My Stinger Experience So Far

Clearly Canadian

Stinger Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Messages
792
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257
Points
68
Location
Edmonton Canada
Warning: Wall of Text

I originally planned to get a GT (GT1) but as soon as I test drove the GT Limited (GT2) with the heads up display I immediately knew I wanted that feature (love it!). Not sure if it's worth $5k but oh well l guess. I ordered Panthera/Thunder Grey (red interior) but later caved and got a Ceramic/Ghost Grey (black interior) which was sitting on the lot with 190 km on the odometer. I gave a breakdown of how much I spent in another thread. I did make an irritating error. I asked for 50% tint which as it turns out is basically stock tint. 50% is essentially not noticeable. $300 totally wasted and wife is not approving another tint job :-( So much for hiding the carseat in the back seat!

Dealership
The dealership has been good but very disorganized. I counted 8-9 different people that I've been dealing with which is way too many. They all want to help, which is good, but information transfer falls apart with that many people involved. They brought in the wrong colour rims for my winter tires but what really impressed me was that they let me take the car with the wrong rims and said they will just put them on another car later. That made me happy.

Exterior-Positive
-I absolutely love the way this car looks. I've been acting like a teenager ever since I started the purchasing process of this car. It's just so sleek and sporty looking. I also like that there's virtually no other stingers on the road. Definitely my mid-life crisis car :) Looking forward to getting it rebadged to the broken K sometime soon.

Exterior-Negative
-It was mentioned in another thread that the vents collect debris. I can confirm that there were all kinds of pebbles and small rocks in there. Not sure if this is a design flaw but it is not ideal. However there will always be a tradeoff between track/race features and practical daily driving. The vents are clearly a track feature.
-I do have a rattling hatch.
-Why are the door handles always the dirtiest part of the car?? Until they automate the opening of the doors I have to touch them and I'm always getting in my car with dirty hands.
-The car picks up more snow/salt/sludge than even our SUV. Not sure why. I'm constantly shoveling it out of the garage.
-The auto hatch has only worked once for me. It mostly does not detect my presence.

Interior & Tech-Positive
-Love the lighting. VIOLET!!! Who even uses that word anymore? Love it! Lol. I suspect that the cabin lighting shows up better (ie specific colours) with the black interior.
-Carplay. Love carplay. But why isn't it wireless?? Has anyone figured out if bluetooth is redundant now that there is carplay?
-Native Kia navigation. This is an awesome system that I learned how to use accidentally. It's even better than the Apple navigation inside carplay. And the way it integrates with the HUD is perfect. Did I mention that I learned it by accident? In my other vehicle you need a PHD to figure out how the navigation works.
-When interacting audibly with the car it temporarily lowers the music automatically AND LOWERS THE FAN BLOWER. Mind=blown.
-HUD as mentioned at the top. Awesome feature and very crisp. I like how the navigation and all the safety features integrate into it, especially the blind spot notification.
-The sound quality is good. Not amazing, but pretty good. It has enough bass for me.
-I like how low it sits. Makes me feel like i'm driving a sports car (let's be honest, it's not)

Interior & Tech-Negative
-Maybe it's just me but this car suffers from one of my all-time pet peeves. When you lean your leg against the transmission tunnel on one side and the door on the other (sorry, manspreading), it's uncomfortable. There's a hard edge there that makes me want to put my hand or some other cushion in between my leg and whatever it is leaning against. Did they not test this?
-Why does the radio start every time I unplug my phone from the USB after shutting the engine off?
-When the driving mode is displayed in your dash, why do they all have the same line that says
Economical on one side and Performance (if I recall correctly) on the other? It seems redundant to me. At least have a dot that shows where the particular driving mode is on that continuum.
-Button quality. The online reviewers all seem to focus on the way the buttons/dials on the circular vents feel. I agree those are nice. But the rest of the buttons just don't have the click response I need to ensure I've turned something on without directly looking at it. Example: the auto brake hold feature -- press it, you'll have no idea it is on if you don't manually look at the icon showing up on your screen. I found this disappointing.
-360 degree camera. While it is cool to have it, I don't find it helps much as I can't tell where my car is in relation to the stretched view of the stuff the camera shows.

Performance-Positive
-This car drives. When in sport mode, it just wants to GO. This is the main reason I bought this car, and it delivers. I've been entertaining the grocery store staff at midnight doing donuts in their parking lot. So much fun!
-The drive modes really do make a difference in the feel of the car. In comfort mode, I think the acceleration pedal is harder to depress which naturally encourages calm driving.

Performance-Negative
-I can not detect any difference in the damping system with the different driving modes
-When already going somewhat fast if you floor the acceleration it does not seem to pick up as much as I thought it would.

UVO/Command Start-Positive
I love the fact that I can find my car's location, check if it is locked and start it from anywhere (as long as I have internet and my car has cell coverage). I work far away from my parking spot and I live in a very cold place so being able to start my car before I walk outside it a luxury I hope I never have to do without again.

Fuel Economy-Negative
I drive like a teenager, it's a performance-oriented car. Let's be realistic, we will be gasing up often and I am ok with that :)

I'll see if I can add my album to this thread but keep in mind the rebadging isn't done yet and it currently has the wrong rims (ordered black but currently sporting titanium FC-04).

Edit: Cost-Positive!!!! You get so much for the price paid.
 
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Great review - always nice to hear from someone who "wrote the cheque" so to speak. Don't know what you originally ordered for your winter wheels, but the ones on the car seem to match up well with the colour of the side vents. Enjoy!
 
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Nice write up. Checked out the photos, looks good. Put some more up with it outside in sunlight, I'm interested in that color and want to see it in varying states, clean dirty, etc.. Been scouring the web for more photos of that color.
 
Thanks so much for the Awesome Review CC I am awaiting my home to sell and looking at a Thunder Grey vs Ghost Grey....still not sure! Question....I am in NB Awful Roads and tons of snow and ice, should I be worried?
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
Great review - always nice to hear from someone who "wrote the cheque" so to speak. Don't know what you originally ordered for your winter wheels, but the ones on the car seem to match up well with the colour of the side vents. Enjoy!

This is what I ordered; I like having black for half the year, and it matches the black interior of the vents.
http://www.1010tires.com/images/whe...4A-FC04A-Black-Metallic-(Deep)-B_lg_super.jpg

Edit: this was just a quick google image search just to show the look, it's probably not the right size for the vehicle.
 
Nice write up. Checked out the photos, looks good. Put some more up with it outside in sunlight, I'm interested in that color and want to see it in varying states, clean dirty, etc.. Been scouring the web for more photos of that color.

I'll see what I can do.
 
Thanks so much for the Awesome Review CC I am awaiting my home to sell and looking at a Thunder Grey vs Ghost Grey....still not sure! Question....I am in NB Awful Roads and tons of snow and ice, should I be worried?

You're trading a house for a car?? o_O

The AWD works perfectly fine in snow and ice as long as you drive for the conditions and have winter tires. I use blizzacks.
 
Excellent writeup!

Dealership - sounds like they're trying hard, maybe too hard. I'm blessed with an excellent previous relationship in every department they have. It's really nice.

Exterior-Positive
-I keep getting, "wow, I really like your car!"

Exterior-Negative
-The auto hatch has like a three second delay - are you waiting long enough? I have mine turned off. LOL

Interior & Tech-Positive
-Carplay. I've used Carplay and Android Auto both in a 2016 Ford and found they both switch immediately to the radio (LOUDLY) when disconnecting. That's one of the (many?) issues I have with Carplay/Android Auto. So it's not just Kia.
-Native Kia navigation - I still haven't figured out how to use audio to tell it to navigate to an address. I need to spend some time on this.
-HUD - yep, gonna be tough to do without this in a next vehicle!

Interior & Tech-Negative
-Maybe it's just me but this car suffers from one of my all-time pet peeves. When you lean your leg against the transmission tunnel on one side and the door on the other (sorry, manspreading), it's uncomfortable. - I have to agree somewhat. I've been making a real effort not to sit like this in recent months in any car. But it does seem on the more uncomfortable side.
-Why does the radio start every time I unplug my phone from the USB after shutting the engine off? - I use bluetooth and the Media screen. I'll hit Park, shut the engine off, hit pause on the display, then grab my phone and go. But if you're doing Carplay I don't think you can do that. Again, this is the SAME as it was in my 2016 Ford, so not Kia-specific.

Performance-Negative
-When already going somewhat fast if you floor the acceleration it does not seem to pick up as much as I thought it would. - There is a notch on the firewall that the accelerator pedal clicks on/in. Weird, and a first for me, but those here say that pressing the accelerator far enough so that it clicks is what will force the downshift and wide open throttle. Unsure if that may be part of your problem with this.

UVO/Command Start-Positive
I'm not having much luck with this feature set. My phone still says I only have 256 miles on the car. I've sat in the driveway trying to make UVO, etc. work but haven't had any luck. I even had it at the dealership and after my salesman and I futzed around with it for a while, it synched. But I've not been able to make it work since. I'm on a Pixel2XL with that latest, greatest Android version so that may be part of it.

Edit: Cost-Positive!!!! You get so much for the price paid. - I'm still blown away by what all this car has/does!

Enjoy it!
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
Even when you switch between views with the 360 camera you find it hard to see? You say its stretched out to much so I assume maybe you're only looking at the top down view? Maybe not i cant really tell from your comment. But yah try switching views if you haven't.
 
Interior & Tech-Negative
-Maybe it's just me but this car suffers from one of my all-time pet peeves. When you lean your leg against the transmission tunnel on one side and the door on the other (sorry, manspreading), it's uncomfortable. There's a hard edge there that makes me want to put my hand or some other cushion in between my leg and whatever it is leaning against. Did they not test this?
-Why does the radio start every time I unplug my phone from the USB after shutting the engine off?
-When the driving mode is displayed in your dash, why do they all have the same line that says
Economical on one side and Performance (if I recall correctly) on the other? It seems redundant to me. At least have a dot that shows where the particular driving mode is on that continuum.
-Button quality. The online reviewers all seem to focus on the way the buttons/dials on the circular vents feel. I agree those are nice. But the rest of the buttons just don't have the click response I need to ensure I've turned something on without directly looking at it. Example: the auto brake hold feature -- press it, you'll have no idea it is on if you don't manually look at the icon showing up on your screen. I found this disappointing.
-360 degree camera. While it is cool to have it, I don't find it helps much as I can't tell where my car is in relation to the stretched view of the stuff the camera shows.

After driving a while longer I have some updates to this section.
-I've played with my seat position to try to give my legs more support, which should decrease my need to lean my legs so much. The highly adjustable seats help a lot in this regard.
-In the sound settings you can set the default volume for various things. I set default radio volume to '0' which solves the radio playing after disconnecting carplay issue (the fact the radio is actually playing silently doesn't bother me, it's just for a few moments. When I go to actually play the radio on occasion, I just know I need to raise the volume from zero.
-The Economical/Aggressive continuum is for the smart mode, which is actually pretty cool. Though it doesn't switch to sport quite as easily as I'd like.
-Button quality is still a sticking point for me (pun intended) -- a luxury or near-luxury vehicle should have high quality tactile response.
-Not much new on the 360 degree camera except to say that it's funny when you close the side mirrors while the 360 is on.
-And as others have mentioned, would be super cool if the mood lighting changed with the drive mode (like a submarine going into battle mode) :D
-Oh and I also wish I could dim the LCD screen independently from my odometer etc. I like the odometer nice and bright, but the LCD not so bright.
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
Is it really so bad? Somebody else can say something?
Well it does sit pretty low vs an SUV , and considering so many higher vehicles are on the roads ( SUV's and probably more Trucks in Edmonton ) it leaves the Stinger a target for wheel sludge flinging off other vehicles . I've noticed the same thing . I did install Mud Guards which helps a bit from wheel debris from my car , but no way of getting around the crap from oncoming and followed vehicles ..............wishing for Spring !!!
 
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For the record, I was actually referring to underneath the vehicle. I'm coming from a TSX and that car never picked up this much stuff.
 
For the record, I was actually referring to underneath the vehicle. I'm coming from a TSX and that car never picked up this much stuff.
hmm , never looked under the car , we get so much rain in the winter its like a car wash , 1st world problems !:geek:
 
hmm , never looked under the car , we get so much rain in the winter its like a car wash , 1st world problems !:geek:

It just drops overnight on the garage floor. Come winter in Alberta sometime :-)
 
It just drops overnight on the garage floor. Come winter in Alberta sometime :)
OK now I understand your issue , the crap on the floor of the garage !! Totally understand how annoying that is .
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
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