We don’t pray for love, we pray for cars. That’s what the saying goes these days, but when it comes to buy a premium car, there are a lot of aspects to look at. Quite interestingly, the 2018 Kia Stinger has unsurprisingly got a lot to live up to its reputation and has on going competition with its Audi and BMW counterparts.
The car comes in with many variations ; either a rear wheel drive, or a full 4 wheel one along with the choice of either a turbocharged 4 or 6 cylinder engine. The five door hatchback has an 8 speed automatic shift with paddle shifters!
The turbocharged 4 cylinder engine one is capable of achieving 255 horsepower at 6200 rpm and around 260 pound feet of torque from 1400 rpm. Also, its twin scroll turbo uses a 2.0 liter unit. On the contrary, the six cylinder engine Stinger houses a 3.3 liter twin turbo that can easily achieve 365 hp and 376 pound feet from just 1350 rpm.
It can go from zero to sixty in a nifty 4.7 seconds. Not only this, but the top speed is set around 167 miles per hour. After housing a perfect engine under the hood, the design team also played their parts.
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The design officer Peter Schreyer ensured that his team would end up with a “confident” looking stinger with its own self esteem. The tabbed grille is broad and Kia has dubbed it as its “tiger nose”.
Around the grille there are those shiny headlights, along with a sharp edged bumper which gives it enough space for air intakes. The body is indeed eye-catchy and exquisite, ending with a fastback shape. The body is durable and runs on its attractive 19 inch smoke finish Y-spoke wheels. The hood vents are faux, and high lighted in contrasting paint.
Furthermore, there are fender air extractors at the leading edge of the front doors. The wheel base is quite long ; stretching a 114.4 inches! This means that its very spacious and has more than enough legroom. Not only this, but the cargo space in the boot is quite capacious as well since its measures 23.3 cubic feet with the rear seats folded up and 40.9 cubic feel with seats folded down.
As far as the suspension is concerned, the front one uses the MacPherson Strut and rear one makes use of multi link suspension. This altogether offers a highly comfortable ride. The rather interesting thing is that even with a such a large wheelbase, it doesn’t curb the Stinger’s change of direction.
Its commonly prevalent that longer wheelbases tend to affect a car’s change in direction but courtesy tuning led by former BMW M boss Albert Biermann, the Stinger is easily able to carry out this manoeuvre. And guess, what it does this even when its originally tuned for safety first understeer!
As far as sharp turning is concerned, the stinger never feels unbalanced when taking sharp turns at a corner. Both the 4WD and the rear one are perfectly capable of such. The 4WD in the sports mode, converts 80 percent of the available engine torque to the rear wheels.
The Stinger is offered with an optional Kia’s Dynamic Stability Damping Control. These are electronically-actuated shocks with a driver’s choice of five modes ranging from Smart (auto) to Custom to Eco to Sport and Comfort just for when you decide to change moods. The standard one are the conventional gas dampers.
The car is offered with a variable-ratio electron power steering which makes it easy to manoeuvre your car. Even against other big names such as Audi A7 Sportback, this EPS turns out to give a lot of competition and that too in the price tag it is offered.
Moreover, the stinger’s steering doesn’t feel like artificial as some variable rack systems do. When going upto 130 miles per hour, it doesn’t feel like the car is vibrating and the drive is still smooth.
It can still give a tough competition to a counter part car which has more horsepower and a better at ‘specs’ suspension. The area where the stinger lacks is its cabin. There aren’t any fine wood veneers. Nor is there aromatic leather even when you opt for the Kia’s optional higher grade Nappa hides. If the material and the switch gear quality are concerned, the Stinger doesn’t have cheap ones, but not the best in the market too, more like mid range ones.
When it comes to entertainment the Kia houses its latest UVO system with a 8 inch touchscreen which is way easier for your use. Not only this but it also compatible with Apple Car Play and Android Auto.
Moreover, for the bass lovers, there is an added option of opting for 15 speaker Harman Kardon surround system which features twin under the seat subwoofers. As far as the safety is concerned, there is an auto-break before a collision offered with pedestrian detection.
Not only this, but in case of extreme traffic jam, where the car goes bumper to bumper, there is adaptive cruise control along with a lane assist, and a blind spot detection. Furthermore, in case you feel drowsy or distracted your car, your car will give out a sound to alert you.
Conclusively, even with all the features that are offered, it doesn’t mean the car will enjoy the same sales successes like the usual Audi or BMW do. But considering that with a base price tag of around $ 32,000, (the fully loaded V6 AWD would still cost you more than $50,000) car comes in with a plethora of features, and lives up to its name, and we can be sure that those who are eager to spend their hard earned money would sure be on the lookout for this amazing beast.
