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I thought I would take a shot at offering at a 3 month review of my 2018 Stinger GT Limited (similar to GT2 for the USA, but more options). I’ve put about 2700kms on the car so far (I don’t drive a lot) in the 3 months. Overall, I’ve been happy with the vehicle. My thoughts and opinions on vehicles are a little more discerning than the average consumer and I tend to nit-pick a lot more than most. I hope my feedback offers fair insight to others considering the vehicle for what insight I offer.
My abbreviated vehicle history: A good number of used cars ranging from 7 to 20+ years old, mostly sporty cars, sports cars and sports coupes. My first new car was a 2009 Cobalt SS Turbo – fun to drive but a complete rattle trap and was sold because of this. Next car was a 2012 Kia Sportage SX Turbo, it was overall a quality vehicle but not very fun to drive. The last car before the Stinger was a 2015 Mustang GT with non performance pack suspension and aftermarket 19” wheels and 275 wide Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. It was also the 6 speed manual with 3.55 rear end. The Mustang was a fun car but really needed to be pushed to make the Coyote feel fast, and then you were always looking for police doing this. The biggest reason the Mustang was traded was the significant degradation of quality after only 32,000kms. I didn’t want to be paying to fix the car while still making car payments. I basically became sick of the squeaky, rattly creaky Mustang with paper thin leather seats.
Now, for the Stinger:
The Good:
The car drives and handles great. When I say great, I mean the car feels surprisingly nimble for its heft. While I haven’t driven a lot of European cars, this shares the handling characteristics of them; it’s surprisingly fun. The overall quality of the car seems good and the value shows. The all-wheel drive system works great in adverse conditions as expected, especially with good winter tires. The Harman Kardon system is not audiophile quality, but it is good enough to the point I don’t feel the need to replace the speakers, which is what I wanted. The power is great and comes on strong. The transmission is generally very smooth and the paddles react with decent quickness. All of the tech features are nice and I’ve come to like some of them enough it would be hard to be without them. I really like HUDs, and I like the one in the Stinger.
The Bad:
While the quality is good, it is not perfect and this will be elaborated in the “things that went wrong” section. Generally speaking, the car exhibits quirks in the infotainment system. This is the first car I’ve owned that has experienced interference in the key fob where it will not lock the doors in one particular area. I’ve also experienced some level of paint issues, but I’m not too sure the extent of them at this point. The car has not been rattle and noise free, but after fixing some things myself, it is pretty good now except for the occasional “tick” in the door trim/frame over fairly hard bumps.
The nit-picks:
These are just little things that take away from the Stinger a bit. The rear suspension seems to make a lot of thuds over bumps, and it just doesn’t feel as refined as some other cars. I feel like the car is over-damped. The sport suspension mode could be a little more significant feeling (hardly noticeable). A 100% RWD mode would be nice for summer (apparently Kia is working on this). The radio could sound a little better since it’s Harmon Kardon (I hold that name to a high standard). Also, it would be nice if manufacturers would offer an advanced multiband EQ as an “advance option” in the settings. The car makes a few plastic ticks and cracks over some bumps, but it doesn’t seem too significant. It would be nice if you could make the manual mode stay as manual mode in the shift-by-wire models. The seat bolsters seem to forget to tighten after sitting overnight.
Things that went wrong:
-I have a few paint issues – the usual rubbed off paint under the headlight, and some paint that came off at the top of the side skirt on the rear driver side. Neither of those have gotten worse. I also have the paint bubbles in the doors that haven’t gotten any worse. I have 1 rock chip that I’ve found and it’s rather large, but that is all I have found in 2700kms, so maybe the paint is fine.
-The transmission shifts rather abruptly and rough in gear 3 or 4 especially when it’s cold. It is a bit disconcerting and I will have this looked at when I bring it in for the first service. It might just be a programming issue and not a fault of the transmission.
-The infotainment goes buggy sometimes like speakers not playing sound, but a reset has fixed it for now.
-I had a rattle that was the retainer pin holding the weather stripping to the rear door, which I fixed. I had the hatch thump noise which was fixed with adjusting the rubber stoppers. I still have a tick from what sounds like the driver door over harder bumps, and this is after the 3-step fix including door latches, felt behind the plastic and rubber lubricant. I may bring it up at service but I’m unsure if they will be able to fix it since it’s really not too often right now.
The overall:
I’ve generally been happy with the car. There was more time spent chasing rattles than I would have liked on a new car, but I’ve managed to get them down to almost nothing now. I am literally OCD with rattles, so that’s one thing that differs me from other people. I will say the Stinger isn’t as “fun” as a car like the 6 speed manual Mustang, but is much more comfortable as a commuter. I’m happy being back in an AWD vehicle for winter, especially after the foot of snow we got on Monday. While I wish I could say for sure I will keep the car for a long time, the paint concerns have me worried and makes me wish it was a lease so I could dump it after X years if I wanted. If I’m lucky, it’s not as bad as I fear it could be and will be a moot point; only time will tell. Another concern is my hope that the car holds up quality wise and doesn’t become another rattle trap. I do think it should hold up better than my Mustang did.
Any regrets? Yes, I wish I would have gotten a red interior. I rushed on the purchase of this car so I ended up settling on black, but I really wish I had gotten red for the aesthetic. I had a Red interior in the Mustang and I really liked it. I also wish I would have stuck to my guns on getting a 2019 model rather than a late 2018 build. Some of my fears are mongered by this forum and I might be stressing over nothing. I just hope I’m not plagued by any of these issues other people are having. My dealership seems like they care so hopefully if I have issues, they’ll help resolve them.
Is there anything else I wished I would have bought? I can’t think of anything else for the money that offers what this car does. The only competition is generally in the German realm of cars, and I hear so many stories of quality issues that I just can’t justifiably go down that road.
My abbreviated vehicle history: A good number of used cars ranging from 7 to 20+ years old, mostly sporty cars, sports cars and sports coupes. My first new car was a 2009 Cobalt SS Turbo – fun to drive but a complete rattle trap and was sold because of this. Next car was a 2012 Kia Sportage SX Turbo, it was overall a quality vehicle but not very fun to drive. The last car before the Stinger was a 2015 Mustang GT with non performance pack suspension and aftermarket 19” wheels and 275 wide Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. It was also the 6 speed manual with 3.55 rear end. The Mustang was a fun car but really needed to be pushed to make the Coyote feel fast, and then you were always looking for police doing this. The biggest reason the Mustang was traded was the significant degradation of quality after only 32,000kms. I didn’t want to be paying to fix the car while still making car payments. I basically became sick of the squeaky, rattly creaky Mustang with paper thin leather seats.
Now, for the Stinger:
The Good:
The car drives and handles great. When I say great, I mean the car feels surprisingly nimble for its heft. While I haven’t driven a lot of European cars, this shares the handling characteristics of them; it’s surprisingly fun. The overall quality of the car seems good and the value shows. The all-wheel drive system works great in adverse conditions as expected, especially with good winter tires. The Harman Kardon system is not audiophile quality, but it is good enough to the point I don’t feel the need to replace the speakers, which is what I wanted. The power is great and comes on strong. The transmission is generally very smooth and the paddles react with decent quickness. All of the tech features are nice and I’ve come to like some of them enough it would be hard to be without them. I really like HUDs, and I like the one in the Stinger.
The Bad:
While the quality is good, it is not perfect and this will be elaborated in the “things that went wrong” section. Generally speaking, the car exhibits quirks in the infotainment system. This is the first car I’ve owned that has experienced interference in the key fob where it will not lock the doors in one particular area. I’ve also experienced some level of paint issues, but I’m not too sure the extent of them at this point. The car has not been rattle and noise free, but after fixing some things myself, it is pretty good now except for the occasional “tick” in the door trim/frame over fairly hard bumps.
The nit-picks:
These are just little things that take away from the Stinger a bit. The rear suspension seems to make a lot of thuds over bumps, and it just doesn’t feel as refined as some other cars. I feel like the car is over-damped. The sport suspension mode could be a little more significant feeling (hardly noticeable). A 100% RWD mode would be nice for summer (apparently Kia is working on this). The radio could sound a little better since it’s Harmon Kardon (I hold that name to a high standard). Also, it would be nice if manufacturers would offer an advanced multiband EQ as an “advance option” in the settings. The car makes a few plastic ticks and cracks over some bumps, but it doesn’t seem too significant. It would be nice if you could make the manual mode stay as manual mode in the shift-by-wire models. The seat bolsters seem to forget to tighten after sitting overnight.
Things that went wrong:
-I have a few paint issues – the usual rubbed off paint under the headlight, and some paint that came off at the top of the side skirt on the rear driver side. Neither of those have gotten worse. I also have the paint bubbles in the doors that haven’t gotten any worse. I have 1 rock chip that I’ve found and it’s rather large, but that is all I have found in 2700kms, so maybe the paint is fine.
-The transmission shifts rather abruptly and rough in gear 3 or 4 especially when it’s cold. It is a bit disconcerting and I will have this looked at when I bring it in for the first service. It might just be a programming issue and not a fault of the transmission.
-The infotainment goes buggy sometimes like speakers not playing sound, but a reset has fixed it for now.
-I had a rattle that was the retainer pin holding the weather stripping to the rear door, which I fixed. I had the hatch thump noise which was fixed with adjusting the rubber stoppers. I still have a tick from what sounds like the driver door over harder bumps, and this is after the 3-step fix including door latches, felt behind the plastic and rubber lubricant. I may bring it up at service but I’m unsure if they will be able to fix it since it’s really not too often right now.
The overall:
I’ve generally been happy with the car. There was more time spent chasing rattles than I would have liked on a new car, but I’ve managed to get them down to almost nothing now. I am literally OCD with rattles, so that’s one thing that differs me from other people. I will say the Stinger isn’t as “fun” as a car like the 6 speed manual Mustang, but is much more comfortable as a commuter. I’m happy being back in an AWD vehicle for winter, especially after the foot of snow we got on Monday. While I wish I could say for sure I will keep the car for a long time, the paint concerns have me worried and makes me wish it was a lease so I could dump it after X years if I wanted. If I’m lucky, it’s not as bad as I fear it could be and will be a moot point; only time will tell. Another concern is my hope that the car holds up quality wise and doesn’t become another rattle trap. I do think it should hold up better than my Mustang did.
Any regrets? Yes, I wish I would have gotten a red interior. I rushed on the purchase of this car so I ended up settling on black, but I really wish I had gotten red for the aesthetic. I had a Red interior in the Mustang and I really liked it. I also wish I would have stuck to my guns on getting a 2019 model rather than a late 2018 build. Some of my fears are mongered by this forum and I might be stressing over nothing. I just hope I’m not plagued by any of these issues other people are having. My dealership seems like they care so hopefully if I have issues, they’ll help resolve them.
Is there anything else I wished I would have bought? I can’t think of anything else for the money that offers what this car does. The only competition is generally in the German realm of cars, and I hear so many stories of quality issues that I just can’t justifiably go down that road.
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