Ssangyong Tivoli vs Ssangyong Tivoli XLV

What's the difference?

I was asked the critical question while I had the Tivoli ELX on test – “Do you think people will buy this car?” After some time in thought, my answer was – “Not many… yet.”

Those who can look past the brand perceptions are getting an SUV which is damn near as good as anything on the market – and likely cheaper to run.

To that, you can say a lot of things: If only it cost slightly less. If only its rear was better looking. If only it had a five-star safety rating.

But here it is – the fact that the Tivoli can even hold a candle to its slick, finely tuned competition says a lot. The Double Dragon is back, and if it can afford to stick around for a while, perhaps it will stand a chance of putting the big players on notice.

Depending on the pricing and specifications, the SsangYong Tivoli XLV might well offer an interesting alternative to the mainstream small SUV crowd. The safety score is a bit of a deterrent, but that may not rule it out for all buyers.

It’s almost like this is a provisional review, because we simply don’t know much about the brand’s strategy ahead of the local range rollout in November. 

One thing’s for sure: just like a cheeseburger or any good laboured pun, we can’t wait to get our hands on some of the finer details from SsangYong Australia. 

SsangYong is hardly a brand known for its consistent or good-looking design. In the past, the brand has floundered between the squared-off lines of the Musso and the unresolved bulbous curves of the last-gen Korando.

The brand’s re-launch has finally brought it up to speed, with every car across its range featuring a consistent design language. It’s improved out of sight, but still isn’t without its flaws.

Up front, there’s an angry-looking, squared-off horizontally slotted grille, with angles galore wrapping around the small SUV’s sides.

The angles continue up the A-pillar and across the roof for a squared-off, European-influenced roofline.

Then, around the back things get… strange. A pronounced curvy ridge makes its way over the rear wheels and into a rounded-out boot. It seems at odds with the angular rear glass and lower garnish.

There’s just way too much going on around the back; it’s overly styled. The chintzy chrome finish around the lower reflectors doesn’t help, nor do the big round SsangYong badge and bold ‘T I V O L I’ typeface.

The 16-inch alloys on the EX and ELX grade are a simple 10-spoke matte-silver. They’re nothing special, but at least they're easy to clean.

Inside, things are also mixed. There’s plenty of good and bad. The seats are clad in a robust cloth with plenty of sponge for comfort, and there are sensibly placed soft surfaces in the doors and on the centre console for your elbows.

The dash has an aesthetically pleasing symmetrical theme to it and is finished mostly in decent plastics. The 7.0-inch media screen is pretty good, too, but the rest of the centre stack is a bit nasty and old fashioned.

There’s the mix of gloss plastic and silver surfaces, a giant climate control dial and the so-so buttons that litter its surface. It reminds me of Korean car designs past, like the Holden (Daewoo) Captiva and generations-old Hyundais. Credit where credit is due, though - it all feels much better built.

I’m actually a big fan of the Tivoli’s steering wheel, it has a ridged, chunky shape and is finished in a pleasing artificial-leather material. The function stalks behind it are solid, with rotary dials on them to control lights and wipers. As the primary touch-points for the driver it’s neat that they have a unique, SsangYong personality to them.

One look and you might think 'honey I shrunk the Stavic', and that’s not too bad of a summary. There are some ungainly touches to the design of the Tivoli XLV - as you might expect from a small SUV that has been stretched.

But from some angles, it doesn’t look too bad. The front end is quite fetching, I think, with those projector halogen headlights with LED daytime running lights cutting a different shape to many of its rival models sold in our market. However, the overtly lipped quarter panels aren’t to all tastes, and the curved, clear-lensed tail-lights aren’t going to win any beauty contests.

I don’t think it’s ugly in the same way the original Stavic was… but SsangYong let us in on a secret at the launch event in Korea: there’s an updated, facelifted version of the Tivoli XLV and the regular Tivoli due in June 2019. It may be worth waiting for, because not only will it bring a new, more modern look, it will probably add equipment and safety features. 

What do you think? Does it look more or less attractive than, say, a Honda HR-V, Mitsubishi ASX or Nissan Qashqai? Tell us in the comments section below. 

Now, size: the XLV is essentially a stretched, more family-friendly version of the Tivoli. Both are built on the same line, and everything is pretty much the same from the C-pillar forward. It measures 4440mm long (which is 198mm longer than the standard Tivoli, both on a 2600mm wheelbase), 1798mm wide and 1635mm tall (Tivoli is 1590mm). The XLV is longer than any other small SUV it competes against. 

Australian customers are expected to be able to choose between an array of eight body colours and a contrasting roof finish. One really smart combination is the red body and black roof, and high-spec models are expected to get flashy 18-inch wheels (with 16s on low spec models).

The benefits of the Tivoli XLV’s stretched body are clearest in the boot area, which beats some mid-sized SUVs. 

The Tivoli might be a small SUV but it has a cavernous cabin. It’s seriously impressive and rivals some of the best players in this segment, like the Honda HR-V.

The front seat offers huge amounts of headroom, leagues of legroom, great space for your arms on either side and a fully telescopically adjustable steering wheel.

Storage is comprised of a shallow trench under the climate-control stack, decently sized cupholders in the centre console and doors, as well as a deep console box and a glovebox, which seems to disappear forever into the dash.

There’s also a rather odd trench cut out of the dash above the console box. It’s ridged and has a rubbery surface but seems useless for storing things, which will simply topple out when you accelerate.

As previously mentioned, there are comfortable surfaces for resting your elbows on for front occupants.

Room for back-seat dwellers is also excellent, with awesome legroom for the segment and leagues of airspace even for taller folk. There are the same padded elbow-rests in the doors and deep cupholders, but no air-conditioning vents or USB ports.

There are also weird elastic ropes on the back of the front seats for storing things (with mixed success) and a pull-down armrest.

The boot is rated at 423-litres (VDA), which is deceptively large (size-wise not far off the HR-V’s 437-litre space). The problem here is the shape of the boot itself. It’s deep from the floor to the retractable screen, and SsangYong says it will hold three golf bags, but it’s the narrow width and length which limit  its potential.

I found it awkward to move some odd-shaped objects, like a heater and some boxes, and the high entry-point to the bootlid makes things a little difficult when moving heavier items.

Our ELX has significantly more room thanks to a space-saver spare under the boot floor. The Ultimate, which sits above has a full-size spare, further limiting boot space.

There are the same odd elastic ropes in the edges of the boot wall for smaller loose objects or cables.

If you’re buying the Tivoli XLV, it’s arguably because it’s a compact SUV with the interior space of a bigger SUV inside. With a claimed cargo capacity of 720 litres (VDA), that makes sense. The XLV adds 297L more space (VDA) over the Tivoli, with a bigger boot than some very big SUVs.

In person the boot looks pretty big, but not as enormous as the numbers suggest. The fact there’s a false floor set-up is handy, though, and the packaged from SsangYong to be able to engineer so much boot space and still offer a four-wheel-drive system and multilink rear suspension is almost genius. Many brands can’t do it as well as SsangYong has. And going by SsangYong’s promise to fit a full-size spare wheel to all of its AWD models, the packaging is even more impressive.

It was handy for us to drive the XLV alongside the Musso and Rexton, both of which are newer-generation models that feel more modern inside. That isn’t to say the XLV feels old - it’s just not as special as its bigger siblings. Again, the face-lifted model due in 2019 could go a ways to fixing that.

If I had to compare the quality and design of the XLV to any car, it would be the old Hyundai ix35. You remember that small-to-mid-size SUV that came before the Tucson, which was on sale here from 2010 to 2015? Well, its cabin design and materials were fine, but nothing special. A bit like the Mitsubishi ASX, which launched around the same time as the ix35, yet is still sold today (and in big numbers!).

The front seats are pretty comfortable and the driver’s seat has good adjustment to it, but taller front seat passengers may lament the lack of height adjustment to the seat - especially in models fitted with a sunroof.

In the back there’s easily enough for a 182-centimetre-tall adult to sit behind their own driving position, with more knee room than most small SUVs, and reasonable shoulder and head room, too. The XLV is a five-seater, and three across the back is possible, but not enjoyable. There are dual ISOFIX child-seat anchors for outboard seats, and top-tethers across the width.

We don’t know what price SsangYong is aiming to list the XLV model range at, because the company hasn’t yet confirmed pricing and specifications. So we can’t tell you what it will cost.

But we do know there will be manual and automatic variants available in four-wheel drive only (4WD/AWD) at launch, and it will be diesel only. The smaller Tivoli will be offered with petrol and diesel, and a more affordable front-wheel drive model.

There’s an expectation that the XLV will come well specified as standard, but that two trim levels will be offered.

The base model will likely have cloth seat trim, dual-zone climate control and a leather-lined steering wheel, while the top-spec will come with leather seat trim. All models will likely come with a touchscreen media system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus USB and auxiliary inputs and Bluetooth phone and audio streaming.

Seat heating, auto headlights, auto wipers, a sunroof, 18-inch wheels (as opposed to 16s on the base spec), push-button start and keyless entry could be offered standard in the high grade version - but we’ll have to wait and see. 

Expect more safety equipment in the top version, too, but a reversing camera and parking sensors should be offered range-wide. 

As a potential budget-conscious offering pitched against relative high-spec small SUVs, the Tivoli XLV prove intriguing. Think of a Honda HR-V VTi-L, which lists at $33,390, and has a 1.8-litre petrol engine and is front-wheel drive… a similarly specified diesel AWD automatic model could be tempting.

Our Tivoli is powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine producing 84kW and 300Nm of torque.

That seems a little low on the power front compared to petrol competitors, but the strong torque figure available from an almost instantaneous 1500rpm gives this engine a solid amount of get up and go.

If you aren’t opposed to diesel, I would strongly suggest this engine over its underpowered 1.6-litre petrol equivalent, as it has almost twice the available torque.

It might seem risky for SsangYong to be offering diesel in a segment where the fuel type is unpopular, but it makes sense from a global supply point of view, as diesel is largely the fuel of choice in the Tivoli’s home country of South Korea.

The ELX is front-wheel drive and can only be had with a six-speed torque converter auto transmission manufactured by Aisin.

The XLV will come with only one engine option - a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine. Hardly a horsepower hero, it produces 115kW of power (from 3400-4000rpm) and 300Nm of torque (1500-2500rpm).

It is available with a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic, with a standard-fit 4WD system known as 'Torque On Demand 4x4', which can sense the surface under the tyres and apportion torque to the rear axle to ensure better traction. SsangYong says it may offer a front-wheel drive XLV if demand necessitates.

A diesel engine isn’t unique, but it is rare in the small SUV class. But the fact of the matter is about 90 per cent of small SUVs sold are petrol-auto, so diesel could miss the mark for a lot of buyers. 

The XLV offers a bonus element - towing capacity: the XLV can cope with a 500-kilogram unbraked trailer, and a 1500kg braked trailer - pretty strong for a compact SUV. Consider it competing against the Mazda CX-3 diesel AWD (640kg un-braked, 800kg braked) and Mitsubishi ASX (750kg/1400kg).

Over my week of mainly urban driving I scored a fuel-consumption figure of 7.8L/100km against a claimed urban figure of 7.4L/100km which is not too bad, but also not stellar.

The official claimed/combined usage figure is at a bold-sounding 5.5L/100km.

The Tivoli has a 47-litre fuel tank.

The fuel consumption claim for the Tivoli XLV 4x4 auto is 6.3 litres per 100 kilometres. That’s not bad, and some small SUVs are better… 

The Mazda CX-3 diesel AWD auto, which has a very low claimed consumption of 5.1L/100km (admittedly, it has a 1.5-litre engine with just 77kW/270Nm). But even the 2.2-litre turbo-diesel Mitsubishi ASX AWD auto uses less, at 6.0L/100km, and it’s almost a decade old. That engine has 110kW/360Nm.

The Tivoli XLV is a fair bit bigger than those two models, but even so, the fuel use should be a bit lower. It just goes to show the engine is working hard to deal with the weight of the Tivoli XLV, which in its heaviest guise, weighs 1535kg. Beefy.

We never recommend that you drive blindfolded, but if you could and you drove the Tivoli, I honestly believe you’d have trouble telling it apart from any other small SUV on sale today. 

The diesel engine feels strong from the get-go and pushes the 1390kg SUV along with a reasonable urgency. It’s no performance drivetrain, but it's as good as, if not better than, most of the petrol competitors.

The six-speed torque converter auto is mostly great around town but is old-school in that you can definitely feel each ratio. It also had the unfortunate habit of occasionally grabbing the wrong gear.

I once caught it out altogether under heavy acceleration and it spent a whole second fishing for the ratio it wanted. It’s still better than a continuously variable transmission (CVT) for driver engagement, though.

Steering is on the light side but is direct and offers decent feedback. The ELX offers three steering modes - 'Comfort', 'Normal', and 'Sport', which artificially alter the weight behind the steering. 'Normal' is by far the best.

The suspension was also notably impressive. Fellow Korean brands, Hyundai and Kia, have harked on for a long time about local tuning efforts, but I found the Tivoli’s suspension tune almost as good. It’s a slightly more spongey, comfort-focused tune, but I was impressed at how composed it felt in the corners.

The ELX has a cheap torsion-bar rear suspension setup, which could only really be noticed over rough road conditions.

Behind the wheel, the Tivoli was also surprisingly quiet at lower speeds. This makes for a nice, quiet drive around town, despite the diesel engine, but at speeds above 80km/h and engine rpms above 3000 the noise became significantly worse.

I’d say the Tivoli drives just as well as most Hyundais and Kias from just a few years ago. There’s room for improvement in the little details, but for the brand’s first effort since its international re-boot, it does a darned good job.

It’s difficult to learn what a car is all about over 29km, but that was the task I was handed in Korea, where I drove the Tivoli XLV from the hotel in Gangnam, Seoul, to a rest stop some 24km north of town. Then I jumped in some other models, before eventually getting a further - very illustrative - 5km stint behind the wheel at an off-road coarse later in the day.

There was some traffic, slow moving highway driving, and even a bit of higher-speed cruising. And it was fine.

The diesel engine was impressively refined and quiet, so much so that I initially thought it was a petrol. But after a couple of instances of traffic halts, it became clear there was a little more rattle from under the bonnet, and a more heft over the nose than you’d expect of a petrol.

That said, the performance was muted. With a torque output of 300Nm, you might think it would be potent - but it’s really not, and there’s some hesitancy from standstill, not to mention some sluggishness during roll-on acceleration.

The six-speed auto transmission did a good job, as far as I could tell, but a more arduous test loop will sort the facts from the feels.

As for the dynamic element, it’s hard to say anything other than the XLV felt smaller, more nimble and more fun to drive than either the Rexton or Musso models I also drive. The steering was adequate in its response, if a little lifeless, and the ride was a touch harder than I was expecting, but not sharp or punishing.

If you’re interested in off road specs, the Tivoli XLV is said to offer a 20 degree approach angle, a 20.8deg departure angle, and 17.0deg ramp-over. More of a problem, though, was the lack of ground clearance. The figure is just 168mm, which isn’t much more than some regular run-of-the-mill hatchbacks. Consider this: a Subaru XV has 220mm. Yep.

The suspension travel isn’t huge, either, with stiff-legged feel to the model we drove. Part of that could have come down to the stylish 18-inch alloy wheels and low-profile tyres, but it simply isn’t a soft and wobbly off-road SUV. It’s a monocoque chassis small crossover, so if you want a more serious SsangYong off-roader, the ladder-frame Rexton could offer a lot more appeal. 

The Tivoli XLV doesn’t have an ANCAP crash test rating, but it was tested by Euro NCAP in 2016, where it scored a less-than-excellent four- out of five-star score. That’s in spite of the fact it was available with auto emergency braking (AEB), too. 

According to SsangYong, the “top of the range Tivoli will feature AEB, lane departure warning, lane keep assist and high-beam assist”. We’ve heard that will be mirrored in Tivoli XLV flagship spec, too.

The Tivoli XLV has seven airbags (dual front, driver’s knee, front side and full-length curtain), as well as a reversing camera and rear parking sensors. ISOFIX child seat anchors are standard.

The SsangYong Tivoli now leads the small SUV segment with a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is miles ahead of the acceptable industry standard of five years/unlimited kilometres offered by most competitors.

Service pricing comes in at a completely fixed and impressive-for-a-diesel $322 per yearly 15,000km service for the life of the warranty.

Extra service items are tidily laid out in a chart breaking down parts cost, labour, and total price, with the most notably expensive item being transmission fluid ($577), which, at worst, is recommended to be changed at 100,000km.

From this we can tell SsangYong intends to target Kia’s audience and use this part of the business to categorically beat its competition.

Nothing has been confirmed yet, but we suspect SsangYong could be working to match one of the best warranty offers in the Australian market in mimicking Kia’s seven-year/unlimited kilometre plan. In the UK SsangYong models have seven-year/150,000 mile (241,000km) cover, but an unlimited mileage offer is expected here. 

If that’s the case, and models like the Tivoli XLV can be competitively priced for servicing, and with reasonable (read: not too frequent!) service intervals, then the score for this element of our test could increase in later reviews.