SoCalSHO
Active Member
Does anyone know when they will add the 2021 Stinger info to the Kia website? They show other models as having the 2021 model, but not Stinger. Maybe there is a glut of 2020's still for sale.
Sales of the Stinger are still pretty good even without the advertising. Maybe they should just pay YouTubers to buy or promote their car. When Doug Demuro bought his it seemed to have a huge impact on sales of the Stinger.i fear similar outcome of the chevy ss.... not enough press.... they can't ride on the initial journalist reviews 2-3 years ago...
They are probably waiting a bit to put the 2021 cars on the website. However, 2021 Stingers are already on lots throughout the US. The 2021 Stingers are identical to the 2020 Stingers with one exception. You can now get the Panthera Metal with the Red Interior in the GT trims.
And i have seen not one stinger add after 2018 when i got mine lolAre you f*cking kidding me??? No wonder I couldn't find that color combo when I settled on the Panthera metal....
And as for advertising, the Stinger got a shit ton of ads, I remember seeing an ad while watching the super bowl. Kia is also an official sponsor of the NBA seen plenty of those ads while watching a ball game. When the car was new, mind you.
Even this entire spring/summer during covid-19 when kia was having all the sales, I saw plenty of commercials that included the Stinger as well. Since I bought my car, I haven't seen shit. Honestly now, seems like I only car commercial I see is for the Nissan Altima in orange with Bre Larson.
Hyundai has the performance division and it's really made some great headway. The new Elantra N and the Veloster N are totally targeted towards enthusiasts and there are more to come. I'm excited to see where they go next.It's a shame. KIA builds great cars...excellent designs and quality. If only they had an equal marketing team. I remember attending a LPGA event when they were introducing the K900. Basically I thought the car was excellent and told them so. However, when I started to give input to the young Koreans, that I was talking to, their whole attitude change from friendly to defensive. It was a real turn off. My back ground is from the Sales and marketing area, when we introduced new products to customers and prospects, we listened and made notes of the various comments for feed back. We didn't tell them that they were wrong and that we knew the customer needs better than they did.
KIA needs to make a decision pretty quick on whether they are a value automobile manufacturer that is quality oriented with an performance division based on the same criteria or leave out the later. My justification is not just my opinion, but based on the success of others, i.e. BMW(M div.), Mercedes(AMG), Audi(RS), Cadillac(V), etc.
I currently lease a 2018 GT2 with all the bells and whistles, but I am not going to lease the 2021 since the only changes are miner, head lights, tail lights, larger screen, interior and my deciding factor a meager 3 HP increase, due to an exhaust modification.
Can you image any of the above companies going four years with only these type of changes?
That's my input. I hope KIA takes this seriously. Based on my last communication to KIA in Korea on a similar subject they may not since they never acknowledged it!
FYI currently we are a three car KIA family ( 2018 Stinger GT2, 2019 Sorrento SXL and 2020 Sportage ex)
You make some good points. Perhaps its time for me to look elsewhere for performance.Hyundai has the performance division and it's really made some great headway. The new Elantra N and the Veloster N are totally targeted towards enthusiasts and there are more to come. I'm excited to see where they go next.
For me Kia won't go the performance route as their buyers aren't typically enthusiasts as is evidenced by the low Stinger sales. It's all about appealing to the masses for them. Look how well the Telluride has done with a relatively underpowered drivetrain.
Genesis is developing some really nice vehicles that are targeted at the luxury/quality buyers.
I'm interested to see what Genesis does once they release the GV70 and whether they move into the performance realm by offering a performance spec for any of its models. All of their models currently share the same engine's which is a bit of a shame and will hinder the success of their cars, especially the G70/80. They will need to offer something more aggressive to compete with the likes of the German performance divisions.
As far as the lack of updates to the Stinger, i'd say several things are at play there. Kia has always had a 4 year refresh cycle which is shared with many other manufacturers, including all of the ones you listed. They all offer very minor updates within those 4 years and a refresh is typically small exterior/interior improvements only. They save the big powertrain changes for platform changes which are usually every 5 years+.
Kia has offered special edition colours for the Stinger (the yellow did not go well) along with the GTS and the new Idigo edition. Those are other ways they keep the product line fresh instead of whole-sale changes/improvements.
The Stinger was not meant to be an all out performance model. Imo, it did what it was intended to do, obviously not at a crazy level given the sales numbers.You make some good points. Perhaps its time for me to look elsewhere for performance.
Yeah, at least 400hp would be nice. 300 what, 70 is what the US 2022 model will have? That's not really up to par.I understand where you're coming from. I didn't purchase the Stinger as an all out performance car. My only point was that if KIA was to stay in the sport area they should have had a 425hp to 450hp option as an natural evolution. This could have easily done through H/P air intake system and electronics. This would have solidly put them against the Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Camaro 2SS, Dodge SRT and Mustang California edition.
Why not target this market and build the KIA brand performance on the coat tales of the KIA quality and value.
Most buyers of the "Sport" type of cars aren't looking for the all out performance car. They are car enthusiasts and either can't afford or want the super high performance car.
Just my opinion. Thanks for yours.
Just my thoughts