-ons like, heated leather seats, 18” alloy wheels, parking sensors and rear camera, automatic headlights and rain sensor wipers, dual climate control and a whole lot more.

What I do love is the driving position and the interior that makes a real statement and offers the best seats that I have come across in a car in the class. They are bang on for support and comfort especially in a car that tends to roll a little around the corners and roundabouts.  I also like the steering wheel and the array of controls that it offers. While it is slightly over complicated, once you get the hang of it you will never look back.

Under the hood is their own 1.6-litre diesel engine coupled with a six-speed gearbox gives plenty of power and on-demand torque. You also get stop/start and a sense of height that makes it feel like a bigger SUV than its footprint suggests. Build quality seems to be spot on and while there is a certain robustness about the car, this is what some prefer and you get it in spades here.

Now for the most important part – the running costs. Here’s the biggest surprise of all. When flicking through the paperwork, I read that SsangYong were claiming a combined fuel return of 5.5L/100km. Combined defines the average fuel consumption over a combination of urban and rural driving, normally measured in clinical conditions at the factory.

Generally these parameters are far less rigorous than the testing conditions we get on the open road where weather and bumpy, undulating surfaces provide a sterner test. By the nature of my regular testing over a full week, I have always pushed my test cars beyond normal, day-to-day driving and have generally found that fuel consumptions are higher than the claims of the manufacturers.

Well, for me this is a first. The SsangYong Tivoli registered a lower fuel consumption return than the official, tested figure suggests. It came in at a full half a litre less than the brochure figure, 5.0L/100k. That’s enough to make any buyer sit up and take the hint. At the price, the higher spec model is real value for money. It may lack the prestige of the more traditional brands but, it is a good one!