The Stinger scratches that RWD itch
If you like your family sedan to do big skids, this new Kia could be for you, says David Linklater.
The hype over Kia’s firstever rear-drive sedan has certainly hit the redline. So much so that the Stinger could be one of the most accomplished cars launched this year, and still be a massive disappointment.
Why so much anticipation? Number one is that it’s coming along just as rear-drive Aussie cars have left the building, so it’s something for the purists to hang their hopes on. Number two is that it’s a huge rev-up for a brand that’s much-admired for its design, but until now has been limited to front-drive passenger cars and AWD SUVs.
Stinger is here in New Zealand and we’ve driven it. Disclaimer: we’ve driven it on a racetrack only, at Pukekohe Park near Auckland, in a little pre-launch taster before the car hits the market proper.
Most Kiwi Kia dealerships have demonstrator Stingers, but deliveries won’t actually start until January. From there, supply should not be an issue, as the Korean brand’s NZ arm sets its sights on 700 Stinger sales for 2018. That’s nowhere near Commodore volume, but well ahead of anything else in the segment.
The star-car in the lineup is the $69,990 Stinger GT Sport, with a
3.3-litre twin-turbo V6 making
272kW and 510Nm: 0-100kmh in under five seconds.
But there’s also a $59,990 GT Line with a 2.0-litre turbo making
193kW/353Nm: 0-100kmh in six seconds. That same four-pot powers the entry $54,990 EX.
There’s a little sales-sweetener with Stinger in the form of free scheduled servicing for the first four years or 40,000km – in addition to Kia’s standard fiveyear/100,000km warranty.
There’s some solid stuff underneath: the Stinger is based on the same platform as the Genesis G70 from parent brand Hyundai. It’s part of a much bigger high-end picture.
Unsurprisingly, early Stinger orders are heavily biased towards the flagship GT Sport – four-to-one compared with the 2.0-litre, says Kia NZ general manager Todd McDonald.
Who’s buying them? ‘‘The [GT Sport] V6 is more your traditional large-car enthusiast, but the GT Line is really targeted at the mainstream. The EX is for the person who wants a large car but is on a limited budget.’’
Translation: the GT Sport is priced right in between the outgoing Holden Commodore SS and SS-V Redline models, while the GT Line is within $3000 of the Commodore SV6. That GT Line four-pot also starts at the same price as the four-cylinder Ford Mustang.
All models get adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, LED headlights (adaptive on GTs), quad exhaust pipes, Harman Kardon audio, eight-way power-adjustable driver’s seat and dual-zone climate control with manual adjustment in the rear.
And so to business. Or rather, to skids on the track.
The Stinger’s styling leaves you in no doubt that it has aspirations to be an enthusiasts’ machine. Both GT Sport and GT Line wear quite a lot of warpaint. The EX much less so – in fact, it looks a little undernourished with its understated exterior detailing and smaller wheels (18-inch compared with 19in on the GTs).
The GT Sport has serious performance potential and a chassis that means business: not just sports suspension but also a limited-slip differential and Brembo brake package. Both GTbadged models have Dynamic Stability Damping Control (DSDC) with five settings, but the Sport also has a launch control function that takes full advantage of the LSD.
On track, the Stinger V6 fulfils that sporting promise: it’s rapid off the line and there’s a good line of communication between steering wheel and chassis – one of the big dynamic advantages of RWD.
Stinger also feels like a RWD machine when you’re pressing on: the surge of torque from the twinturbo V6 results in a clearly discernable change of attitude at the rear. It’s responsive in turns without being super-stiff: even in Sport mode it’s easy to induce lateral movement and some foreaft pitching, but on a smooth racetrack the chassis telegraphs its intentions well and is easy to control.
And yes, you can do skids. The Stinger’s traction control actually allows quite a lot of oversteer movement with the electronics on, and a few choice corners with everything off showed how nicely balanced the whole package is.
The four-cylinder GT Line has less pace than the V6, obviously, and lacks the big brakes and limited-slip rear, but it’s still an entertaining package. The turbo engine is sweet and strong, and it is a little lighter up front than the GT Sport, by 90kg. Not that the V6 feels particularly nose-heavy.
If there’s a weak spot with the Stinger’s dynamic package it’s the Kia-developed eight-speed transmission. There’s an excellent spread of ratios, but it felt a little lethargic in the V6 models and in the sole four-pot GT Line we drove at Pukekohe, the gearbox had a couple of pause-and-clunk episodes under the duress of track work.
Not much time to assess the interior, but the quality is typically impressive Kia, even if the styling is a grab-bag of European influences: a lot of Audi and Mercedes-Benz in there, we think.
It’s a practical ‘‘fastback’’ with a rear hatch and 60/40 split seats, but don’t expect Commodore-levels of luggage or rear-seat space. The former is 406 litres, the latter still adult-sized but more intimate (to use a polite term) than your traditional Aussie large car. Back when there was such a thing.
We’ll have to leave the road driving for a later date, but the Stinger is an impressively entertaining machine on track in both GT Sport and GT Line guises. The V6 in particular seems like solid value over the four-cylinder: it’s another $10k, but you’re getting some worthwhile performance and hardware upgrades for that.