Would you rather have this Stinger and $20,000 or a GV70 V6 AWD?

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#Kia #Stinger #GT

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This Stinger has always been a special car for me, and for Paolo too - he’s been on the channel for coming up on a year now and the entire time, he’s been asking if we can get a Stinger…and guess where he is

He’s in South Africa proposing to his girlfriend so a huge congratulations to him! But today we’re going to see how much he’s missing out on

The Stinger that we have this week is an interesting spec for a press car and an even more interesting spec for WI
It’s a RWD GT-Line with the 2.5 turbo
And It makes 300hp and 311lbft

And those power figures are improved over the 2 liter the car debuted with
But I’ll tell you right now, if you’re going to purchase this car, you need to get the 3.3TTv6 to get the true experience
The 2 liter is fine, but all the drama comes from the turbo
You have this little moment of lag while you wait for it to spool
Then you have a second of “oh this is quick!” and then near the top the balls fall off

And you guys know I’m not one to preach about horsepower, but to really get the true Stinger experience you need a bit more power..especially because this thing is over 3,800 lbs

But like we said, power isn’t everything and power delivery is a big part of a performance-oriented car…

This has an 8-speed automatic, which is fine, but I’ll say it like this - I wish they put the DCT in here from the new K5 GT or any of the Hyundai N cars

The shifts just lack a little drama and immediacy that I’m more used to in the N cars

And then speaking of drama this is probably a good time to note that also the exhaust note lacks a little flair…the tone is decent, but it’s just a little muted

But then from there, how is the power getting to pavement…?

This spec is so interesting to me that they sent us a RWD car to test.
Peeling back the onion, It’s March 9th as I’m shooting this and that means there’s still like a month left of “winter” here in WI
Normally, during the winter the RWD performance cars are locked up for the winter so people don’t bin em but I think that’s over a certain HP figure…

Yes, so the power from the 2.5 is wrangled by the 8 speed, albeit without the desired level of theater, but then it makes its way to the rear wheels THROUGH an open diff [check]

Which means…you can turn traction “off” and do fun skids..

But if you’re going to autocross or anything you’ll want the go up to the GT1 trim which gives you an LSD…along with the big engine…

Now, if you’re not the sliding type, or you somehow manage to live in a place that gets worse weather than Wisconsin, you can option rear-biased AWD to any Stinger trim for $2,200…which isn’t a bad deal considering when you add AWD Kia throws in…a heated steering wheel

Now, I know I’ve kinda dumped on this thing for not having as much power, but that’s not exactly what I’m trying to do - I’m just saying, to get the full effect of the Stinger I think you need a little more grunt

This 2.5T is no slouch, it’s a huge improvement from the original 2.0T and it’s up like 50 hp

0-60 is still under 6 seconds which is genuinely pretty quick, especially for something approaching the 2 ton mark

The power delivery from the turbo adds a little drama, I do wish the gearbox was a little more lively, but you can step with back end out with the throttle around most corners at most speeds

The ride is great, it’s not got adaptive dampers, but you don’t really need them. The cabin is quiet and comfy, and the chassis is confident…It’s a great sports sedan..especially considering the price..but before we get to that let’s step outside

Up until now, you could have been fooled into thinking this was a baby Audi or BMW, but on the interior it becomes more obvious where you’re saving your money
The design is handsome and tasteful, but not exactly inspiring.
Some of the materials are really nice like the seats and steering wheel, but then there are others
It’s not that anything is inherently bad, it’s just that the rest of the car is so impressive
You’ve got a Donkey Kong barrel as a shifter which is hilarious
Your drive mode selector is kinda small and not super rewarding
Your semi-digital cluster is fine, but feels a little old-school in today
Your center screen is big, quick, and really nice, though it doesn’t offer wireless car play
Heated seats, no cooled seats (weird rocker again)
Seating position is weird (too high)
No pano roof

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