2018 KIA Stinger , The First Attempt

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There is an old saying in the motorsport industry that says " if you want to win get a Finn" and that saying proved to be true in Formula and WRC with names that I am not interested in mentioning because the main interest of this blog is a new saying : "If you want to make great cars get yourself a German" . I know that is not the most ryhmed sentence in the world but it will transfer the message vividly to all other automakers . 

Kia , unexpectedly decided to throw its first , rather bold attempt to depict the meaning of a sports sedan , they wanted to make a car that gives some serious jabs to the German gods from this segment of the automotive industry . The strategy followed by Kia and Hyundai group is simple , get Germans to work on your projects . That is why the new Kia was developed and designed by Albert Biermann , a man that used to work for the M departement from BMW . He once described the new Kia as his "long awaited baby" . That is undoubtedly very  intense , along with the help of Peter Schreyer as the head of the Design  department the  new Kia Stinger , that's what they called , is absoultley a looker !! 


My first impression is that the Stinger looks as if someone had forced the regular fat and slow Optima to get on a diet and lift some weights to get in shape for the competition ahead against the Audi A4 , BMW and Mercedes . Looking at its wider shoulders and as described by Kia "more athleticism . The quad exhaust confirms the philosophy introduced by the newbie in the world of high performance Grand Touring cars  . The back end is equally staggering and well thought as the front end with large scoops  and massive diffuser, Kia is surley throwing stones at the giants . 

The car was originally a concept , at 2011 it was called the GT with suicide doors at the back and cameras on the side mirrors , but Kia decided to cherish the idea of having a perfomance car that will set the pace for the coming models of Kia and in 2017 at Detroit Motorshow , they launched the closest thing to Athena the greek goddess of beauty . 


There are two turbocharged engine options , the first one is a four-cylinder 2.0 liter and the second in the range is a 3.3 liter V6 . The 2.0 liter engine delivers 255 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque to rear wheels while the more powerful V6 produces more 100 hp  and 376 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels or you can have the all wheel-drive option only for the GT range . The All wheel-drive models get the dynamic torque vectoring control system but all Stingers get the Centrifugal Pendulum Absorber  which is now commonly used in modern cars . According to Kia , every Stinger prototype had a 480 laps program around the Nuremburg ring so its fair to say that the Stinger not only was developed by Germans , it was developed in Germany as well . The car weighs 3600 lbs and that is crucial to sustain a great perfomance of the car . It is worthy to mention that the Stinger goes from 0 to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds thanks to its 8 speed automatic gearbox , that is quick for a Kia . 


There two wheel options as well , the first is standard 19 inches at the front and at back but you can upgrade to the 20 inches if you fancy bigger rubbers , the car comes with loads of technology that is why I can't rewrite them all I'll just copy  and paste them from Kia's offical website :


  • Brembo® vented disc brakes with quad-piston front calipers and dual-piston rear calipers
  • Dynamic Stability Damping Control (DSDC) with 5-Modes
  • MacPherson front and multi-link rear suspension
  • Rack-mounted Motor Driven Power Steering (R-MDPS) with 5-Modes
  • Driver Attention Alert (DAA), a Kia first
  • Forward Collision Assistance (FCA)
  • Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)
  • Advanced Smart Cruise Control (ASCC)
  • Lane Keep Assist (LKA)
  • Blind Spot Detection (BSD)
  • Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA)



    • The interior is equally marvelous as the exterior because kia is now competing with the gods of comfort and paracticality , the new steering wheel in models like the Sportage , Sorento and even the new Rio is implemented in the Stinger with further functions on the wheel . The driving position in the Stinger is very low to ensure the sportiness of the driving experience that Kia is trying to transfer to its customers . 

    If you still cannot fathom what Kia are trying to do with the Stinger , just picture a small primary school kid that has been bullied by kids from the neighboring high school but now , that little kid decided to step forward and bring the fight to them by throwing some very serious punches !!!

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