Kia Stinger GTS: Badge snobbery be damned!
Discussion
Introducing my newly acquired Kia Stinger GTS;
Kia: a brand without a history of performance cars. A brand with literally zero motorsports heritage or kudos among petrolheads. A brand that if you’d told 19-year-old me I’d own one day, I would have turned my nose up at the very idea. But things have changed!
My last car was a 2019 Megane RS Trophy, which I owned for nearly three years and loved it, but wanted a change. I wanted to move away from a chassis-focused, hard-riding hot hatch to something bigger, comfier, and with more than four cylinders. Basically the next automotive box I wanted to tick was the “big, fast saloon” box (yes I know the Stinger is TECHNICALLY not a saloon…but come on, look at it….it’s a saloon)
I tend to keep cars for a decently long time, which isn’t necessarily conducive to ticking loads of different boxes. I’ve been driving for 15 years and my car history goes;
Mk1 Ford Focus
Toyota Celica 190
Mk5 VW Golf GTI
Nissan 370Z
Megane RS 300 Trophy
It’s not a huge list! But it is carefully selected. And this time I wanted to go left-field. Which meant, for a big, fast saloon, no BMWs, Audis or Mercs. I’d been intrigued by the Stinger ever since it came out. I think it looks brilliant, reviews indicated it drove really well, especially for it’s size, and it’s fantastically well equipped. As standard, it gets;
- Heated and ventilated seats
- Heated steering wheel
- Nappa leather
- Glass roof
- Heads up display
- Radar cruise control
- Lane departure assist
- Powered boot open/close
- Harmon & Kardon stereo
- Apple CarPlay/Android Auto
- Wireless phone charging
- Top-down view parking camera
Again, NONE of these are optional extras! Take that, Germans.
Overall, I think this is a great looking car. It’s handsomely proportioned, the squared-off front gives it huge presence and dare I say there’s a tiny bit of Maserati to the rear end?
I was only ever going to buy a red one. Partly because I’ve had black, silver or grey cars for nearly 10 years and I simply wanted a proper colour again, but mostly because the red is a beautiful shade, almost Mazda Soul Red-esque. Also it hides the long side reflectors which come off the rear lights, which is a design feature I’m not quite sold on.
Also fake centrelocks on the wheel nut covers and fake bonnet vents are a bit of a shame, but hey.
Inside, the cabin architecture/layout is really nice. The materials and switchgear are high quality; there’s a surprisingly large amount of metal pieces which you’d expect to be plastic. The seats are great and the high central tunnel helps the seating position feel cockpit-y without feeling cramped.
In a straight line, this is the fastest car I’ve owned. It’s slightly quicker than my old 370Z despite carrying an extra 250kg. The twin-turbo V6 has got such a meaty power delivery, it just builds and surges. Feels faster than its 365bhp and 510Nm.
Dynamically, it’s definitely not a “thrash it at ten tenths” car, but it’s not designed to be. It’s perfectly happy being pushed reasonably hard, you just need to let the suspension/damping do its thing without rushing it. I’m not going to say it “hides its weight“, because it doesn’t; it’s a pretty big car and it feels like a pretty big car, but it’s incredibly planted and there’s very little body roll.
The gearbox is really good; it’s an 8-speed auto with paddles, changes are smooth and super quick. This is my first non-manual, and I have to say the ease with which it just cruises around is so great. Sometimes it’s nice to choose to be more or less involved.
Fuel economy is pretty volatile, has to be said…I got 36mpg on the 6 hour drive home from picking it up, largely because it’ll sit at 70 doing 1,700rpm in 8th gear. Then on my commute which is a few miles of 30 zones with a bit of traffic…23mpg!
Overall, I’m thrilled with it. Plans for it are to just enjoy it, really! I won’t necessarily be taking it on track days (although never say never), but it’ll almost definitely do an NC500 trip.
Also there’s a few niggly cosmetic things needing doing, namely the engine bay which is badly in need of a scrub.
That’s all for now, here’s some more photos of a car which encourages you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the badge on its nose. Kia’s a borderline premium brand these days, and that started with the Stinger
Kia: a brand without a history of performance cars. A brand with literally zero motorsports heritage or kudos among petrolheads. A brand that if you’d told 19-year-old me I’d own one day, I would have turned my nose up at the very idea. But things have changed!
My last car was a 2019 Megane RS Trophy, which I owned for nearly three years and loved it, but wanted a change. I wanted to move away from a chassis-focused, hard-riding hot hatch to something bigger, comfier, and with more than four cylinders. Basically the next automotive box I wanted to tick was the “big, fast saloon” box (yes I know the Stinger is TECHNICALLY not a saloon…but come on, look at it….it’s a saloon)
I tend to keep cars for a decently long time, which isn’t necessarily conducive to ticking loads of different boxes. I’ve been driving for 15 years and my car history goes;
Mk1 Ford Focus
Toyota Celica 190
Mk5 VW Golf GTI
Nissan 370Z
Megane RS 300 Trophy
It’s not a huge list! But it is carefully selected. And this time I wanted to go left-field. Which meant, for a big, fast saloon, no BMWs, Audis or Mercs. I’d been intrigued by the Stinger ever since it came out. I think it looks brilliant, reviews indicated it drove really well, especially for it’s size, and it’s fantastically well equipped. As standard, it gets;
- Heated and ventilated seats
- Heated steering wheel
- Nappa leather
- Glass roof
- Heads up display
- Radar cruise control
- Lane departure assist
- Powered boot open/close
- Harmon & Kardon stereo
- Apple CarPlay/Android Auto
- Wireless phone charging
- Top-down view parking camera
Again, NONE of these are optional extras! Take that, Germans.
Overall, I think this is a great looking car. It’s handsomely proportioned, the squared-off front gives it huge presence and dare I say there’s a tiny bit of Maserati to the rear end?
I was only ever going to buy a red one. Partly because I’ve had black, silver or grey cars for nearly 10 years and I simply wanted a proper colour again, but mostly because the red is a beautiful shade, almost Mazda Soul Red-esque. Also it hides the long side reflectors which come off the rear lights, which is a design feature I’m not quite sold on.
Also fake centrelocks on the wheel nut covers and fake bonnet vents are a bit of a shame, but hey.
Inside, the cabin architecture/layout is really nice. The materials and switchgear are high quality; there’s a surprisingly large amount of metal pieces which you’d expect to be plastic. The seats are great and the high central tunnel helps the seating position feel cockpit-y without feeling cramped.
In a straight line, this is the fastest car I’ve owned. It’s slightly quicker than my old 370Z despite carrying an extra 250kg. The twin-turbo V6 has got such a meaty power delivery, it just builds and surges. Feels faster than its 365bhp and 510Nm.
Dynamically, it’s definitely not a “thrash it at ten tenths” car, but it’s not designed to be. It’s perfectly happy being pushed reasonably hard, you just need to let the suspension/damping do its thing without rushing it. I’m not going to say it “hides its weight“, because it doesn’t; it’s a pretty big car and it feels like a pretty big car, but it’s incredibly planted and there’s very little body roll.
The gearbox is really good; it’s an 8-speed auto with paddles, changes are smooth and super quick. This is my first non-manual, and I have to say the ease with which it just cruises around is so great. Sometimes it’s nice to choose to be more or less involved.
Fuel economy is pretty volatile, has to be said…I got 36mpg on the 6 hour drive home from picking it up, largely because it’ll sit at 70 doing 1,700rpm in 8th gear. Then on my commute which is a few miles of 30 zones with a bit of traffic…23mpg!
Overall, I’m thrilled with it. Plans for it are to just enjoy it, really! I won’t necessarily be taking it on track days (although never say never), but it’ll almost definitely do an NC500 trip.
Also there’s a few niggly cosmetic things needing doing, namely the engine bay which is badly in need of a scrub.
That’s all for now, here’s some more photos of a car which encourages you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the badge on its nose. Kia’s a borderline premium brand these days, and that started with the Stinger
Nice! Interested to see how you get on with it, I've been really impressed with my mates i30N. I actually considered one of these back when I bought my 340i but new prices put the Kia at more than the BMW so I didn't explore them after that. I see a couple locally that have been owned by the same people long term so they must be doing something right.
Awesome, another PH Stinger owner. Others will be along soon.
I had a 2019 Ceramic Grey GTS for 2 1/2 years and c. 25k miles.
Loved it. Story here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Enjoy your very, very cool new car and I look forward to your continued updates!
I had a 2019 Ceramic Grey GTS for 2 1/2 years and c. 25k miles.
Loved it. Story here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Enjoy your very, very cool new car and I look forward to your continued updates!
Not a Stinger owner but a 10 year old Optima and really impressed with Kia’s reliability and standard features, 108k miles a nothing to complain about.
Gives me faith a a Stinger and would like the power it offers but hard to move on when nothing wrong on my current car.
Yours looks great in red, good purchase
Gives me faith a a Stinger and would like the power it offers but hard to move on when nothing wrong on my current car.
Yours looks great in red, good purchase
[ I wanted to move away from a chassis-focused, hard-riding hot hatch to something bigger, comfier, and with more than four cylinders. Basically the next automotive box I wanted to tick was the big, fast saloon box (yes I know the Stinger is TECHNICALLY not a saloon but come on, look at it .it s a saloon)
[/quote]
This is my thought process for my next car as well, I've got my heart on a BMW 540i but do like the stinger as it's a bit left field.
Both offer similar performance and economy but it's the interior that puts me off the stinger. I've never sat in one, just from what I've seen in pictures l, I think the BMW looks a nicer place to sit.
[/quote]
This is my thought process for my next car as well, I've got my heart on a BMW 540i but do like the stinger as it's a bit left field.
Both offer similar performance and economy but it's the interior that puts me off the stinger. I've never sat in one, just from what I've seen in pictures l, I think the BMW looks a nicer place to sit.
andy43 said:
Good write up! I m just about to hit 52,000 miles in mine, owned from sub-20k, it s been bulletproof over the last 33,000 miles or so.
And yes, red is the best colour
At rest in the Algarve
Is it really a GT? Oh yes.
TheDrownedApe said:
Still a rare sight in the wild. Ive seen perhaps 2 or 3 ever.
Very nice car. Invisible to 99% of the population but the 1% are doffing their cap.
Bizarrely there seem to be quite a few around me in South DevonVery nice car. Invisible to 99% of the population but the 1% are doffing their cap.
I really like the Stinger, I had one for 2 weeks around New Zealand, and it really is a car where you can tell an effort was made by people who like cars. Yes, it wasn't perfect, but it had that sense of it wasn't something just churned out to improve the company's bottom line
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