KGM Actyon review

The KGM Actyon gets its name from blending “Act Young” and “Act On” so it appears KGM (formerly Ssangyong) envisions Actyon buyers to be, as Jack Black once said, all hip and now. 

It certainly looks sharper and more modern than older models in the brand’s range, like the smaller KGM Korando and larger KGM Rexton. It’s closely related to the new KGM Torres and you can see that in the design, inside and out. Mind you, the Actyon is positioned as the sleeker, sportier option. 

Rivals include the critical and commercial hit that is the Kia Sportage as well as the Peugeot 3008 and Volkswagen Tiguan but the Actyon sits above those rivals in terms of size and price.

How does it fare among such tough family SUV competition? Let's find out...

The KGM Actyon is available with just one engine and gearbox, a 1.5-litre petrol unit and a six-speed automatic gearbox. With 161bhp, it’s fairly punchy and it feels it in most situations. 

Nonetheless, the Actyon isn’t remarkably quick – its 0-62mph time is 10.8 seconds, making it slower than the equivalent Kia Sportage (9.4 seconds). Acceleration is sometimes dulled by the rather sluggish response time of its auto gearbox. 

The Actyon also fails to impress on a country road. Despite having relatively firm suspension that, to its credit, helps it limit body lean well, the model is held back by imprecise, vague steering and an unsettledness over mid-corner bumps. The Sportage instills more confidence, feeling more composed, agile and grippy.

The Sportage offers a much smoother, calmer ride too, as does the VW Tiguan. The Actyon’s ride is rather firm and unforgiving over potholes and bumps, and it never really settles down, even at motorway speeds. It never ventures into being overly harsh, annoying or uncomfortable, but its issues are always noticeable. 

Speaking of motorway speeds, the engine is hushed at a cruise and there’s only a bit of wind and road noise to contend with. That’s not to say it’s class-leadingingly quiet, mind you. 

“With better steering and more grip, I think the Actyon could be a tidy handler.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

The KGM Actyon sits you suitably high above the road, giving it a proper family SUV feel and you a more commanding view ahead than you have in a Kia Sportage. 

Viability is fine but not class-leading, because while it’s easy to see out of at junctions, the wide rear pillars hamper your over-the-shoulder view. Fortunately, front and rear parking sensors, a rearview camera and 360-degree camera all come as standard. 

The 12.3in infotainment touchscreen suffers from a slightly confusing menu lay-out and slow response times, plus the shortcut icons on the screen are positioned on the left, meaning they're pretty much as far from the driver as they could be. 

There’s Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as standard, but annoyingly the screen removes the climate control settings when smartphone mirroring is in operation – you have to press an on-screen icon to bring them up again. We’d prefer these controls to be permanently displayed or, even better, get their own panel with physical dials like in the Sportage.

With the interior design, KGM has taken a minimalist approach for a smart, clean look. There’s a good amount of leather helping make it more premium than budget options in the class – the Dacia Bigster for example. 

However, none of the materials feels particularly plush to the touch, so it can’t match the Mazda CX-60 in this department. And, to a lesser extent, it feels cheaper inside than a Peugeot 3008 and VW Tiguan. 

“The Actyon's gear selector looks solid and of a high quality so I was surprised to find it’s actually a bit cheap-feeling to touch.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

Up front in the KGM Actyon there’s a generous storage area under the front armrest, large door pockets, a tray for odds and ends in front of the gearlever, two USB-C outputs below the air vents and a wireless phone-charger pad located by the central armrest. Head and leg room are very good, even for taller drivers and passengers.

Make your way to the back and you’ll find six-footers will be very comfortable with the amount of head and leg room available. There’s also enough space to seat three adults side by side in relative comfort. There's no option of a panoramic roof but the car's tall side windows give it a generally airy feeling. Back-seat passengers can charge their devices using two USB-C outputs located on the back of the front centre console. 

The back seats split in a 60/40 fashion – unlike the rear seats in the Kia Sportage, which fold in a more practical 40/20/40 split. There are no levers in the boot to drop the seat backsso you have to open the back doors to fold them down. On the plus side, the seat backs lie relatively flat when they're down. There's no option of a ski hatch.

At 668 litres, the Actyon's boot space is big, although it’s not quite as humongous as that of the KGM Torres (703 litres). The Dacia Bigster has a slightly bigger boot, coming in at 677 litres while the VW Tiguan and Kia Sportage have smaller boots, offering up to 652 and 591 litres respectively (depending on the version). 

“I consider the level of interior and boot space to be two of the Actyon’s greatest strengths.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

The KGM Actyon has a list price higher than that of most rivals, including the Kia Sportage (by a huge margin), as well as the Peugeot 3008 and VW Tiguan (by lesser ones). 

To help make up for that, KGM throws in a lot of kit. There’s just one trim level, called K50, and it gets heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, a heated steering wheel, privacy glass and dual-zone climate control to name a few of its features. 

Its one engine option – the 1.5-litre petrol unit – officially averages 33.1mpg, which is poor next to most rivals. For example, even the traditional petrol Sportage averages more than 40mpg, not to mention the hybrid (HEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versions.

With no hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fully electric Actyon available, it makes near-enough no sense as a company car because it sits in a relatively high BIK tax band. 

KGM and the Actyon have not appeared in a What Car? Reliability Survey so we can't give you an idea of how dependable it might be. As standard, KGM gives its cars a five-year, 100,000-mile warranty, which is longer than a lot of brands but not Kia (seven years) or Toyota (up to 10 years). 

The Actyon hasn’t been safety tested by Euro NCAP but comes with automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise control and a system that lets you know when the car in front of you has moved off. There’s also blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert and a system that will stop you opening your door into the path of other cars.

“I can’t see a single justification for how bad the Actyon's fuel economy is. After all, it's a four-cylinder family SUV, not a six-cylinder sports car.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

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