The Eye Stinger- Sunset Yellow GTS
Discussion
After getting shut of my fantastic but fantastically unreliable F-Pace in July I’d been on the hunt for a new daily. I bought a Cupra Leon 310 ST, on paper it seemed perfect. Fast, smallish but big enough to be practical and well equipped. The reality was anything but. It was a dismal, boring heap of junk I’d had the misfortune to own. The less said about the infotainment system the better. It lasted two weeks before I sold it back to the dealer.
I tried a Stinger at a Big Motoring place. The car was great, but had dubious service history and the sales process, well, anyone would think I was there to buy anything but a car. GAP, warranties, insurances and the like. “You’ve taken up a lot of my time on a busy afternoon and not bought it” was the salesman’s parting gambit erm if you’d had answered my questions honestly about the car before we’d had even gone to look at it on the lot then we could have saved us both a lot of time! Left with a real bitter taste in my mouth and put me off looking for ages.
I was quite happy using my Abarth but with winter approaching I decided it was time to break free from my malaise and start looking again. I considered all sorts. A cheap run round, getting something from Tusker via work, another hot hatch, another fast estate. I even borrowed an ID Buzz for the weekend. My Autotrader watch list looked like I’d accidentally liked a load of cars whilst browsing!
Eventually I decided that I wasn’t going to PCP or finance a car and decided on a budget of around 20-25k which seemed to be able to buy me a nice C43 or S4 Avant that I seemed to settle on. Then I remembered how much I’d enjoyed taking the Stinger out and saw that I could get a really nice example with all the toys I wanted as standard rather than having to trawl through all the ads trying to decipher if that S4 had the matrix lights and so on.
I set up a search and narrowed down a few examples. Some had patchy history but then a Sunset Yellow one at the top end of my budget popped up at a car supermarket thirty minutes away. I wasn’t taken by the colour at first but it had only done 26k and had been religiously serviced on the dot. With wife and kid in tow off I went to look at it on a freezing afternoon. The youth loved the colour, the wife no doubt born of exasperation made encouraging noises about it and the deal was done! I was now the owner of a 19 plate bright yellow Stinger GTS.
Collection day came a few days later, 40 minute train ride then a 3 mile bike ride that seemed all uphill. Blowing out of my arse I was.
On collection:
First fill up:
Stopped somewhere that passes as picturesque for round these parts on the way home:
With my Abarth which is now enjoying a well earned rest in my garage:
It’s got a full Kia service history (twelve stamps) and as an added bonus it has a detachable towbar and an active service plan. The colour is very marmite but I like it. I figured that if I was going to get a “couldn’t give a f
k what the world thinks of me or presumes of my status” type of car then I thought I might as well get one in a “couldn’t give a fk etc” colour 
I’m really enjoying it. Feels far faster than the performance stats suggest (in fact the complete opposite to the Cupra). It’s wonderfully old school and proud. It’s quite tail happy but then the road conditions at the minute don’t help. I’m a serial car swapper but I think this one is a keeper.
Future plans are just to enjoy it as it is at the moment. I need to give the interior a good valet. Not because it’s dirty but as usual the dealer has cleaned the seats with some kind of super shiny spray and made them look terrible. It’s booked in for its 13th service next week at the local Kia to maintain the history. The place I bought it from said they’d done it but hadn’t stamped the book. I might change one tyre as I guess the place I bought it from put a cheapo plastic one on, the rest are Contis so it would be good if they were all matching. Thanks for reading this far!
I tried a Stinger at a Big Motoring place. The car was great, but had dubious service history and the sales process, well, anyone would think I was there to buy anything but a car. GAP, warranties, insurances and the like. “You’ve taken up a lot of my time on a busy afternoon and not bought it” was the salesman’s parting gambit erm if you’d had answered my questions honestly about the car before we’d had even gone to look at it on the lot then we could have saved us both a lot of time! Left with a real bitter taste in my mouth and put me off looking for ages.
I was quite happy using my Abarth but with winter approaching I decided it was time to break free from my malaise and start looking again. I considered all sorts. A cheap run round, getting something from Tusker via work, another hot hatch, another fast estate. I even borrowed an ID Buzz for the weekend. My Autotrader watch list looked like I’d accidentally liked a load of cars whilst browsing!
Eventually I decided that I wasn’t going to PCP or finance a car and decided on a budget of around 20-25k which seemed to be able to buy me a nice C43 or S4 Avant that I seemed to settle on. Then I remembered how much I’d enjoyed taking the Stinger out and saw that I could get a really nice example with all the toys I wanted as standard rather than having to trawl through all the ads trying to decipher if that S4 had the matrix lights and so on.
I set up a search and narrowed down a few examples. Some had patchy history but then a Sunset Yellow one at the top end of my budget popped up at a car supermarket thirty minutes away. I wasn’t taken by the colour at first but it had only done 26k and had been religiously serviced on the dot. With wife and kid in tow off I went to look at it on a freezing afternoon. The youth loved the colour, the wife no doubt born of exasperation made encouraging noises about it and the deal was done! I was now the owner of a 19 plate bright yellow Stinger GTS.
Collection day came a few days later, 40 minute train ride then a 3 mile bike ride that seemed all uphill. Blowing out of my arse I was.
On collection:
First fill up:
Stopped somewhere that passes as picturesque for round these parts on the way home:
With my Abarth which is now enjoying a well earned rest in my garage:
It’s got a full Kia service history (twelve stamps) and as an added bonus it has a detachable towbar and an active service plan. The colour is very marmite but I like it. I figured that if I was going to get a “couldn’t give a f
k what the world thinks of me or presumes of my status” type of car then I thought I might as well get one in a “couldn’t give a fk etc” colour I’m really enjoying it. Feels far faster than the performance stats suggest (in fact the complete opposite to the Cupra). It’s wonderfully old school and proud. It’s quite tail happy but then the road conditions at the minute don’t help. I’m a serial car swapper but I think this one is a keeper.
Future plans are just to enjoy it as it is at the moment. I need to give the interior a good valet. Not because it’s dirty but as usual the dealer has cleaned the seats with some kind of super shiny spray and made them look terrible. It’s booked in for its 13th service next week at the local Kia to maintain the history. The place I bought it from said they’d done it but hadn’t stamped the book. I might change one tyre as I guess the place I bought it from put a cheapo plastic one on, the rest are Contis so it would be good if they were all matching. Thanks for reading this far!
Loved my 5 years and 60k with mine. Drove all over Europe for numerous holidays and never put a foot wrong and I used its full power almost every day. Fantastic cars and they really do turn heads and start conversations everywhere you go. I've only had maybe 2 people speak to me about my 6.2 C63 estate that replaced it lol. Gives more evidence to my wife who says I traded in a beautiful car for a grandad car haha. If it was possible to engine swap a V8 into the Stinger I don't think I would ever have sold it but it was an itch that needed to be scratched. A shame that Kia have done nothing but churn out the exact same looking EV's crossover/suv's since.
One of my favourite pictures somewhere along Susten Pass in Switzerland:
One of my favourite pictures somewhere along Susten Pass in Switzerland:
Edited by Goatwidcoat on Wednesday 21st January 11:18
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