By Ian Strachan
What on earth has happened to those nice people at Kia? The company that brought us the competent but conservative Ceed, Rio and Optima has come up with a head-turning, growling sports coupe – and it’s rear wheel drive.
Whatever Kia’s designers are on, I want some. This isn’t a car you’d expect from a Korean manufacturer. It’s an elegant, high performance grand tourer with great looks and stunning performance. No surprise that it was designed in Europe at Kia’s Frankfurt design studio.
The top-of-the-range Stinger has a 3.3 litre V6 twin-turbo engine which will propel this beast from 0-60 in just 4.7 seconds – the fastest accelerating Kia ever. Even the 2.0 litre 244 bhp version that I tested is no slouch with a 0-60 time of 5.8 seconds.
The Stinger is beautifully-styled and guaranteed to get admiring looks. It has a dramatically sloping rear screen and narrow windows, cat-like headlight clusters, a long bonnet and meaty 18 inch alloys which added to its already striking appearance.
Despite the sloping rear screen there’s still plenty of room for five adults in this car, and plenty of headroom, with low-slung leather seats. Tall backseat passengers won’t end up with a cricked neck, and front seat driver and passenger have eight-way powered seats with memory and a seat cushion extender.
Standard equipment includes satnav via an eight-inch touchscreen, RAD radio with full connectivity and Bluetooth, heated front seats, electrically operated heated door mirrors, front and rear parking system with rear camera, automatic headlights with full-beam assist, dual-zone automatic air conditioning, and multi-function steering wheel . You also get keyless ignition, cruise control with speed limiter, head-up display, hill start assist and driver attention warning as part of the standard package on the 2.0 T-GDi GT Line Stinger which I tested.
So you’re getting lots of car for your money. And the car is further enhanced by high quality trim materials used throughout the interior, giving it a little more class and style.
The Stinger which I drove has a silky 244 horsepower two litre petrol engine which is light, lively and well balanced with great power delivery. It has great mid range power, always feeling as if it has more to give. Fuel consumption in mixed driving is 35.8 mpg which is nothing to write home about, but this is a big, powerful car. You can’t have everything..
Handling is excellent. The car felt in total control throughout, including in wet weather. Road and wind noise are kept to a minimum and despite the low profile tyres the ride is smooth and unfussed.
My test car came with an effortless eight-speed automatic gearbox. But if you think you can perform better than the auto box, there’s gear change paddles on the steering wheel. You also have five options of drive mode, depending on preference.
The automatic Kia Stinger 2.0 T-GDi GT Line will cost you £31,995 on the road. Being a Kia you also get an industry-leading seven year 100,000 mile warranty, potentially meaning that even the third owner of this car could still benefit from a manufacturer’s warranty.
This is a stylish and roomy grand tourer that sets very high standards. It’s an attractive, well specified, high-performing car which doesn’t make compromises. I was sorry to see it go.
