Today's little delight is the Ssangyong Tivoli ELX. Most people have never even heard of Ssangyong, let alone the Tivoli, but it is an extremely competitive entry in the so-called 'small crossover' or 'small SUV' market segment.
The one I had the pleasure of driving for just over 24 hours last year (Ssangyong were doing a free no obligation 48 hour test drive at the time) almost caused me to put a deposit down immediately. The top of the range ELX model (this one was a two wheel drive diesel with a six speed manual gearbox) had just about any type of equipment you could care to mention:
-Lane Keep Assistance
-Heated Seats
-Automatic dipping rear view mirror
-Full leather interior
-Three different steering modes
-Front and rear parking sensors
-Automatic lights
-Automatic wipers
-Lane Departure Warning
-7 inch touch screen satellite navigation
-Reversing camera
-Adaptive cruise control
-Dual Zone climate control
-Automatic folding mirrors
Doing the sums, I found out that a fully equipped one like this was available for a pretty ridiculous sum of money on a monthly finance deal, is economical, well put together, powerful and comfortable. Even the handling was impressive.
The fact that this car is considerable cheaper than something like a Suzuki Vitara, Renault Captur or Nissan Juke for seemingly no loss in quality is a massive credit to this relatively unknown South Korean brand. It has to be the most competitive entry in the sector that I have seen, and is more affordable than virtually all of them.
