My short review of the Stinger GT

[Gixxa]

So, today I was able to test drive the Kia Stinger GT. I drove it about 160 km (100 miles) for about 2 hours. Here my short "review" that I could gather within 2 hours:

Performance: Very very good however I did feel a bit of turbo lag. Not very bad but you can feel it. The transmission, if driven in auto, is a bit slow the first 1/2 second until it get's the revs up. Once they are up it's not a "problem" anymore. Driving it manual it was a non issue.

Stability: Extremly good. I was able to drive it at 263 km/h (~163 mph) on the Autobahn and it felt perfectly stable. This was with winter tires on 19" rims with the 225 front and 255 back tires.

Traction: Thanks to the AWD of the GT it was just a breeze do go around curves. Never did the ESP have to limit the power that was sent to the wheels. However if pushed to the limit if will tend to understeer but this could also be because of the winter tires and the relativ cool temperatures of 12?C (53.6 ?F) today.

Comfort: Excellent! I loved the seats. They will keep you in place when you drive fast but are also very good if you just want to cruise. I especially loved that the front of the seat can extend to give your thighs more support. I'm fairly tall with 1,84m (6,03 ft) but I have long legs so this is always a plus point if a car has this feature.

Fuel consumption: With my daily driver I need about 4,8-5,6 l/100 km (Diesel) depending on how fast I drive. Driving normal with the Stinger GT I was able to get it to about 8-10 l/100 km for a V6 with 370 hp very good. However when you floor it it will drink that sweet sweet fuel like someone that just spend 3 days in a desert with no water. For said 160 km I used around 42 liters (11,1 gal) but then again this was around 90% Autobahn with around 30 minutes (summed up) at full throttle.

Features: I loved the cruise control in a traffic jam. Once active it will drive the car on it's own and all you need to do is steer. The HUD was also very cool and I liked it alot.

Sound: It was ok for a stock exhaust. I however would proably go for a aftermarket exhaust that has a flap in it.

So the big question: Will I buy a Stinger GT?

Very tough question! The heart is screaming hell yes but the mind is still not 100% made up considering fuel costs here in Germany. If the car is empty and I need to fill it up to 100% it would cost me about 85 ? (~99 USD) for our normal "Super Plus" 98 octane fuel. If i were to go with "Shell V-Power" or "Aral Ultimate" which have 102 octane it would set me back about 92 ? (108 USD). I drive about 2000 km a month so that would be around 250 ? (~293 USD) just for fuel. So the mind says if it were to be a Stinger, it would probably be a Stinger Diesel. I would "only" get a top speed of 230 km/h (~143 mph) not 270 km/h (~168 mph) and I would also loose a bit of torque (70 nm/51,62 ft lb) compared to the GT however it would almost be double of my car that I have atm so it would still be a nice upgrade.


If you have any questions just ask

 

[Kale808]

Great write up review. Any major issues with road noise and rattles, ride harshness with the 19" wheels, air leaks around the windows and sunroofs?

 

[Dan]

Can you let me know how the Harman Kardon system sounds and if the bass from the underseat mounted subwoofers are sufficient?

 

[Gixxa]

Great write up review.

Thank you

Any major issues with road noise and rattles, ride harshness with the 19" wheels, air leaks around the windows and sunroofs?

Road noise was not an issue even at 250+ km/h everything was relatively quiet for that speed. I could also not feel any rattles on the dash or on any other position, in fact you almost don't hear the engine when it is idle. Ride harshness was also not an issue. My daily, on 16" 205 wheels, is harsher than the GT ever was. Even in Sport-Mode the GT performed excelent. It was a bit firmer in Sport (compared to Comfort) but not a lot. In percent I would say it was around ~5% harder. I also did not feel any air leeks or weird noises from the windows. The GT I drove did not have a sunroof so I can't say anything about that. BUt I would assume that there is also no problem.

Can you let me know how the Harman Kardon system sounds and if the bass from the underseat mounted subwoofers are sufficient?

I did a few test with my iPhone (mainly classical music, metal and blues), sadly I can't play the music I have on my Mac (24 Bit, 192 KHz) but the converted m4a files to 16 Bit 96 KHz sounded good. I don't like bass too much so I don't turn that up all the way and I did not mess with the settings as audio was not a priority. That would be something I would do if I could get the car for a day or two.

Just keep in mind that Harman Kardon is not the Harman Kardon from 20 years ago. It's owned by Samsung since March 2017.

 

[DigDug]

[MENTION=74]Gixxa[/MENTION] thanks for sharing your review.

What other cars are you cross-shopping with the Stinger? Do you guys get the turbo 4 over there?

 

[Gixxa]

Turbo 4 does not ring a bell.

I'm thinking about these cars:

• 911 Turbo (used 996)
• Mustang GT
• C350e Station Wagon
• Audi A5

Out of those I would most likely go with the C350e. I used to work for Mercedes so I'll get 21,5% on any new car so I would be in Stinger GT/Mustang GT territory with around 55k. The 911 Turbo is still one of my all time favorites (yes even the 996) but I don't see that as a daily driver. The same can be said about the Mustang GT very cool car but I just don't see it as a daily driver with a 5 liter V8.

So that being said at the moment the Stinger is on top considering we have a 7 year warranty from Kia here.

 

[SeoulStinger]

Wish they would give us two hour test drives in the states lol. Did you get a chance to drive it in the various drive modes? I was hoping in Sports mode the turbo lag would be minimal due to the engine being kept in the higher rpm range.

 

[Gixxa]

I did play around with the drive modes but in my experience they don't do anything except change what you can read in the dash. The steering wheel got a bit harder to turn in "Sport" but that was basically it.

As I said there is a little turbo lag but nothing like 20 years ago. Let me put it this way the turbo lag would not influence my buying decision.