Named after an ancient Italian town, the small crossover’s project was anticipated by several concept-cars: XIV-1 in 2011, XIV-2 and e-XIV in 2012, and XIV-Adventure and XIV-Air last year. Despite each one brought a package of updates of its own, keeping the basic design untouched was a clear sign that it was only a matter of time for this car to reach the production lines. The final automobile arrived somewhat discreet, specially if compared to the first concepts, but it remained far from being considered boring. Since SsangYong knows it’s still pretty much unknown in many countries, it would be interesting to convert such lack of tradition into a market opportunity. As the pictures show, Tivoli combines the typical compact-crossover recipe to some great features of its own.
The biggest of those lies at the design. This is the first car to be entirely conceived into SsangYong’s current design language (the others are older projects which were only facelifted), which means the company had a blank canvas. The most important family feature are the headlights, with black interior and rectangular design, but everything else is new. One could say the imponent rear wheel arch came from Chevrolet Trax, the window design from Hyundai ix25, or the upper silhouette from Citroën C4 Cactus, but the truth is Tivoli is unique. The very strong creases aid to an imponent look despite the reduced overall size. It’s possible to say that some areas have too many elements, but SsangYong managed to stay right before the point where it would look heavy.
When it comes to the cabin, if you stopped following Tivoli’s concepts at e-XIV, you’re headed for disappointment. That dashboard’s overall shape was taken, but of course without all that futurism. What you can actually purchase is a very attractive room, although not surprising. The production dashboard features matte-chrome inserts and a black-piano central stack, which carries a large touchscreen to control some of Tivoli’s functions, and physical buttons to work the others – there has been a general agreement on sticking with the latter for climate and audio systems, given that people wish to be able to operate them without taking the eyes off the road. Having 4.1 m of length and 2.6 m of wheelbase is just enough to compete with 2008, 500X, Captur, EcoSport, HR-V, Juke or Mokka.
Some of the standard equipments are alloy wheels, Bluetooth connectivity, dual-zone climate control, infotainment system, rearview camera and seven airbags. It’ll be a great package, specially at the upscale trims, but the Koreans wouldn’t let a bit of Tivoli’s potential go to waste: in order to be just as competitive as most of its direct rivals, the new crossover will offer an array of personalization options, such as several colors for the body, a contrasting one for the roof, and several coating options for the cabin. As far as engines are concerned, the car was released with a four-cylinder gasoline 1.6, which delivers 126 cv and 16 kgfm, can be used with manual or automatic transmission, and makes around 12.3 kpl. The European version might receive the options of diesel engine and all-wheel-drive.