2026 KGM Actyon K60 review

KGM, formerly known as KGM SsangYong, and simply SsangYong, has revived a familiar model for its new identity, the Actyon.

The fresh, ground-up redesign looks unrecognisable compared to what it was nearly 20 years ago, and anything else in its segment, bringing a modern appeal to its new brand identity.

However, it’s entering a corner of the market that has some seriously fierce competition from long-standing brands such as Kia, Toyota, and Hyundai with their medium-sized SUVs, meaning it certainly has a lot to live up to.

Coming in with two trim levels, the K50 and the K60 (that I drove), if there's a model to prove it can hang with the big players, it would be this one.

I racked up the kilometres in this new model with a familiar name to find out if it's worth considering over a Kia Sportage or even a Toyota RAV4.

The KGM Actyon comes in two model grades, the K50 and K60, with some equipment changes between the two, but they share the same running gear and platform.

The range starts with the Actyon K50, and standard white paint will hit you with a $47,000 drive-away price, whereas the up-spec Actyon K60 creeps up to $50,000 drive-away. The exact K60 I tested had the premium paint option for an additional $700, which finalises the price at $50,700 drive-away.

The $3000 step up to the K60 mainly covers the panoramic sunroof, but you also get sun blinds in the second row, a wireless smartphone charger, and a 360-degree camera – that’s all the difference between the two trims.

Both are powered by a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine with 120kW/280Nm. They both feature a six-speed automatic transmission and include niceties such as 20-inch wheels, a power tailgate, an electric park brake, heated/cooled seats, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity, and dual-zone climate control.

For those looking to stay with the brand, the Actyon provides a steady step up from the smaller KGM Torres, priced at $38,000 drive-away for the base and $47,000 for the top spec, also showing that the South Korean marque is working to cover all bases.

Despite being well equipped, when we take a look at the competitors, you also end up paying for it, with the GWM Haval H6 having a $40,990 drive-away price, the established Kia Sportage with a starting price of $37,990 before on-road costs, and the Toyota RAV4 FWD GX at $42,260 before on-roads.

But is all the luxury-style equipment enough to justify the price increase over veterans in the segment? It might just be.

The KGM Actyon is brand new to market, so deals on current stock may be hard to come by. Even still, you can browse KGM models for sale on Drive Marketplace. You can also view examples of its competitors.

Find your nearest KGM dealer using this link here. It's important that you see the model in the flesh before making any big buying decisions.

Opening the door to reveal the Actyon's cabin is easily one of the biggest highlights of the car. It’s fitted out beyond its price point inside, and it certainly has the leg up on interior size over some of the mainstream medium SUVs.

Colourful interior lights, large full-colour displays for the instrument cluster and infotainment, everything dressed in leather/leatherette combinations, and a spacious centre console provide some excellent showroom appeal.

Borrowing further luxuries from certain higher-end brands, such as a crystal-like gear selector switch, fake woodgrain throughout, and diamond stitching akin to that of a gaming chair, can have appeal to the champagne-taste-on-beer-budget-type of buyers at the dealership.

Further big storage tubs are located in the centre console, along with a pair of cupholders, two USB-C ports, a 12-volt outlet, a wireless phone charger, and a glovebox. These features wrap up the first row.

The space extends into the second row as well, with the seats fitted with the same red-diamond stitching on top, complete with tablet holders on the headrests of the front seats for kids.

The second row feels spacious and seems to outdo a few other cars in the segment, allowing me to load the car up with five adults who all sat comfortably with ample leg room.

While it looks the part, the interior doesn’t seem to feel like a premium car. The material on the seats didn’t have enough give to provide a comfortable experience, teetering on the stiff side, which only years of driving could break-in.

The same goes for the interior plastics. They do seem to have that less-premium feel to them, which can suddenly catapult you back to the fact that you are not sitting in a luxury car.

While other brands excel with simple yet sturdy interiors, the KGM boasts visual appeal, but its interior is cluttered with so much equipment that it compromises its sturdiness.

Besides the firm materials throughout the car, the seats provide a somewhat comfortable driving experience, which the seat ventilation certainly enhances, as does the heated seat and heated steering wheel combination.

Moving to the rear of the car, an electric tailgate opens to an impressive boot space of 668 litres with the seats up and 1440L with the rear seats folded flat. That trumps the Kia Sportage with 543L, the Toyota RAV4 with 580L and the Mitsubishi Outlander with 485L.

There is a space-saver spare wheel under the boot floor, plus handy slots behind the wheel wells to stow smaller items. The boot is power-operated, even in the base variant.

Two 12.3-inch screens run KGM’s infotainment software – one in front of the driver for the instrument cluster, and one in the middle handling everything from Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, radio, climate control and some interior controls.

I had the same experience with the infotainment screen as we did when we tested the K50 earlier in the year: a slow boot-up time and some screen lag at times.

Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are wired only, and did not work for the majority of the test with either type of phone plugged in. After one day on the test, when a phone was plugged in, the screen would go black. You could still hear music playing, but it wouldn’t display anything.

After that, it just would not recognise when a phone was plugged in – we tried multiple cables and different phones to rule it out. Then it just started working again, strangely, after a few days.

It would have been fine to just play music through Bluetooth connectivity, which did work. However, there is no in-built navigation system.

The lack of physical buttons for features like climate control made the test frustrating, as it requires more than one tap to change anything. However, when controlling other functions, it did not lag.

The instrument cluster is clear and easy to read, with some customisability to set it up to your liking, and displays everything you need – speed, rev counter, and fuel level, plus trip data and fuel economy information, which didn’t give us any trouble.

I’m hoping that KGM will update the existing system to enable wireless Apple CarPlay connectivity at some point. Although the lag experienced may be a hardware issue, it might be resolved by running fewer processes simultaneously to provide a more seamless experience.

KGM has yet to test the Actyon, and its smaller Torres, through ANCAP.

KGM maintains the same safety equipment across the K50 and K60 Actyon, featuring eight airbags that cover the driver and passengers.

The adaptive cruise control does a good job of keeping distance from the vehicle in front, but that’s about where the pleasantries end. I often found it either dipping a few kilometres below the speed limit when going up a hill or gaining speed going down hills.

It’s infuriating to look down at the speedometer and see the car speeding when I’ve set the cruise control, especially in a country as eager to give you a speeding fine as Australia.

The lane-keep assist also needs some refinement, as it often interferes by pulling you back into the lane when you are well within the lines.

The only addition that falls under the safety category the K60 has over the K50 is a 360-degree camera. It works well, provides a clear image, and was well used in car parks to ensure the giant wheels fitted didn’t get any gutter rash.

Other than that, the driver safety assistance works well by not being overbearing with auto braking and warning alarms, which is more than can be said about different brands in the segment.

KGM Australia has applied an unlimited-kilometre, seven-year warranty to its two new cars, the Actyon and Torres, matched with a seven-year capped-price servicing plan.

Service prices alternate between $338 and $442 each visit. Three years’ maintenance runs to $1118, and five services costs $1898. On top of those service costs, KGM also has separate schedules (and additional costs) for brake fluid and filters (every two years), and spark plugs (four years/60,000km), which may push servicing costs higher.

It sits on the higher end in the segment in terms of servicing costs. Coming in more expensive than the Honda CR-V, which costs $995 over five visits, but comparable to the Mitsubishi Outlander, which will cost you $1700 over five visits.

Comprehensive insurance came in at $1640 per year, which is a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

KGM claims that the Actyon will return a fuel consumption rating of 7.6 litres per 100 kilometres. I didn’t see a number that low throughout the entire test, despite doing long trips along the freeway.

A mixture of city, freeway, and some traffic returned a readout of 10.9L/100km. This is quite high for such a small engine, to the point where I had to cross-reference the readout with the K50 we tested earlier in the year, which returned a readout of 11.6L/100km.

To make matters even less appealing, the turbocharged engine needs 95-octane premium unleaded to run, so you can forget any savings at the pump.

Putting this into comparison, the similarly sized Jaecoo J7 achieved 8.2L/100km in a test earlier this year, while the Nissan X-Trail returned 8.9km/100km.

The KGM Actyon sports the same 120kW/280Nm 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine as its brother, the Torres.

It’s quite a small engine to move a car of this size, and for the most part, it does a good job of it. I didn’t have big expectations of sports car-like power, but it’s not the slowest car on the market and has enough grunt to get off the lights quickly and make overtakes.

The gearing has a similar pleasant experience. The six-speed automatic transmission does a good job of choosing when to shift, so long as you aren’t too heavy on the accelerator, and gearchanges are relatively smooth despite asking a lot of the small engine.

I was also quite impressed with how the car actually rode. Usually, from newer brands in this segment, the suspension has a long way to go before being well optimised, but KGM seems to have it sorted with the Actyon.

Large bumps are soaked up with ease, and dipping over cat's eyes to promote some cabin noise didn’t get a peep out of the car.

Road noise is also not an issue, and the Actyon provided a quiet experience in terms of wind noise and interior rattle, soaking up highway speeds without any noise entering the cabin.

The steering is also extraordinarily light, which to me is a positive for navigating carparks, U-turns and tight streets, but lane-assist helps keep the car from darting around at high speeds. Although, I did feel that it lacks some feedback from the road, and without lane assist, too much steering input at freeway speeds could spell trouble.

Handling-wise, it can handle a quick swerve out of the way of a potential collision, but it's not exactly the best-handling medium SUV on the market due to its light steering.

The brakes worked well, but they had an overly touchy feel that made my passenger feel a bit car-sick at times, so getting used to the pedal will be necessary.

Unfortunately, that’s the extent of the good when it comes to the driving experience. Numerous small, annoying things culminated in larger issues with the platform.

The engine is working very hard, and you can certainly hear it. Even at idle, the engine noise is comparable to that of diesel counterparts. Press the accelerator and the engine instantly yells loud enough to be heard over the music in the cabin.

Which would be fine if the Actyon’s throttle action were linear, but it's not. Instead, it feels like the throttle is either at 0 or 100 per cent, with no in-between. It caused constant wheelspin from a standstill, which was made worse by any rainfall.

There was such an extraordinary amount of wheelspin that it prompted me to jump out and check if the car was equipped with some cheap tyres, but it has Michelin tyres fitted that come with a plethora of positive reviews.

The gear selector is infuriating, as it requires being held in position or tapped twice when switching from drive to reverse. It’s a slow action that makes quick three-point turns a whole ordeal. There were a handful of times when I unknowingly put the car in neutral, revving the engine.

Further gear-selector issues arose when I jumped in the car one morning to find a warning on the dashboard informing me that the shifter was out of order. However, switching the car off and on again seemed to clear the issue, and it did not recur.

Other than those glaring issues, the only other real point of annoyance was the stop-start system, which seemed to take far too long to restart the car and switch the air conditioning off.

I wouldn’t say that the Actyon was an overall enjoyable driving experience, but it’s not terrible for the average commuter. However, the wheelspin and the shifter are a few issues that need to be addressed, and hopefully can be sorted out during an update.

According to KGM, the Actyon can tow up to 1500kg using a braked trailer or up to 750kg without.

I wouldn’t really consider this car if you plan on towing a lot, as the front-wheel-drive layout and 1.5-litre petrol engine may not take kindly to a constant load on the rear axle.

The payload is 432kg, which is enough for five average-sized adults, or a family of five with three kids and a boot-full of luggage.

This car has a lot of showroom appeal. From the spec sheet and even looking at the car, it seems like you get a lot for your money.

It comes with so many modern luxuries as standard that you would need to opt for the top specification on other brands to get a similar experience.

There is an impressively long warranty at seven years, so it's backed by the brand to go the distance. However, it's unlikely owners will retain the car that long, statistically speaking.

It’s also impressive that you have seven years of capped-priced servicing, with the car requiring a service every 15,000km or 12 months.

I believe that’s where this car will sell. People will come into the dealership and see this luxury-looking car with enormous amounts of factory support for $50,000 drive-away and not give it a second thought. Especially when you pit it up against a base-model Toyota RAV4 GX for $42,260 (plus on-roads), which is simply just a car, without all the extra add-ons.

However, I simply cannot look past the culmination of annoying day-to-day issues and poor fuel economy that this car faces. That’s where a simple and straightforward car like the RAV4 or even the base-model Kia Sportage wins.

By the time you realise this, you’re already at home with your new Actyon. Again, that’s not a bad thing, because you certainly have got a good deal on a well-equipped car if that’s your thing.

I think there is only so much you can expect from a car packed with gadgets and features for under $50,000, but it's not unreasonable to expect that said car does its sole job, being a car, well.

Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.

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