Is it a Jeep? Is it a Land Rover? Is it a RAV4? Cop a look at the KGM SsangYong Torres

Back in high school when my brother and I ran our own quarterly hobby car magazine and plied whatever family members and friends we could to subscribe, we had a section entitled “Auto Eyesore”.

And every time, normally without fail, it would include a SsangYong. The words we used to describe them were so hateful of the styling, if you could call it that, we even once got a letter from a reader wondering if perhaps “they all ought to be burnt” went a bit far.

Google ‘SsangYong Stavic’ or ‘SsangYong Actyon’ to see what I mean. Actually don’t, for the same reason you shouldn’t look at the sun.

So with those products still burning my eyes, I’m not sure today’s test car is beautiful, but it is a heck of a lot better.

The Torres, described as a “full-sized medium SUV”, is the first offering by what SsangYong is called today, KGM.

It’s a bit complicated, but KG Mobility traces its roots back to a South Korean car company called Dong-A Motor, established in 1954. This was then bought out by SsangYong in the ’80s, and SsangYong was then bought by Daewoo, then SAIC Motor, and finally India’s Mahindra, before KG Group took it over two years ago (and yes, Mercedes-Benz did also loan them some engines for a patch there).

So the Torres is known elsewhere simply as the ‘KGM Torres’, but here in Australia, the company decided we loved the SsangYong name too much to drop it (name yourselves, people). Hence, we have the KGM SsangYong Torres.

A walk-around reveals it to be the love-child of a Jeep and a Land Rover and somehow an Audi R8 got in there too with that silver-coloured raked pillar on either side. A bit like a knock-off Nerf gun, perhaps, but funky and maybe even a bit rugged.

But a lot of things about this car make no sense at all. Like the lump on the back of the rear door, complete with the handle on the side. No, the spare wheel isn’t underneath, and no, the door isn’t side-hinged. So, why do it?

I’m also baffled as to what purpose the little plastic handles on the bonnet serve. I understand military vehicles have similar things so they can be picked up by helicopters, but all a Chinook would get if it tried to cart this away would be two pieces of plastic. That’s not going to rattle Kim Jong Un.

Inside, it’s certainly very spacious – easily up there with the Toyota RAV4. At least in my mid-spec Adventure model, it’s really quite nicely presented too with heated leather seats, matt bronze-coloured trim pieces and a sweeping touchscreen.

Annoyingly, however, you have to plug your phone in to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, and you have to go up to the Ultimate model to get a 360-view camera.

Somehow, the steering wheel feels too big for the job, and when driving, offers the same level of sensation through the front wheels as if it had been plucked off one of those shopping-centre kiddie rides.

Under the bonnet is a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, putting power through the front wheels on the ELX and Adventure models, and through all four in the Ultimate. But it seems impossible for it to do this smoothly. There’s a lot of jolting and shunting.

Normally at a time like this, I search through the drive modes to see if they offer any improvement and there are two – ‘Sport’ and ‘Winter’. I found them on the first day while mucking around on the touchscreen, but it took me another two days to figure out how to find them again.

For some reason, they’re not listed under ‘Vehicle Settings’. You have to press the fan symbol on the main home screen, and then tap the ‘Vehicle’ option at the top.

Why couldn’t all this just be included in a series of buttons underneath the touchscreen?

By this point, I really was itching to find them, because the same screen also includes the option to disable the start-stop system. Unlike most systems that fire up the engine as soon as you lift your foot off the brake, the Torres was holding me up at intersections because it turns out your foot needs to be back over on the accelerator before it lurches back into life.

Once it’s up and going, the Torres feels light and pleasant enough to coax along at speed. It’s like a cloud, and the accelerator is a puff of breath. By this point, however, the barren plastic door lining isn’t doing much to keep wind noise out.

In the end, things pick up markedly when you get to the price.

The base ELX starts from $38,000, my Adventure from $43,000 and the Ultimate from $47,000, and if you have an ABN, you can take a further $800 off each. As the sticker on the back window boldly proclaims, all also come with a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

That’s why you’d buy one of these. And unlike previous SsangYongs, you won’t even have to drive it with a paper bag of shame over your head.

2025 KGM SsangYong Torres Adventure

• $43,000 (plus driveaway costs)
• 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, 120 kW / 280 Nm
• 6-speed automatic, front-wheel drive (FWD)
• 7.4 litres per 100 km claimed fuel consumption, 95 RON
• 1532 kg
• Not yet rated for safety.

Thanks to KGM SsangYong Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with KGM SsangYong Australia.