Kia Stinger GT

“WHERE HAS THIS DARK SIDE OF KIA BEEN ALL THESE YEARS?”

Now before you get your pitchforks and light your torches, let’s be fair. Kia are not exactly known for exciting, powerfull or crazy cars are they? No they are not, but I will give credit where credit is due. Over the last 5 years Kia have really stepped up their game and now offer a rather good looking lineup of vehicles. But just so we’re clear, I don’t have a hate on for Kia, I am just saying it like it is. I hope that the stinger is the start of what could become an exciting sporty future.

The interior is rather nice, and well laid out. Not too much clutter, a clever use of the space available. Take the badge off the steering wheel, and you’re sitting in what could be a European car: nice soft touch materials and sleek brushed aluminum inlays, all coming together in what feels like a luxurious environment.

The seats looked great too, contoured sporty design, finished with a ultra soft nappa leather, only available on the GT Sport. But are they any good? I am a big, tall guy and still found them to be both comfy and supportive. The GT Sport is upgraded with the driver’s seat bolster adjustment, controlled by pressurised air cells. They were really nice and oddly enough the headrest was too. Normally just a large bit of leather covered foam, but these headrests had a soft padded section in the middle which cushioned your head, instead of just resting against it. The heated and cooled seats were pretty good too. The heating took a while to fire up, maybe a minute, but once going it was a very even and strong heat across your bum and back.

The rear seats were just as comfy, but the space was a little on the tight side in the foot well, if the driver is tall like I am. The rear of the car can be a bit dark, even with the panoramic sunroof cover open. My wife said it was ok when in the back with our baby, but it was noticeablely darker then the front of the cabin. The sunroof was a nice touch too, again standard. You could have it closed with a blackout cover in place, open the cover, tilt open the roof and full slide back the roof. The buttons for this where a bit tricky. The normal trigger switch had 4 settings: two forward and two back. Half press made one action, like opening the blackout cover, and a full press opened the tilting sunroof completely. Same in reverse, something I am sure owners would get used too.

The centre dash console’s main feature is an 8” touch screen display, with 3 air vents under this, followed by two rows of buttons, that gave you access to the radio, media, track selection, hazard lights, map, nav, setup and a Favourites button. Under this was the second row which had the standard air circulation and climate controls. If we keep going down, we have a wireless charging pad, USB, AUX and 12V socket all hidden under a clean sliding cover.

What I found odd was that lack of any sort of dail or toggle to control the media screen from your left hand. Usually in many cars this is near the gear stick, and over time you get used to the movements, which become engrained, so you don’t even need to look at what you’re doing. Not a biggy, but odd, maybe I just needed more time with it.

What I did like was the key. I have to hand it to Kia here – well done on making something a bit more interesting than a regular old key fob. Nice design, with a side featured lock car button which was super easy to feel when it’s in your pocket.

The boot is ok, maybe a bit on the small size at 406 litres, which feels like a lot, but the boot is not that deep inside. When you lift the cover, the space saver spare wheel takes up a lot of space, which I feel could have been more beneficial as depth. We found it hard to fold a buggy down into this boot, and get anything else in there with it.

From behind the wheel of the Stinger you immediately have a sense this its been tuned for performance driving. The steering is really sharp, even with Eco and Comfort modes, there is little or no play in the steering wheel. I was surprised how sharp it was, because it became even more aggressive in Sports mode, leaving the driver with pin point accurate steering. The only downside to this is that there is zero play, even a slight rotation in the wheel will change the path of the car. Great for when you are 100% focused and looking for that hardcore driving experience. But when you’re cruising, I did find that It took me a while to get used to it.

Lots of corrections to make up for the extra degrees I was moving the wheel. Over the course of the review this start to become more natural, so I don’t think it will be an issue for many owners.

The Stinger GT is equipped with a wide range of driver aids. Smart cruise control, blind spot detection, forward collision warning system, rear cross traffic alert, lane keep assist, driver attention warnings, high beam assist and autonomous emergency braking. An impressive line up of standard options I must say.

As you can imagine it can be hard to test some of these features in a safe environment. However I did get to experience the rear cross traffic alert, and I was impressed with how far the vehicle was away when the alert started to ring out. Very handy feature especially as the rear roof/ boot pillars are bulky.

The Stinger offers a selection of drive modes: Smart, Eco, Comfort, Sport and Custom. Most of these do exactly what they say they will, and with most cars I find myself driving in Comfort or Sport for the majority of the review.

This car surprised me again. Wherehas this dark side of Kia been allthese years? And whatever you’redoing, please, can we have more. Iwas expecting it to be good, but notthis good. Nice work Kia.