Written by Luke Wilkinson Updated: 29 January 2025

Overview

Remember SsangYong? It was a South Korean car and light commercial vehicle manufacturer that had operated in the UK since the 1990s. But it never sold in the same brash numbers as its more mainstream brands – and that presented a problem. The company was running at a loss for the last 16 years it was in business.

That’s not a sustainable long-term business plan so, unsurprisingly, SsangYong fell into administration in 2022. Handily, the South Korean super conglomerate KG Group stepped in to bankroll the stricken company. It rebranded the firm as KG Mobility (or KGM for short) and set about maintaining SsangYong’s existing range of cars until it was ready to launch an all-new model.

The KGM Actyon is that all-new model. It’s the first car the KG Group has had total design influence over – and it has a lot riding on its shoulders. It’s been tasked with raising the company’s profile, being aimed squarely at heavy-hitting family SUVs such as Volkswagen Tiguan, Nissan Qashqai and the best-selling Kia Sportage.

My first drive of the Actyon has proved it’s a huge improvement over the aging SsangYong Tivoli and decidedly agricultural Rexton. But is it good enough to drag buyers away from our favourite family SUVs? Keep reading to find out what I made of it.

What’s it like inside?

Vast. Especially in the back. I’m a shade over six feet tall and, with the seat in my driving position, I had a solid three inches of space between my knees and the front seat back. Headroom is equally generous, and you can even adjust the rake of the bench’s backrest to make long journeys more comfortable for your passengers.

Boot capacity is great, too. You get a gargantuan 668 litres of luggage space, which is 16 litres more than the Volkswagen Tiguan, 77 litres more than the Kia Sportage and a huge 164 litres more than the Nissan Qashqai. It isn’t a particularly clever space, however – there’s not a lot of underfloor storage, for example.

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Sadly, the rest of the Actyon’s interior left me feeling rather short changed. The fake carbon fibre and imitation wood are cheap and tacky, while the plastics used on the door cards and lower dashboard look and feel like they’re made from repurposed Tupperware. That’s excusable in a cheap SUV like the Dacia Duster – but the only Actyon you can buy in the UK costs £36,995.

Yes, the Actyon comes with loads of standard equipment, including a 360-degree parking camera, heated and cooled seats, a heated steering wheel and a power-operated tailgate. But the cheapest Sportage is £7,000 cheaper and its interior has been screwed together with greater care using better quality materials. Even the touchscreen looks and responds like a cheap smartphone from the last decade.

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this job, it’s to never underestimate how much impact a poor-quality cabin can have on your mood when you’re living with it long term. My advice, if you’re in the market for an Actyon-sized car, is to make sure you try a few rivals first.

KGM Actyon engines

The Actyon is only available with one powertrain and – shock, horror – it doesn’t have any kind of hybrid assistance. It’s a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit with 163hp and 280Nm of torque. KGM was very keen to point out that’s 4hp and 16Nm more than you get from the 1.6-litre Kia Sportage.

But power isn’t everything in a family SUV, especially when it’s at the expense of fuel economy. During my drive of the Actyon, it averaged a disappointing 20mpg. That’s a long way behind both KGM’s 33mpg claim and the 40mpg-ish you can get from the Kia Sportage. And fuel economy like that could be enough to put the Actyon out of the race.

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Assuming fuel prices continue to bimble around the £1.36/litre mark, and you don’t make a vast improvement on that 20mpg average in your first 20,000 miles of Actyon ownership, you’ll spend around £6,000 on fuel. Cover the same distance in a mild-hybrid 1.6-litre Sportage and you’ll spend half as much.

But the bad news doesn’t stop there. Because KGM is only planning to sell the Actyon in limited numbers (more on that later), it’s only bringing it to the UK in one highly specced trim level to try and offer the best value for money. It costs £36,995, which is only £3,000 cheaper than the equivalent Kia Sportage GT-Line S. That means, by the time you factor fuel costs into the equation, you’ll be no better off in the long run.

What’s it like to drive?

It’s a vast improvement over the KGM Tivoli which, in fairness, isn’t a high bar to beat. But SsangYong’s lightning-fast progress under the KG Group’s stewardship deserves to be celebrated. It shows KGM is keen to turn the brand into a serious player.

However, the Actyon is still trailing the cars it was designed to pinch customers from. It’s nowhere near as polished as the Kia Sportage or the Volkswagen Tiguan, while the Dacia Duster offers greater comfort for considerably less cash.

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My biggest problem with the Actyon is its damping. The suspension is far too resistant to compression, which makes it quiver and fidget on even an immaculately surfaced road. That’s irritating on the motorway and downright untenable on the sort of battered rural B-roads you’ll find in Cumbria or the Cotswolds.

Surprisingly, considering the harsh ride, KGM has done a fantastic job of controlling noise in the cabin. Road noise is well suppressed (thanks to some clever Michelin tyres) and there’s only a dash of wind noise whistling around the A-pillars. That’s commendable for a car with the same aerodynamic profile as a pallet of bricks.

I reckon the powertrain needs some more calibration, though. Much like the Tivoli, the six-speed automatic gearbox does a poor job of managing the engine’s power. If you so much as breathe on the throttle, the gearbox will panic and shift down despite the fact the engine has more than enough torque to mash against the cog and accelerate in-gear.

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The steering leaves a lot to be desired, too. There’s a noticeable amount of play around the centre and it doesn’t offer much feedback. I’m not saying I expect this family SUV to steer like a sports car, but the Sportage, Tiguan and Tucson are all much more positive – and I’d go as far to call the Ford Kuga quite fun.

For my closing remarks in this section, I’d like to issue the Actyon’s brakes some praise. Because there isn’t a regenerative braking system connected to the pedal, they’re very linear and bite well. Alongside the brakes in its hybrid rivals, they’re refreshingly responsive. However, I reckon I’d be willing to sacrifice that for better fuel economy.

What models and trims are available?

As I mentioned above, there’s only one specification available. It’s called the K50 and it comes with the same sort of equipment you’d expect to find on a luxury car. I’m talking adaptive cruise control, automatic climate control, ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, a heated steering wheel and massive 20-inch alloy wheels.

What else do I need to know?

I mentioned above that KGM hasn’t given the Actyon a hybrid or electric powertrain. The reason why is simple. It doesn’t need to. KGM controls a tiny 1% of the UK’s new car market and, providing it doesn’t sell more than 2,500 cars each year (which it isn’t planning on doing), it can skirt around the need to electrify its fleet and dodge the fines imposed by the government’s ZEV mandate.

KGM made the decision to throttle its sales to increase its profit margins. Pushing loads of cars out to the market in an aggressive expansion plan would mean two things – KGM would need to discount them heavily to shift them off its forecourts and, because the Actyon isn’t an EV, it’d get slapped with a £15,000 fine per car sold over that 2,500 cap. A plan like that would chuck KGM straight into the lifeboats, which is exactly where SsangYong was in 2022.