WHAT’S THE CATCH?
By the time you read this, Holden will be gone as a local manufacturer. Yes, I know, we’ve had a couple of years to get used to it as Australia seems to be entering a post-industrial phase. (Did we learn nothing from Thatcher?) Anyways, there are a lot of blokes and blokettes out there, squatting in corners, rocking back and forth, having lost their minds at the loss of Aussie cars. It’s really the thought of no more big-engined, rear-drive cars that is giving us the lie-awakes.
Until now, the solution has been to shop for a BMW or Merc, but for many, that’s not going to be a fiscal reality. So, wait for the next Commodore? Er, maybe not. From 2018 onwards it will be a front-drive, four-cylinder car. And those rumours of an all-wheeldrive V6 with a pair of turbos fizzled out when somebody ran a tape measure over the engine bay and figured out that there wasn’t enough room for the turbos to live. So scratch that option, then. Ford? Who knows. The fact that Ford Oz has retired the Falcon badge doesn’t bode well. Am I reading too much into that? Seems not. The whisper is that Ford Oz passed on the all-wheel-drive, 2.7-litre V6, twin-turbo Fusion (kind of a US-made, hot-rod Mondeo) because of projected low volumes.
So we’re still up the creek and light on for paddles, then? Again, maybe not. The emerging trend is twin-turbo V6s are looking like the performance powerplant of the future. What if you could march into an Australian dealership today and plonk down your readies on a full-sized car with such an engine layout, the same straight-line performance as a Commodore SS-V Redline, rear-wheel-drive and you’ll get change from fifty-large? You’d be on your bike in a second, right?
So what’s the catch? None really, it’s reality. Okay, so the dealership won’t have a blue oval or a red lion above the door. It’ll have Kia signage, but that shouldn’t put you off. The car is the Kia Stinger (beaut name, no?) and it makes 272kW from its 3.3 litres and 510Nm of torque. It gets from rest to 100km/h in five seconds and it covers a quarter mile in 13 seconds. I know, ‘cos I ran those exact times when I drove it recently.
I wouldn’t call it a potential XR6 Turbo or Commodore SS replacement, but against the now non-existent Ford G6E or Holden Calais V8 it is. It aint perfect, but it sure as hell slots into the psyche of people like us, better than a front-drive hatchback with a three-cylinder turbo-motor running on dolphin hugs.
I’m not mad about the Kia’s steering feel and the eight-speed auto could use a proper manual mode to make up for the lack of a manual-trans option. But it looks the part and it goes like a good ’un. The rear-drive power-down and step-off is something I’ll never get tired of. Oh yeah, the other negative is that it won’t do a skid, the electronics won’t allow it. How do I know? Never mind.
The Stinger isn’t a flash-in-the-pan model and who knows, the Kia might get other car-makers thinking about similar layouts. I like that Kia is thinking outside the box, too. For many years, we’ve been told that front-drive and east-west engines are more efficient in packaging and safety terms. Meantime, I’ve always suspected that if you can’t make a car the size of the Stinger crash properly and feature enough interior space for five adults (regardless of which way the engine is pointing) then you’re not really trying.
Here’s another reason, the Stinger has a seven year/ unlimited kilometre warranty. That’s great news for those who like a big slug of depreciation to sweeten the deal. It means we can, in a year or three, latch on to a slightly used Stinger, from a user-chooser lease with four years of factory warranty still to run.
I’d still like to be able to buy an XR6 Turbo or SS-V Redline. That’s not going to happen, but in this case, it’s already happened. Somebody is on our side.