A Wicked Stinger

What we like:

Aggressive styling means business

Loads of torque

Ride comfort

What we dislike:

Steering feels floaty under hard acceleration

Poor quality of some trim

Shared parts bin items cheapens the car

The 3.3 litre V6 twin-turbocharged Lambda II Gasoline Direct Injection Hyundai/KIA engine, found in some Genesis cars, powers the Stinger. Good for 370ps, the V6 is generous on torque delivery, with 510Nm made available from as low as 1,300rpm. Mated to a well-sorted, in-house developed 8-speed automatic, you will find it easy to manoeuvre within tight start-stop traffic.

While the car is equipped with a set of quad tailpipes, you will not get that loud burble, or even loud pops per gear-change you might come to expect, but instead, the properly vulgar-looking car is actually quite a silent performer. Noise entering the cabin is well-managed, thanks to some good sound insulation. There is just slight wind noise coming from the wing mirrors at speed.

With a rack-mounted motor for the power steering, the response is quicker and vibrations are reduced, versus the conventional version of column-mounted motors. Chip the Stinger into a bend, and there is more than enough torque to provoke the rear to step out. The GT benefits from a mechanical limited slip differential, helping to keep the rear safe from overpowering of the wheels. The GT also benefits from an electronically adjustable Dynamic Stability Damping Control (DSDC), which acts to ensure greater stability, by increasing dampening of the front dampers, while firming up the rear, to reduce understeer, and vice versa for oversteer. Pitch the car into a corner, and you will know right away that the car was never intended to be a hardcore performer, but rather a relaxed GT cruiser.

While we did mention earlier on that the Stinger had placed some emphasis on balance, the steering does however feel vague, and the front end floaty under a heavy right foot, and the with the rear wheels bogged down under hard throttle, it can come across overall as a little too soggy and wallowy, as you try to see if KIA is telling the truth of a 4.9 second 0-100km/h sprint timing.

There are similar cars like the BMW 440i GranCoupe, which do well here, where they remain more planted, nimble and composed when pushed to their limits, while feeling quite relaxed overall, and Volkswagen’s new Arteon, which also features fastback Grand Tourer styling, but in reality, feels like a milder, but larger Golf R, the Stinger on the other hand could have been engineered that little bit better, but from a price point, you are getting yourself a bargain of a car.

That aside, the Koreans may have seemed to hit the mark. Yes?

Just maybe (or maybe not)… There are a few bits which we feel which have been overlooked. As mentioned earlier, the Stinger is KIA’s halo car, meaning in the strongest sense, one which people and the competition would sit up to notice.

I am unapologetic, but the designers and engineers should have tossed out their economist when developing the Stinger. New switchgear on this car should trickle downwards to their bread-and-butter models, meaning that if you were see a part within the interior of say… the next Cerato Forte K3, you knew it came from a Stinger; and it should not be the case of, “look at this part in my Stinger, it came from a Cerato Forte K3!”

Quality and better choices for finishing are issues that should have been better managed. Chrome strips on our test car have already begun peeling, and chromed wing mirror covers would easily fall prey to stone chips, and likely succumb to future peeling.

While what we have mentioned does not make the Stinger a bad car; the Koreans may have come this far, but they could have gone just a little further…

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