What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot when you consider the case of the KGM Actyon. One glance at the KGM badge will have most people assuming that it’s yet another new Chinese brand that was first established five minutes ago. Yet actually, KGM is rather more familiar than that to most of us, and it’s most definitely not Chinese. It’s Korean, and until 2022 was called SsangYong.
SsangYong itself first came to Ireland in the 1990s and even then, it wasn’t a new brand, as while the SsangYong name was relatively new, the company had - under various other names - been building cars since the 1950s.
SsangYong was part of that wave of South Korean car makers - Daewoo, Hyundai and Kia too - which hit European markets at that time, but while Hyundai and Kia flourished, Daewoo was eventually sold to US car-making giant General Motors, while SsangYong went into receivership. Twice. The first time that happened, it was rescued by Indian car maker Mahindra, but the second time - more recently - it was the giant Korean conglomerate KG Industries, hence the badge change to KGM, which stands for KG Mobility.
Keeping up so far? Good, because now we come to the Actyon name, which was originally used in the early 2000s for an oddball fastback-SUV model from SsangYong, which didn’t sell well but which spun off a pickup variant which did better. So, although KGM has gone through an expensive rebranding exercise, it’s leaning on older names, possibly as an attempt to point out that, no, it’s not a brand-new Chinese marque.
Last year, we saw the Torres SUV, the first new model from KGM, and it was a passable mid-sized SUV with the option of a fully electric version. Mind you, according to KGM insiders, the Torres was kind of a half-SsangYong, half-KGM project, and so this new Actyon is rather more of the full KGM effort and is meant to be a more sophisticated car as a result.
There are clear visual links to the Torres, but the Actyon is a slightly lower and sleeker SUV, which KGM likes to call an SUV-coupe - though that may well be stretching the coupe word past its breaking point. That said, it’s a handsome thing with slim headlights and a light-up three-bar motif in the grille which is meant to evoke the lines seen on the flag of South Korea.
For now, the Actyon comes only with one engine option, and one trim level - the well-specced K50 model which won’t leave you looking for much in the way of additional equipment.
And is it supposed to be pronounced ‘Action’ or ‘Ack-tee-on’? That’s kind of up to you, although KGM’s marketing campaign for the car revolves around the phrase lights, camera, action so you can draw appropriate inference from that.
How much is the KGM Actyon in Ireland?
We don’t know yet. Prices and specs for the Actyon haven’t yet been released for the Irish market, but the early signs are that it might suffer from being over-priced. In the UK, the Actyon is priced at a slightly higher level than the Torres, as KGM sees it as a more luxurious, premium-style vehicle. In Ireland, the only Torres model currently on sale is the electric EVX version at €47,500, and if the Actyon were priced higher than that, one might well feel that it’s just way too expensive for what it is, even with generous equipment levels, unknown.
KGM sees the Actyon as competing with the petrol-powered versions of the Kia Sportage, so it would have to be significantly cheaper in the Irish market to have a chance. Hampering that is a high 194g/km CO2 emissions figure for this petrol-only model (no hybrid version is in the offing) which gives the Actyon a chunky €790 annual motor tax bill. Unless KGM can aggressively price the Actyon in Ireland, it’s probably going to struggle, even with a generous five-year, 150,000km warranty.
A look inside the KGM Actyon
If you remember the SsangYong models of old - the original Rexton and the Rodius MPV especially - then the interior of the Actyon will come as a pleasant surprise. It’s modern, looks sleek and is made largely of high-quality, expensive-feeling materials.
The dashboard is dominated by a pair of 12.3-inch digital screens, more on which in a moment. These sit above a broad strip of wood trim, which looks nice, but which includes an ugly and somewhat ham-fisted join as it crosses behind the steering wheel. That’s made up for by a soft, almost suede-like material on the upper dash and the tops of the doors, while the seats get Nappa leather with contrast red stitching and some quilted panels. They’re comfortable and really lift the ambience of the cabin.
The steering wheel is hexagonal, which makes it slightly awkward to hold, but the wheel centre certainly holds significance as this is the first model to get the KGM letters spelled out, rather than the old SsangYong winged logo. It’s festooned with multi-function buttons which are proper physical items, and which work well, and they feel at least as good as anything you’d get in a contemporary Hyundai or Kia.
That goes for the rest of the dashboard too. The Actyon’s general style and ambience feels right up to date, and there seems to be little sacrifice in quality terms. True, as you work your way downwards, the plastic panels become progressively cheaper, but the Actyon is far from the only car guilty of that.
Practically is good too, with a large open storage space under and in front of the centre console, along with a large, square lidded storage area under the front seat armrest. There are also two well-sized cupholders and decent door bins, although these are unlined so anything in there will rattle around.
Space in the back seats is excellent, with copious legroom and headroom and comfortable seats. The centre rear seat is a touch narrow, though and there is a small transmission tunnel so carrying a third person might not be entirely practical. Those in the back get heated seats and seat back pockets that have a large main compartment, with a smaller pocket for mobile phones. There’s also integrated coat hangers on the backs of the front-seat headrests.
The Actyon’s boot is a major high point. The seats-up capacity is an impressive 668 litres, which is close to the 690 litres offered by the Skoda Superb Combi, our usual benchmark for the ultimate in practicality. The boot is a slightly odd shape, quite wide and long but a bit shallow, and there’s not a lot of under-floor storage. Still, the total capacity is impressive and it’s hard to imagine even growing families being able to overwhelm the space on offer. The rear seat split-folds 60:40 and there’s an almost flat floor left when you fold them down, although the seats-down capacity of 1,568 litres is a touch disappointing compared to the seats-up figure.
The KGM Actyon’s on-board technology
As is becoming increasingly common, the Actyon gets twin 12.3-inch screens for both its instruments and infotainment. The instrument panel is actually rather nice, with high-quality graphics that are quite similar to those used by BMW, so no complaints there.
When it comes to the big central touchscreen, though, there is a total lack of physical buttons - aside from a large hazard lights switch between the centre air vents - and that makes the screen fiddlier and trickier to use than it needs to be. It’s not helped by a touch of lag between you pressing an icon and it responding. KGM has attempted to speed things up by putting a large shortcut button on the pod on the steering wheel, where you’d expect to find the driving modes switch in other cars, which does speed up finding the right menu, and you can click and drag some of the panels around the screen to suit your needs, but it’s far from a fully satisfying operation. At least there’s standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
There’s 32-colour ambient cabin lighting, wireless phone charging in an angled pad in the centre console, and two USB-C sockets. Also, thankfully, KGM has made it simple to switch off the annoyingly inaccurate speed limit warning, as all you need to do is swipe down from the top of the screen and the icon is right there.
How safe is the KGM Actyon?
The KGM Actyon hasn’t yet been tested by Euro NCAP, and neither has the Torres, which uses the same basic platform, so we don’t have a good handle yet on how safe the Actyon might be. KGM is playing up the use of high-strength steel in the body (a big part of the wider KG Group’s business is steelmaking) and there are eight airbags as standard. Also standard are lane-keeping steering, automated emergency braking, driver attention alert, rear cross-traffic warning, safety exit warning, adaptive cruise control and anti-rollover protection.
Driving the KGM Actyon
The Actyon only comes with one engine choice for now, and that’s a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol unit, driving the front wheels via a six-speed automatic gearbox. Power levels are reasonable, with up to 163hp and 280Nm of torque, and if the 0-100km/h time of 10.8 seconds doesn’t look all that spectacular, then at least the Actyon feels subjectively a little brisker.
The engine is also notably refined, proving very quiet at low-to-medium speeds, although it’s more vocal when you ask for full power. That said, the engine’s sound isn’t too shabby, with a pleasant four-cylinder rasp.
The automatic gearbox does feel about two ratios short of where it should be, though. It changes gear smoothly, but you can feel that the engine isn’t quite flexible enough with the available gears. Another couple of cogs would have made a difference.
There is one significant issue for the Actyon though, and that’s front-end traction. For now, the Actyon comes only in front-wheel-drive form, although a four-wheel-drive version may make an appearance at some stage. The Actyon, unusually for a budget brand, comes as standard with high-quality Michelin tyres, so you’d assume that the normal cheap-and-cheerless tyre issues don’t apply, but on the cold (but not icy) roads of our test drive, the Actyon frequently struggled to put its power down cleanly, and the traction control system seemed disinterested in reining it all in.
It’s a shame because the fundamental setup isn’t bad. The steering is nicely weighted and pleasingly accurate, if uncommunicative, and the Actyon in general is just fine to drive. Try to up the pace, however, and you’ll soon find yourself skittering towards the outside of a corner as the tyres just give up and the Actyon understeers doggedly. Given the rural-and-farming focus of sales, this seems surprising. Perhaps some all-terrain tyres might fix the issue.
The ride quality is also too stiff. The Actyon feels fine on smooth roads, but on the winding country roads of our test drive - presumably exactly the sorts of roads on which many of its customers will drive - it was just too firm and bouncy, with overly stiff springs and damping that couldn’t quite keep pace.
How economical is the KGM Actyon?
The lack of any hybrid system for the Actyon, even a mild hybrid, really starts to bite when it comes time to refuel. With a kerb weight of 1,580kg, you’d think that the Actyon wouldn’t fare too badly when it comes to fuel consumption, but an official figure of 8.5 litres per 100km - hardly impressive in itself - turns into more like 10 litres per 100km in real-world conditions, which is what you’d expect from a hefty pickup. Combine that with the chunky motor tax bill thanks to the high emissions and you have a potential running costs issue for the Actyon.
The reasons you'd buy a KGM Actyon
That running cost issue could well scupper the KGM Actyon in the Irish market. While there’s still a market for petrol-only models, for most Irish buyers, tax and fuel efficiency will be high on their list of priorities and that won’t make for comfortable reading in the Actyon brochure. However, on its side the Actyon has genuinely handsome styling, an impressive cabin, plenty of space and a huge boot. Fix the springs and the front-end traction and it might be a contender.
Ask us anything about the KGM Actyon
If there’s anything else you’d like to know about the Actyon, any other KGM or even any other car on sale in Ireland today, then why not head to our Ask Us Anything page? There, you can pose your questions completely free of charge, and our team of experts will set about finding you an answer.
