KGM SsangYong Torres 2025 review: Ultimate long-term | Part 2

And so my time with the KGM SsangYong Torres has come to an end, and quite a bit earlier than I had originally anticipated.

If you’ve followed these dispatches, you’ll know that I encountered some pretty grim technical gremlins that saw both screens (the central infotainment screen and the driver display screen) black out, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours.

And the consequence of this media blackout was a little more serious than just losing access to my favourite podcast. The shift to full-tech cabins has largely been great, but the downside is that, should you lose that tech, you have no way of knowing how fast you’re going, how much fuel you have left, and — if you’re using maps — no idea where the hell you’re going.

Eventually I just left the Torres parked up, but when it first began happening, sometimes mid-trip, the blackout turned even the shortest journeys into a white-knuckle nightmare. Speed cameras are everywhere, and having to guesstimate the speed limit is no fun at all.

Then the gremlins started to spread. When the screen was on, the Apple CarPlay wouldn’t connect. The start-stop system warned that it had given up. A warning light appeared on the dash.

So we called KGM and asked for help. The solution appears to have been a software upgrade (ours, as it turns out, was a final pre-production Torres) but to do it, our car would need to be trucked off. 

And so our not-so-long-term test ended with a whimper as we waved goodbye to our Torres, presumably forever.

Still, while our relationship was cruelly cut short, we spent enough time together to learn a bit about each other.

The short version is that, with a hybrid version now on the horizon, I can — even without driving it — suggest that’s the model worth waiting for.

The Torres looks neat, with its urban-warrior appearance (even if it doesn’t have the hardcore hardware to live up to its design), and it’s undeniably practical, with its better-than-average boot space.

And, a little ironically, the tech looks fantastic, with the twin-setup giving the Torres a modern cabin edge, while the equipment list is long and lavish for its $47,000 drive-away asking price (mine is the top-spec Ultimate, by the way, and there are cheaper options).

But the biggest drawback of life with a (working) Torres is the drive experience, which can feel lumpy, jarring and lacking in refinement.

A 120KW and 280Nm 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine produces the AWD pulling power, but in order to get the Torres up and moving, it ends up leaning a lot on that turbocharger. The result is that kind of nothing-then-everything power deliver that’s hard to predict, and a little annoying to live with. That impacts the fuel use, too, given you find yourself being pretty aggressive with the accelerator. A good thing its 50-litre fuel tank accepts cheaper E10, then.

Still, how much of that is attributable to that fact that our test car was technically pre-production shall seemingly remain a mystery forever.

Acceleration aside, the Torres is compact enough to make city living, and parking, a breeze, the steering is light and easy, and there’s a Kia-matching seven-year, unlimited kilometre warranty on board, too, which should help alleviate any reliability fears.

The point, which I made last month, is that the Torres is good, but not across-the-board great. And that’s where I think electrification will help.

If the hybrid deploys an electric motor that helps plug the power gaps, and reduces fuel use, then the drive experience would be hugely improved, and the Torres might just elevate itself to the top-tier of mid-size SUVs, what with its unique styling and practicality perks.

For that, though, we’ll have to wait and see.

Acquired: January, 2025

Distance travelled this month: 1575km

Odometer: 5241km

Average fuel consumption this month: 9.9L/100km