2025 KGM SsangYong Torres Ultimate review

It may surprise you, but KGM SsangYong has been on the Australian market for almost 30 years. Launching as plain old SsangYong in 1997, the Korean brand has been overpowered and overshadowed by the twin giants of the Land of the Morning Calm, Hyundai and Kia.

Now, in 2025 the other Korean manufacturer has rebranded and relaunched itself and is looking to take the fight to the establishment. Now known as KGM SsangYong, the first cab off the rank is also arguably the smartest.

It’s a medium SUV with bold looks and competitive pricing designed to take on not only its Korean counterparts – Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage – but also the best-selling Toyota RAV4 and a slew of rivals of mainstream manufacturers.

So can the KGM SsangYong Torres cut a niche for itself in what is already a crowded and ultra-competitive segment? Let’s find out.

The 2025 KGM SsangYong Torres range comprises three variants, all with sharp drive-away pricing and seven-year warranties to help its case.

All three variants are powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine making 120kW and 280Nm, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission sending drive to the front wheels (Torres ELX and Adventure) or all four wheels (Torres Ultimate). There is no hybrid option on the table, although the Korean brand has confirmed an all-electric Torres will be available soon.

The entry point into the range is the Torres ELX priced at $38,000 drive-away. Stepping into the mid-spec Torres Adventure adds $5000 to the equation priced from $43,000 drive-away.

And then there’s the range-topping vehicle on test here, the Torres Ultimate, which at $47,000 drive-away is starting to stray into the minefield that is the medium SUV segment in Australia.

That places it above – on pricing – a host of rivals from China such as the MG HS that ranges from $33,990 to $40,990 drive-away or the GWM Haval H6 that spreads from $30,990 to $42,990.

That pricing also places the Torres into the grip of the established players from Toyota, Kia, Hyundai et al.

Still, the Torres makes its play for potential buyers with a featured-filled offering that many of its more mainstream rivals charge big bucks for.

As the range-topping variant, the Torres Ultimate wants for little in terms of equipment.

Standard equipment highlights include LED headlights with daytime running lights, dual-zone climate control, power-folding side mirrors, privacy glass, and two 12.3-inch displays: one for the Torres’s infotainment set-up, the other serving as the driver's display.

Inside there are leather seats, heated and cooled up front and with eight-way power adjustment including lumbar support. The rear outboard seats are also equipped with seat heating and there’s also a heated steering wheel.

The top-spec Torres is fitted with a powered tailgate, LED front fog lamps, a powered sunroof, 20-inch alloy wheels, and a raft of safety technologies and advanced driver assist systems that we’ll detail later in this review.

It’s a compelling package on paper, certainly when compared to the likes of the Toyota RAV4 or Kia Sportage.

To score a leather interior, heated and ventilated seats and all-wheel drive in a RAV4, for instance, buyers will need to fork over $54,410 before on-road costs for the Cruiser eFour. Of course, Toyota offers something that SsangYong doesn’t – a fuel-saving hybrid powertrain.

Similarly, a Kia Sportage with the kinds of bells and whistles featured in the Torres Ultimate will set buyers back $52,920 before on-road costs.

Certainly, pricing is on its side, but how does that sharp pricing translate into the real world?

With its bold styling, the Torres casts an imposing shadow on the road. It’s also significantly larger than some of its main rivals.

Stopping the tape at 4700mm long, 1890mm wide, 1720mm tall and on a wheelbase of 2680mm, the Torres is 100mm longer than the RAV4, 45mm wider, and 35mm taller.

The Kia Sportage measures closer in size but it still gives away 40mm in length, 25mm in width and 60mm in height to its Korean counterpart.

The Torres also adopts the sharp, boxy styling that’s becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s SUV landscape, with a couple of flourishes that set it apart from the mainstream, and not always to good effect.

The tailgate, for instance, is festooned with a faux spare wheel cover which is, in reality, little more than a styling garnish, and not necessarily to good effect. It just looks lumpy and weird.

The location of the door handle to the right of the tailgate gives the appearance of a barndoor-style opening. But it’s not, the powered tailgate lifting up in the traditional way.

Up front, the six-slat grille is redolent of Jeep’s signature grille, while plastic bumpers that look like bash plates suggest the Torres is a go-anywhere family SUV. Without having tested it off the road, we’d wager it isn’t.

Other curious touches include some plastic ‘grip’ handles on the bonnet that do nothing, and a faux-aluminium blade that covers the B-pillar (Audi R8 anyone?).

It’s a curious mix of design elements that don’t quite work as a whole, certainly not to my eyes. You might think differently.

Inside, the Torres Ultimate’s cabin blends some nice materials, such as classy copper accents matched by copper-coloured contrast stitching on the nicely perforated leather trim.

It loses some of its lustre for a distinct lack of softer surfaces. Sure, some parts of the dashtop and armrests yield to touch, but the majority of the cabin is filled with harder plastics that cheapen the overall vibe inside.

The steering wheel, wrapped in faux leather, also looks a bit out of place. It’s larger in diameter than seems reasonable and feels a little unwieldy in hand.

Seat comfort up front is good, power adjustable, and in this top-spec variant equipped with both heating and ventilation (cooling). There’s decent side bolstering and under-thigh support. I found no problems with comfort on longer drives, not always a given across any number of brands.

Plenty of storage options make for a practical cabin. As well as the obligatory cupholders, there’s a deep central storage bin, a smaller cubby in front of the cupholders and then underneath, thanks to the floating centre console, another decently sized storage area.

The second row is nice and spacious, as you’d hope for a mid-size SUV that measures in longer and wider than many of its rivals. Space in all key areas – toe, knee, leg and head – is good, while the outboard seats are nicely cushioned and comfortable.

Amenities in row two include a fold-down armrest with cupholders, a couple of smaller storage nooks located down low in the back of the centre console, separate air vents (although no second-row climate controls) and, as per the front row, large door pockets capable of taking bottles.

There are also buttons located on the side panels of the front seatbacks that allow second-row occupants to slide and tilt the angle of the front seats. There’s a practical purpose in there somewhere, but we can see it being an annoying feature rather than helpful.

For those with little ones, the outboard seats are equipped with ISOFIX child seat mounts, while all three seatbacks are fitted with top-tether anchors.

The Torres Ultimate loses some brownie points for a luggage area that is considerably smaller than some of its mainstream rivals. With the second row in use, KGM SsangYong quotes a storage capacity of just 703L, expanding to 1526L with row two folded away in 60:40-split fashion.

However, that quoted 703 litres is calculated to the roof, which isn’t practical in terms of actual load-lugging ability. The more realistic measurement to the top of the seatbacks is 465L.

The Kia Sportage is significantly larger at 543L and 1829L, while Toyota quotes 542L for the RAV4, expanding to 1690L.

There are no tie-down points in the luggage area, nor are there any bag hooks, the only concession to amenity a retractable cargo cover.

A space-save wheel lives under the boot floor.

Two 12.3-inch screens, housed inside a single frame, host the Torres Ultimate’s infotainment system and digital driver's display.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard but you’ll need a cable to connect. There is no wireless smartphone integration, nor is the wireless phone charging. There are two USB Type-C outlets up front, as well as an additional 12V plug, while second-row occupants score a further two USB Type-C points.

The infotainment system is a little laggy, lacking some of the sharp responsiveness to inputs that many of its rivals offer.

It’s a similar story when using Apple CarPlay, the system taking an age to fire up and then proving unstable throughout our week with the Torres Ultimate. We experienced frequent CarPlay drop-outs, most prevalent when reverting to SsangYong’s native software to access functions like climate control.

And that’s another bugbear, the entirety of the Torres’s functions buried inside a laggy and unresponsive touchscreen. It’s a trend among car manufacturers, and some do it better than others.

And for all its shiny glitz, the infotainment screen is conspicuously devoid of useful features like native satellite navigation and DAB+ digital radio.

It’s a similar story with the 12.3-inch digital driver's display that lacks the configurability of some of its rivals. The graphics are clear and easy to read, but there’s little in the way of customisation available, although helpful information, such as fuel consumption and trip data, is available via some toggles and switches on the steering wheel.

The KGM SsangYong Torres range has not been tested by Australia’s safety body ANCAP. Nor has it undergone testing by ANCAP’s European counterpart Euro NCAP. As such, it remains unrated at the time of writing

As the range-topping model, the Torres Ultimate is fitted with a comprehensive suite of advanced driver assists (ADAS) and safety systems.

Autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assist and a driver attention alert are available across the Torres range. However, to score extra safety technologies, such as rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot minoring and tyre pressure monitoring, you’ll need to opt for the mid-range Torres Adventure.

Only the top-spec Ultimate on test here scores additional features like adaptive cruise control (the entry-level ELX and mid-range Adventure make do with regular cruise control), and a 360-degree camera.

I found some of the systems a little too eager to intervene and not the most refined. The lane-keeping assist, for example, intervened even when the Torres was firmly planted between lane markings and did so with an aggressive tug on the steering wheel.

Similarly, the adaptive cruise control proved overly aggressive in its application, late and hard on the brakes when detecting slower moving traffic in front. It makes for a confidence-sapping time behind the wheel.

And the driver attention alert, as is so often the case, intervened at the first hint of straying eyes, such as checking the rear-view mirror or looking at the infotainment screen.

Airbags? There are eight covering both rows of occupants.

KGM SsangYong covers the Torres range with its seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is good for today’s new car landscape where five years' surety continues to be the norm.

Still, the Korean brand is not alone in offering seven years’ coverage, with rivals such as Kia (seven years) and MG (10 years) matching or bettering SsangYong’s warranty offering.

Service intervals are spaced out at 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first. KGM SsangYong offers seven years’ capped-price servicing for the Torres range, alternating between $338 and $442 per visit to the workshop.

That will set Torres owners back $1118 over three years/45,000km, $1898 for five years and 75,000km, or $2678 for seven years or 105,000km.

Those costs don’t compare favourably against the segment benchmark Toyota RAV4, which asks for $780 (three years) or $1300 (five years). But the Torres is more affordable to service than another leading light in the medium SUV segment, the Kia Sportage, which in 2.0-litre petrol automatic guise asks owners for $1231 over three years/45,000km, $2301 (five years/75,000km) and $3353 for seven years and 105,000km.

Comprehensive insurance for the KGM SsangYong Torres Ultimate runs to around $1670 per annum, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW.

Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

For context, based on the same parameters, the Toyota RAV4 GXL hybrid in all-wheel-drive trim commands annual insurance premiums of $1731, while a Kia Sportage SX+ AWD will cost $1630 per annum for comprehensive insurance.

KGM SsangYong claims the Torres Ultimate will use 7.9 litres per 100 kilometres of 95-octane premium unleaded on the combined cycle. After a week with the Torres Ultimate, covering a wide variety of driving conditions and styles from urban traffic to suburban running around and long highway runs, we saw an indicated 10.3L/100km.

That’s substantially more than KGM’s claim and significantly more than some of its main rivals.

Our most recent week-long road test of a Toyota RAV4 Edge AWD Hybrid returned an indicated 6.0L/100km against the manufacturer’s claim of 4.8L/100km. Of course, the RAV4, like every Toyota in Australia today, is available exclusively with a hybrid powertrain, something that KGM SsangYong is yet to offer.

Similarly, our most recent road test of a Kia Sportage SX petrol saw an indicated 8.2L/100km against Kia’s claim of 7.7L. The Kia Sportage Hybrid performed even better returning 6.5L/100km against a claimed 4.9L.

Another factor to consider is that KGM SsangYong recommends the more expensive 95-octane premium unleaded as a minimum. Both the RAV4 and Sportage accept 91-octane regular unleaded.

The Torres Ultimate’s fuel tank measures in at 50 litres, which based on our real-world testing means you’ll be visiting the servo about every 485km.

The KGM SsangYong Torres Ultimate is powered by a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with outputs of 120kW and 280Nm.

In this top-spec variant, a six-speed regular automatic transmission sends drive to all four wheels. Torres variants down the range are front-wheel drive only.

And straight off the bat, those outputs are enough for most around-town driving scenarios, the Torres Ultimate moving away briskly from standstill and getting up to sign-posted urban speed limits sensibly and with the minimum of fuss.

There’s sharpness to the throttle response that takes you by surprise the first time behind the wheel, the Torres Ultimate eager to move away from standstill.

However, once you climb to near highway speeds, you’ll find the limitations of that 120kW/280Nm pretty quickly, the Torres working noisily and hard with little to show for it. Merging on to freeways is noisy, while effecting an overtake takes planning and consideration.

The six-speed automatic is decent enough, rowing through the ratios with minimal fuss and kicking down for a bursts of (meagre) acceleration intuitively.

One bugbear here is that the stubby little gear selector requires two manual inputs to select either drive or reverse, which might not sound like a big deal, but when you’re trying to effect a three-point turn or reverse park quickly, it can lead to frustration when you realise all you’ve done is select neutral. You do become used to it, but it’s not the cleanest of user experiences.

Ride comfort errs on the side of firm, the suspension reacting with a brittleness to minor road imperfections that translates into the cabin. Similarly, traversing larger obstacles such as speed humps results in a harsh landing, the Torres finding it difficult to absorb much in the way of downward force with any kind of comfort.

Road noise too is above the level we’d like in a family vehicle of this size, with tyre roar transmitting into the cabin loudly and, after a while, annoyingly.

The steering is nice and light, and more importantly accurate, making for an easy time manoeuvring the Torres around tight city enclaves and when parking. That’s aided by a sharp turning circle of just 10.84m between kerbs.

On the downside, the 1.5-litre’s idle stop/start is agricultural in its application, taking a heartbeat too long to fire up when stopped at traffic lights, say, and when it does kick the engine into life, it does so with a gruff rumble that lacks the refinement we’ve come to expect in today’s automotive landscape. Of course, it can be deactivated, but the method for doing so is buried deep inside the Torres’s infotainment system. And it defaults to ‘on’ at every start-up.

KGM SsangYong rates the Torres Ultimate to tow 500kg unbraked and 1500kg braked with a maximum downball weight of 150kg.

Those numbers don’t speak to a capable and regular towing vehicle, so if your needs run to regularly hauling a trailer, then perhaps look elsewhere.

It’s hard to make a compelling case for the KGM SsangYong Torres Ultimate. Yes, it’s loaded with the type of equipment and goodies the more mainstream manufacturers ask big premiums for, but the buy-in for that seems a touch too high.

Whereas other challenger brands such as GWM Haval and MG have plied their trade with boosted equipment lists and at a price significantly lower than their mainstream rivals, KGM has priced the Torres range within the clutches of the likes of Toyota, Kia and Hyundai.

Its distinctive styling could be a drawcard for some buyers, while a spacious cabin, especially in the second row, is a big plus, as is the standard seven-year warranty.

But for the money, it’s not quite there yet. Yes, there’s value to be found in terms of equipment, but the driving experience lacks that last little bit of refinement of the big guns in the medium SUV segment.

Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.

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