The Kia Stinger is bold challenge to the European establishment – a sporty rear-wheel drive executive model from a company best known for mainstream value. Surprisingly – or not, depending on your preconceptions – the Stinger makes a convincing case for itself. The aggressively-styled five-door coupe offers strong performance, entertaining handling, and a decent level of luxury and refinement. You get plenty of toys too, and all at a price that undercuts premium rivals by a hefty margin. There’s still some work for Kia to do, but the Stinger is an impressive first foray into a tough and high-profile segment.
The Kia Stinger is a family-sized five-door hatchback/saloon with a coupe-style fastback roofline, and plenty of aggressive design details intended to convey its sporty nature.
It’s fair to say in fact, that the styling is a little more extrovert than some of its European rivals. The front end is characterised by the Kia family ‘Tiger Grille’ flanked by swoopy wraparound headlamps and aggressively sculpted air intakes for radiator and brake cooling. The body flanks are also heavily chiselled with brake ducts on the front arches and sill extensions adding to the visual drama, while muscular haunches and that swooping roofline define the rear view. It’s not just the top-spec GT-S that gets all the benefit either, as even the 2.2 diesel and 2.0 petrol models share the same dramatic body details.
The interior is attractive and reasonably well finished. But while it may be a little derivative, it does the job with a reasonably premium and high-quality feel. That said, the interior design doesn’t have the cohesion of an Audi or BMW, and the quality of materials used in some areas of the interior isn’t quite up to the level of its premium-badged rivals either.
Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment
The eight-inch tablet-style touchscreen stands at the centre of the Stinger’s dash, above a trio of eyeball style air vents, with audio and heating controls beneath. As well as TomTom sat-nav, it features Bluetooth smartphone connectivity with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and can present images from the car’s on-board cameras. The 15-speaker premium sound system by Harman Kardon is worth a listen, and includes an under-seat subwoofer.
Talking the talk is one thing, but the Kia Stinger walks the walk, providing a level of dynamic performance that’s comfortably in sight of its German rivals.
The chassis – even on GT-Line and GT-Line S versions – feels nimble and agile on the road, and grip is good. There’s little feel from the steering, and while switching between drive modes weights things up a little and alters engine and throttle response, it doesn’t affect the chassis set-up. Still, the car rides decently and has a supple feel, which encourages you to enjoy the drive.
Step up to the GT-S model, and the selectable drive modes do adjust the damping. The car feels refined and compliant in Comfort mode, and switching to Sport or Sport+ effectively reduces roll and softness, while still retaining a good level of ride composure. When driving faster, the electronically controlled rear-differential acts to keep the car’s nose pinned to your line, while the steering has good precision and weighting.
The systems can’t entirely mask the fact that the Stinger is a large, bulky car, but there’s a lot of grip to handle the impressive reserves of power, and you can make confident progress with a smile on your face.
Engines
The 3.3-litre twin-turbo engine in the flagship Stinger GT-S delivers its thrust efficiently and smoothly. With 510Nm of torque available from 1,300rpm it has plenty of low-end stomp, as well as developing impressive power as you rev the engine out. The car will hit 168mph and reach 60mph in 4.7 seconds with little appreciable turbo lag, which are convincing numbers in anyone’s book. The engine note is typically muffled by the turbos, but electronic enhancements generate a convincing growl in the cabin in Sport modes. The sound is never intrusive, but neither is it terribly exciting.
The eight-speed automatic transmission shifts itself smoothly in Comfort mode, but when you switch to Sport mode or employ the paddle-shifters you lose a bit of that refinement, and the shift quality is not as impressive as a dual-clutch Audi or ZF-equipped BMW.
If you don’t need such extravagant performance, the 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine offers 244bhp, which is still enough for a good turn of speed. The 0-62mph sprint is covered in 5.8 seconds and top speed is 149mph.
The 2.2-litre turbo diesel offers 197bhp and 440Nm of torque, enough for a 7.3 second 0-62mph sprint and plenty of in-gear flexibility to easily match diesel rivals for performance. Both smaller engine options share the eight-speed gearbox with the GT-S, and there’s no manual choice.
As a totally new model, there’s no specific Driver Power Survey data to reassure buyers about the reliability of the Kia Stinger. Fortunately, the Kia brand has a pretty sound reputation in that regard, and came third overall in our 2017 poll. This suggests Kia buyers are very happy with their ownership experiences.
We’ll be watching with interest to see how that satisfaction is maintained amongst Stinger drivers, who may also be used to dealer facilities and services that reflect the ostensibly posher standards of BMW and Mercedes.
The Stinger hasn’t been tested yet by Euro NCAP for crash-worthiness, either, but again we expect the car to perform strongly especially given the inclusion of so much active safety gear on the standard spec lists. All variants feature autonomous emergency braking, a driver fatigue warning, active cruise control and lane-keeping assistance, and all but the GT-Line get rear cross-traffic alert and blind-spot warnings too.
Warranty
All Kia models have an industry leading seven-year/100,000-mile warranty, so this naturally applies to the Stinger as well. It’s a great demonstration of confidence from the company, and offers tremendous peace of mind to buyers too.
Servicing
We’d expect servicing costs for the Stinger to be less than some of the more upmarket brands, especially if you take advantage of package deals that will take care of maintenance for three or five-years for £300 and £600 respectively. The petrol models need servicing every 10,000 miles or annually, while for the diesel it’s 20,000 miles.
You sit marginally lower in the Kia Stinger than some other similar-sized cars, which helps to give the model a sporty feel. However, the power seat adjustment up front gives you loads of ways to find your ideal driving position, and the cabin is certainly comfortable enough, so ‘sportiness’ doesn’t impose any compromises as far as practicality or comfort are concerned. In fact, with a decent ride and lots of toys, you’d happily pick the Stinger for longer journeys.
Size
The Stinger is quite a large car at 4,830mm long and 1,870mm wide. The Audi A5 Sportback measures up at 4,712mm long. The 2,910mm wheelbase of the Kia gives it a further advantage over the Audi when it comes to cabin space, as the latter is shorter at just 2,811mm.
Leg room, head room & passenger space
The Stinger has quite a long wheelbase relative to its overall length, and the roofline travels well back over the rear passengers’ heads before it begins its downward swoop. As a result, there’s plenty of legroom and headroom in the rear, even for taller occupants. There’s no shortage of space up front either.
Boot
The Stinger’s rear hatchback tailgate is electrically operated on GT-Line S and GT S variants, and in spite of that sloping roofline opens to reveal a very usable boot volume of 406 litres. Practical as it is, the Stinger is beaten soundly by the Audi A5 Sportback and BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, as they both offer 480-litre boots.
Kia decided to launch the Stinger as a sporty driver’s car, so economy and efficiency were understandably not at the top of the list when the model was developed. This may come as a disappointment to some buyers, especially high-mileage corporate users for whom the issue is compounded by relatively high CO2 outputs and Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) rates.
The most economical engine is the diesel, which offers a claimed 50.4mpg and 147g/km of CO2. The 2.0-litre petrol returns 35.8mpg and 181g/km, while the powerful GT-S with its twin-turbo V6 can manage only 28.5mpg and 225g/km. For reference, the more expensive Audi S5 delivers a much more impressive 38.2mpg.
The Kia Stinger posts BiK rates of 31 per cent for the diesel, 35 per cent for the 2.0-litre petrol, and a stiff 37 per cent for the sporty GT-S.
When it comes to road tax/VED, the two four-cylinder models attract the usual annual charge of £140, but the GT-S costs more than the £40,000, which means you’ll be hit with £310 VED premium (£450 total) from years two to six. If you manage to spec the GT-Line cars to £40k with options, the same would apply.
Insurance groups
The lowest insurance cost will be for the Kia Stinger GT-Line diesel, which falls into group 32. The 2.0-litre petrol is group 34. The respective ratings hop up to groups 34 and 36 if you go for GT-Line S trim, while the hot GT-S is group 41. The ratings across the board are marginally higher than for comparable Audi models.
Depreciation
While Kia has just about shaken off the scourge of budget brand depreciation for its mainstream vehicles, it remains to be seen how the used market will value a ‘premium executive’ model without a premium badge. The high-performance GT-S could be especially hard hit, but it’s all part of the mountain Kia is aiming to climb.
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