Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price

Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price - The 2018 Kia Stinger is an all-new model for the Kia logo and is its first sports sedan. The 2018 Kia Stinger is a midsize sports four-door that features a fastback roofline and a massive hatch. Rear-wheel drive comes fashionable and all-wheel power is elective.

The Stinger is obtainable with two engines inclusive of a 2.zero-liter rapid-four rated at 255 hp and 260 lb-toes of torque, and a three.three-liter dual-rapid V-6 with 365 hp and 376 lb-feet. both engines are paired completely to an 8-speed computerized transmission. to be had features include LED headlights, Kia’s UVO infotainment device, leather-based upholstery, a head-up show, a Harman/Kardon premium audio system, blind spot caution, and a multi-facts display between the gauges. Rear-force fashions come fashionable with a mechanical restrained-slip differential, even as all-wheel-force-equipped cars have torque vectoring manipulate as an alternative. The Stinger is likewise the first Kia to function an adaptive suspension device. Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price.

the production-spec 2018 Kia Stinger however we expect it to be a vehicle that need to float without difficulty in rear-drive guise, as we cited on our First look. The rear-pressure 3.3-liter twin-faster V-6-ready Stinger GT must be the most mighty and motive force-targeted variation of the Korean logo’s first sports sedan.

The Kia Stinger GT is as an awful lot Stinger as you could likely purchase. Kia’s -pronged Stinger range incorporates turbocharged four-cylinder models, or the fanatic’s preference: The 3.3-litre dual-turbo V6. Priced from $59,990 plus on-avenue expenses, the Stinger GT isn’t (to the wonder of some) the maximum high priced Kia to be had in Australia but it’s now not priced that manner blindly either. The GT comes loaded with standard gadget to rival status manufacturers.

A humorous thing took place at the manner returned from the Mojave barren region the alternative day. someone tossed me the keys to a Kia, and i determined to take the long way domestic, searching out a number of the extraordinary driver’s roads that snake via the San Gabriel Mountains earlier than heading down the Angeles Crest dual carriageway into the hustling bustle of the city of Angels. Kia and driver’s roads … it sounds an unlikely combination. but the 2018 Kia Stinger is a car so as to shatter your perceptions about Korea’s cost logo.

Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price

the base Stinger, the only powered via the 255-hp turbocharged four-banger, rolling on 18-inch alloys shod with modest segment 225/forty five Bridgestone Potenza tires, not the loaded, top-of-the-range, $forty nine,500 GT, with the punchy 365-hp dual-faster 3.0-liter V-6 below the hood and bigger wheels and tires all spherical. The handiest option geared up become the $2,000 superior driving force assistance systems package deal, which bundles collectively lively protection technology which include ahead collision caution, lane preserving assistance, and rear cross-visitors alerts. total rate? $33,900.

It’s a scouse borrow. There isn’t a higher sporty, rear-drive, four-door coupe for the cash within the enterprise. virtually, there really isn’t every other sporty, rear-pressure, four-door coupe for the cash, length. This Kia is in a category all its very own.

The Stinger seems the part, with a sweeping roofline, a broad shouldered stance, and strong snap shots. From some angles there are remote echoes of the Maserati 3200 GT designed by way of Giugiaro within the past due 1990s; it’s a trick of the eye, of path, due to the fact the two cars are completely exceptional, however it speaks to the effort Kia—and now also Hyundai—design supremo Peter Schreyer positioned into a car that in many approaches has been a private ardour assignment. I remember Schreyer displaying me a caricature of a automobile that would come to be the Kia GT concept unveiled on the 2011 Frankfurt show—harbinger of the Stinger—and insisting he was going to get it made. Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price.

aside from the smaller wheels and much less aggressively styled front and rear fascias, there are few visual variations among the Stinger and the more effective GT. The GT receives additionally a few greater badging, smoked chrome trim, and crimson-painted brake calipers, however that’s about it. each automobiles rock quad exhausts and vents on the hood and bodyside. The Stinger might be the access-stage model, but it doesn’t appearance it.

There are a few extra tells interior, but. the base Stinger is the only model inside the lineup (the others are the $37,000 Stinger premium, the $39,000 Stinger GT, the $43,500 Stinger GT1, and aforementioned $49,500 Stinger GT2) with an antique school foot operated e-brake and a simple three.five-inch lcd display at the tool panel. All others get a state-of-the-moment digital e-brake transfer and a 7.zero-inch TFT display among the tach and the speedo. The V-6-powered GTs additionally all come with a flat-backside guidance wheel, aluminum trim as opposed to gloss black plastic on the center console, and GT emblems embossed into the headrests. That’s now not to mention the bottom Stinger is a penalty container. widespread gadget includes a leather-bound heated steering wheel, leather-based seats—which are electricity adjustable and heated up the front—and a 7.0-inch audio show touchscreen which could run Kia’s UVO infotainment system at the side of Apple CarPlay and Android automobile.

The Stinger is built on the Hyundai/Kia rear-power structure, with a view to also underpin the imminent Genesis G70. As we’ve referred to before, it’s a particularly massive automobile, 7.5-inches longer universal than a BMW 4 series Gran Coupe, with a three.8-inch longer wheelbase. The longer wheelbase allows now not simplest supply a roomy interior and generously proportioned load space, however it additionally grants decent rolling ride fine, mainly on L.A.’s notoriously choppy freeways.

Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price

At three,649 kilos, the base Stinger weighs the same as a 2.0-liter Audi A5 coupe, no matter having  extra doorways and a hatchback, and is 356 kilos lighter than a completely loaded, V-6 powered Stinger GT. growing its 255 hp at 6,two hundred rpm and 260lb-feet of torque at 1,400-4,500 rpm, the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-banger beneath the hood boasts better energy density than comparable engines from Audi and BMW. That doesn’t translate to a overall performance benefit at the song, but.

a whole lot of the performance benefit loved via the Audi is down to its smooth, efficient, and lightning rapid DSG transmission; the Stinger’s Hyundai/Kia engineered eight-pace shifts slower, and its torque converter chews extra power. The BMW’s advantage is mass—the smaller 3 series sedan weighs 112 kilos less—and the reality the men in Munich nonetheless understand a aspect or two approximately making a vehicle pass around corners. however a part of the problem is the Stinger’s engine; even though particularly quiet and refined, and with precise mid-variety punch, it doesn’t quite have the crisp throttle response of the Germans, in particular underneath 2,000 rpm.

think about the ones closing couple of paragraphs for a 2d, though: We’ve just been comparing a Kia with an Audi and a BMW. Of direction all people can play the numbers game on the tune, and any assessment with Germany’s elite would be meaningless if the Kia Stinger drove like a cheap and joyful bucket of bolts on the road. The factor is, it doesn’t. That sound you hear is sharp intakes of breath in Ingolstadt and Munich. Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price.

The Stinger drives extra like a european vehicle than whatever from Korea to date and maximum things from Japan. There’s a measured, almost Germanic, weighting to all the controls and to the body motions. It doesn’t have the grunt to take pleasure in smoky powerslides with all the nannies switched off—as you may in the rear-power V-6s—however the chassis feels active and exciting, nonetheless. a touch greater initial bite from the brakes could be beneficial to smoothly settle the car on corner entry, and a hint more front-quit grip would complement the accurate steerage, however in any other case the Stinger feels impressively steady and composed through the twisty bits.

As nightfall settled on the run lower back to L.A., it became apparent the same old headlights were higher acceptable for cruising the brilliant lights of Seoul than the darkish canyons of the San Gabriel Mountains, the Stinger effortlessly outrunning even high beam. however, the $37,000 Stinger top rate is available with brighter LED headlights (and the more money additionally buys you a sunroof, a power adjustable steerage column, the 7.zero-inch TFT display screen inside the device panel, the electronic e-brake, reminiscence for the seat adjustment, sat-nav, and a 15-speaker Harman Kardon audio device, which makes it a stable cost). And we opt for the snickety-snick movement of the electronic PRNDL shifter on the top-stage GT to the marginally clunky feel of the vintage college T-bar object at the relaxation of the lineup.

Yep, we’re down to picking nits. For a primary effort at a automobile like this, the 4-cylinder Kia Stinger is truely incredible. And the greater we power it, the more it reminds usa proto-BMW 3 collection. It’s now not yet absolutely shaped and now not but completely mature, however it’s a vehicle that, ought to it follow a logical evolutionary path, may want to eventually occupy the identical hallowed ground because the 3 series once did among fanatics who wanted an inexpensive, sporty, rear-drive automobile they may power each day.

even though the Stinger’s arching form may additionally appear to give passengers little consideration, the alternative is true. yes the low-slung roofline calls for a short duck of the head to allow get admission to, however as soon as internal there’s more than sufficient space. to position it to the take a look at we loaded a pair of six-foot fellas one behind the opposite, and neither complained approximately to be had space, with even rear headroom getting a passing grade. the name of the game lies inside the Stinger’s long wheelbase. At 2905 the Stinger has a wheelbase simply 10mm shorter than a VF Commodore the seats are set low inside the cabin to create a experience of higher cabin space with sufficient room to stretch your legs out beforehand. Kia Stinger 2018 Review, Specs, Price.

The cabin’s layout functions a few apparent tributes to european marques, just like the Audi-style tools selector and Mercedes-stimulated sprint vents but Kia’s interpretation of the tombstone touchscreen lacks an incorporated appearance, with a thick bezel and decrease resolution than would possibly otherwise be discovered in the aforementioned Euro brands. fortunately Kia also sees advantage in the use of bodily controls in preference to relegating all indoors capabilities to the display, as a result its easy to make one-contact modifications to the weather manage, or audio system with out the want to plough thru a sequence of on-display menus.

The liberal specification also extends to finishes like Nappa leather-based trim for the seats, which might be heated and cooled up front, with quite a number adjustment that even extends to bolster width. a few less high-priced automobiles also encompass heated rear seats and one-touch rear energy home windows, although inexplicably the Stinger is going with out those small luxuries, though nor is enough to dull the Stinger’s impressively plump specification. a number of Kia’s indoors legacy stays even though, with the vehicle we examined offering a free and damn door trim, and a hot-climate creak deep somewhere inside the sprint - now not the first Kia car we’ve examined to achieve this and a scenario that receives worse over time (as private possession revel in attests to). The cabin fits the circle of relatives automobile role with lots of garage nooks, plus wi-fi charging for well suited mobile phones, although cupholders are on the small facet.

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