KIA SEDAN MAKES A BOLD STATEMENT
The 2018 Stinger takes aim at German stalwarts with BMW, Mercedes badges
It appears that Kia is looking for a fight.
Yes, the same South Korean automaker known for its sprightly hatchbacks and family-friendly SUVs. Now Kia has done something completely out of its character and delved into the realm of the luxury, rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive sport sedan, already crowded with the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes.
If that weren’t enough, Kia decided to host a preview of its new Stinger at the holiest of holy temples for the German brands, right in their own backyard: the famed and historic Nurburgring circuit. It’s like kicking sand in the face of the bodybuilders at Venice Beach. It’s akin to walking into a pub full of Manchester United hooligans and belting out Liverpool’s anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone. But — and we’re keeping with analogies here — if you’re going to poke a bear with a stick, you’d better be confident you can take him.
Make no mistake, the Germans were squarely in the crosshairs of Kia when it was developing this sloped-roof sedan, a point brought up constantly by Kia personnel when comparing the performance, power and even dimensions. While there was no mention of the exact benchmark for success, the inference was made that the BMW 3 Series was the goal. Considering Kia has no real sporting background or other performance products to learn from, those are lofty intentions, indeed.
But there’s more German in this car than you might think. The Stinger is based on the Kia GT concept that debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011, and both were penned by the company’s design chief, Gregory Guillaume, who’s based at the Kia Design Center Europe in Frankfurt.
The car certainly has a European flair. Guillaume says his inspiration was the Italian grand touring cars from the 1970s — the Maserati Ghibli, for example — that he would see when he lived in France. In fact, the Stinger logo has a real similarity to the Lamborghini script.
But looks alone do not make a successful sport sedan, hence this drive around the 21-kilometre circuit known as The Green Hell. This is where just about every supercar is brought to wring out its worth, and for good reason. With huge elevation changes, challenging corners and high-speed straights that turn brake rotors red with heat, it’s one of the most challenging courses in the world.
Of course, the Stinger is not a track car. It’s more a grand tourer than an out-and-out performance racer, so it’s not aiming for the likes of BMW’s M division. Only Europe will get a diesel engine and all base models will have a 2.0-litre, turbocharged in-line four cylinder with 251 horsepower as standard equipment. But these pre-production cars waiting in the pits are powered by a 365-hp, 3.3-L turbo six cylinder (a version of the same engine in the Genesis G90) with 376 pound-feet of torque. According to Kia, that combination will propel this car to 100 km/h in under five seconds.
There’s no reason to doubt that, and yet the engine isn’t even the car’s strong suit. Sure, it pushes you back into the seat on takeoff and has a suitable, if slightly muffled, exhaust note (Kia engineers are still working on a throatier exhaust for the North American market). Turbo lag is evident, however, especially in powering out of the turns, and a driver has to adjust for that throttle response earlier. The eight-speed automatic transmission (standard for all engines), shifts quickly and never seems to hunt for gears. But it’s those turns that have the Stinger shining.
The rear-wheel and all-wheeldrive versions provide remarkably similar driving experiences for the most part, and both stay composed over this punishing track, a testament in large part to the stiff chassis. The RWD version features a limited-slip differential, the steering from the electric-powered rack is just light enough and offers good feedback from the front, and there’s very little understeer in tight corners. The AWD version has a bit more understeer but the brake-operated torque-vectoring system adds some help when needed.
Overall, the cars feel both solid and neutral when pressed hard through the corners, inspiring confidence to push harder. In fact, there was almost no tire chirping, which is normally associated with a road car on the track, though that’s also partly thanks to the excellent Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tires.
Changing modes from Comfort to Sport stiffens the adjustable suspension (standard on this 3.3L GT version), helping to keep the Stinger relatively flat in the turns. That suspension, though, will be retuned for a softer rate for North American cars. A final kudo on the handling is for the Brembo brakes, hauling the cars down from the high-speed straights with no discernible fade, even turn after hard-braking turn.
So did Kia manage to match the 3 Series in handling? Without a side-by-side comparison it’s hard to say definitively — and that’s saying a lot right there.
The Stinger’s design, fit and finish match its performance on the track. The exterior is sexy, with a sloping roof that opens with a hatch like the Audi A5, and details include dark chrome accents, LED lights front and rear, a lip spoiler on the back and sharp-looking wheels.
The inside keeps up the higher level of quality; the thick, flatbottomed steering wheel conveys a sporty attitude, the switchgear feels solid and the seats are bolstered for sporty driving.
The Stinger is already on sale in South Korea, costing around US$35,000 for the 2.0-L version and US$45,000 for the 3.3-L, so expect starting prices around $40,000 to $50,000 here in Canada when they hit showrooms around November.
All in all, the Stinger performed as admirably as you’d expect a German car would on its home turf, and if the prices are kept competitive with its rivals, the car’s biggest question won’t be about the quality or its performance specs, but whether people can get past the badge on the hood when cross-shopping a Mercedes. I hope they can, because the Stinger is ready to rumble.