Stunned at the stupidity of the general public and their negativity towards KIA/Hyundai

[vipeboy2000]

Ah ok... well good feedback and review indeed!

I was car shopping with my friend who wanted to get into a E92-M3-Coupe and when we went to a local BMW dealership they also let us try out a 2016 M235i Coupe and 2018 M240i Coupe. Both were auto and rwd. We found both of them extremely fun and engaging to drive. He still went with the E92 since he missed driving stick and loved that V8 sound. Now he has some insane mods on it and it sounds glorious.

I have huge love and respect for BMW. They make very good cars. If I didn't need the space of the Stinger I probably would have gone with a 2-series of some flavor.

Quick fun story... a base model 228i Gran Coupe parked next to me a few weeks ago at a local grocery store. We spoke for a few minutes since both of our cars were white and he jokingly (or perhaps not jokingly) said how Kia copied his car. He was like "couldn't get the real thing eh?" and I respond with "0-60 in 6s for $40k vs 0-60 in 4.5s for $40k idk..." lmfao! Playful teasing!

I prefer the 2-series as a coupe rather than a hatchback or sedan or whatever...

Not to mention the gran coupe versions of the 2 series are fwd or fwd biased awd . Basically a mini which are awesome no shame there but so different than the coupe that is rwd based.

 

[WRXtoStingerGT]

Not to mention the gran coupe versions of the 2 series are fwd or fwd biased awd . Basically a mini which are awesome no shame there but so different than the coupe that is rwd based.

I'm not judging but I genuinely think it's a bit pathetic to buy something that is worse than something else identical to it just for the badge.

Like... a brand new Camry XSE V6 (FWD) Sedan is in every single way superior (handling, straight line acceleration, creature comfort, luxury, storage space, passenger room, etc) to a brand new BMW 228i (FWD) Gran Coupe while being cheaper to purchase, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to insure, statistically more reliable, better fuel economy, and having more options/locations on choosing where to have the vehicle serviced.

The only "advantage" to the BMW over the Toyota in this case is that you can say you drive a BMW. Perhaps if you wanted AWD instead of FWD then I can maybe understand... but even then I don't know... To each their own but I think it's pretty sad.

I can't understand dropping $35k+ on a "ultimate driving machine" that does 0-60 in barely six seconds (more like 6.1-6.4 depending on who is testing) in 2020 or 2021. Like... why not go with the Camry? Or Accord? "Because it's an ultimate driving machine! It's a BMW!"

Don't get me wrong, I had an e36 for three years but I bought that car for $1800 and had to dump another $2000 into it before I could drive it. But... that was probably the best sub $4000 I ever spent because I got to drive stick, throw a RWD car around, and have a ton of fun.

I remember my buddy back in 2018 leased a brand new 430i coupe. It was 100% base model, the cheapest possible 4-series he could get in a 500 mile radius. I think it was honestly one of the cheapest in the entire USA from my search helping him out. He adored the car and it made him happy and he loved (and I mean LOVED) to get to say that he drove a BMW. It made him feel like a million bucks. But then when the lease was up and he started test driving other cars that my friends and I convinced him to try out he was stunned how weak his "perfect and amazing" 430i was compared to the cheaper competition. It's fine I guess... but he went with his 430i just to say for three years that he drove a BMW.

Hope I didn't offend anyone lmfao...

Me and my tangents...

 

[ZedsGT]

My mother worked in the car industry for 35 years as a controller and she recognizes how far kia has come. If you arent a "car person" you aren't going to see kia or hyundai as a good car yet. However, I have seen A LOT of tellurides recently and they look fantastic.
I come from a long line of vehicle manufacturers ( Sti, 370z, focus rs, 392 dodge, gti, audi tts, veloster n, mercedes amgs, now stinger). The absolute best car is mercedes; from the dealer to the car to the service it is A+.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Me and my tangents...

You remind me, of me. Hah.

 

[vipeboy2000]

I'm not judging but I genuinely think it's a bit pathetic to buy something that is worse than something else identical to it just for the badge.

Like... a brand new Camry XSE V6 (FWD) Sedan is in every single way superior (handling, straight line acceleration, creature comfort, luxury, storage space, passenger room, etc) to a brand new BMW 228i (FWD) Gran Coupe while being cheaper to purchase, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to insure, statistically more reliable, better fuel economy, and having more options/locations on choosing where to have the vehicle serviced.

The only "advantage" to the BMW over the Toyota in this case is that you can say you drive a BMW. Perhaps if you wanted AWD instead of FWD then I can maybe understand... but even then I don't know... To each their own but I think it's pretty sad.

I can't understand dropping $35k+ on a "ultimate driving machine" that does 0-60 in barely six seconds (more like 6.1-6.4 depending on who is testing) in 2020 or 2021. Like... why not go with the Camry? Or Accord? "Because it's an ultimate driving machine! It's a BMW!"

Don't get me wrong, I had an e36 for three years but I bought that car for $1800 and had to dump another $2000 into it before I could drive it. But... that was probably the best sub $4000 I ever spent because I got to drive stick, throw a RWD car around, and have a ton of fun.

Totally agreed! I'm coming from e39 540i sport package and having test driven the newer x3s and 328s they are not that amazing at all until you step up to the m335 m435i models with all the 10s of thousands of dollar options!

 

[WRXtoStingerGT]

My mother worked in the car industry for 35 years as a controller and she recognizes how far kia has come. If you arent a "car person" you aren't going to see kia or hyundai as a good car yet. However, I have seen A LOT of tellurides recently and they look fantastic.
I come from a long line of vehicle manufacturers ( Sti, 370z, focus rs, 392 dodge, gti, audi tts, veloster n, mercedes amgs, now stinger). The absolute best car is mercedes; from the dealer to the car to the service it is A+.

Not surprised Mercedes is the best at all. Their standards are phenomenal.

You remind me, of me. Hah.

Totally agreed! I'm coming from e39 540i sport package and having test driven the newer x3s and 328s they are not that amazing at all until you step up to the m335 m435i models with all the 10s of thousands of dollar options!

Oh for sure. There are very few "real" BMW's anymore... but then again that is where the market has gone... Badge is what the majority of the population focus on.

 

[DTD]

My Dad liked Mercedes but had buy them when they were 5 or 6 years old as he could not afford the new ones. They did seem to be way ahead of the other cars of that day. A friend only buys Mercedes never new but pretty close a year old or the managers car. He has 2 AMG and one SUV he has the AMG GT which is very fast but also very low 3.5" ground clearance, to low for me and to expensive I think he paid about 78K for a 2 year old model. That model has many for sale with about 5K miles.

 

[GenesisG70]

I have come to a point in my life that I make more than 95% of people in this country so I no longer need to buy another overpriced German car to brag, now I have focused on buying what makes sense and makes me happy and overpriced German cars make me very unhappy when they need to be maintained and repaired.

 

[SomeBlondeGuy]

Actually, I think it's like that for the Canadian market too. The U.S. might be the only Kia market to get the 10/100 warranty.

I can concur.
My Canadian Stinger only gets 5 years /100,000 kms.

 

[KAS]

I genuinely think it's a bit pathetic to buy something that is worse than something else identical to it just for the badge.

Ditto. I think those people are fools. Especially if the person isn’t genuinely wealthy.

Not surprised Mercedes is the best at all. Their standards are phenomenal.

Interestingly, in Australia, Mercedes have a reputation for shocking customer support when something goes wrong with one of their cars. Lots of stories of them trying to deny what are obviously warranty repairs until the owner gets lawyers involved, then trying to force the customer to sign non-disclosure agreements to protect their “reputation”.

Many car enthusiasts are aware of their reputation but most idiots who buy just for the badge aren’t - they just see the modern customer service lounge with cappuccinos and pastries on offer and think that’s “luxury” that they want.

 

[DTD]

I have come to a point in my life that I make more than 95% of people in this country so I no longer need to buy another overpriced German car to brag, now I have focused on buying what makes sense and makes me happy and overpriced German cars make me very unhappy when they need to be maintained and repaired.

I am not in your financial situation, I have been looking at the Stinger for a year now but have not driven one yet. I think it was in this forum that a person who worked for KIA said Kia has been having problems with the radios working. It seems I have seen a fair amount of posts about that. There just seem to be to many posts about problems that don't seem to get fixed. That it is more of a crap shoot on the quality control of the manufacturing of these cars. I have had many cars in my life and I personally have not ever had this many problems that I am seeing on this forum especially problems that don't seem to be able to fix. Kia and Hyundai may be building better cars but their quality control does not seem to be effective or the problems would be fixed and not repeated each year.

 

[RedCal]

You read about problems because nobody posts "drove today, nothing happened " people only complain about things that go wrong... and come to forums to ask for help, research, and vent, and some people even have an agenda in their posts... go to any forum about any product... it's the same. There isn't a car build by any brand that doesn't have problems. Read the published quality reports, they are taken from thousands of cars all over. Does it mean you can get problematic top brand, yup, and you can get a mint lower brand too, it's about odds - luck of the draw.

 

[SomeBlondeGuy]

I am not in your financial situation, I have been looking at the Stinger for a year now but have not driven one yet. I think it was in this forum that a person who worked for KIA said Kia has been having problems with the radios working. It seems I have seen a fair amount of posts about that. There just seem to be to many posts about problems that don't seem to get fixed. That it is more of a crap shoot on the quality control of the manufacturing of these cars. I have had many cars in my life and I personally have not ever had this many problems that I am seeing on this forum especially problems that don't seem to be able to fix. Kia and Hyundai may be building better cars but their quality control does not seem to be effective or the problems would be fixed and not repeated each year.

I was having problems with my radio, but a software update fixed the issue, at least for my car.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I have been looking at the Stinger for a year now but have not driven one yet.

Well, don't take that test drive, or your angst will take a palpable hit. Odds are that the car you test drive will be fine in all respects. Mine is.

 

[WRXtoStingerGT]

I remember when I first got the Stinger and started going on the two popular forums online and reading about all the headaches and problems people were having. I genuinely thought it was all blown out of proportion since yes, statistically, many more people come to car forums to vent and complain about an issue they are having. Heck, I saw and experienced that first hand on the E36 forums and WRX forums.

Less than three months later began my rollercoaster of problems with the braking system that took Kia over six months and 3000 miles to fix. I think as others have said I have to agree that Hyundai/Kia really needs to work on both their quality control and how they communicate with the dealerships and the owners. They also need to admit that they cut corners to save money on producing these cars and also are not putting money in finding ways to improve the vehicles to limit the issues.

Of course all brands, makes, and models are going to have problems... that is to be expected... but the difference is that certain brands, such as Lexus for example, seem to take quality control and customer service very seriously when handling problems much more so than other brands.

I think the Stinger is a great car but I have had to spend more time at a dealership getting warranty repairs in less than a year of ownership than anyone else in my family has owning any of their Camry's or MB or Volvo for a much longer time in their possession.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Stinger and I have huge respect for Kia for what they have accomplished, but they need to improve if they want to be taken more seriously by potential customers cross-shopping the more "refined" German and Japanese brands.

 

[DaveC]

Back to the OP. You will rarely be wrong by underestimating the intelligence of the average American. I hate to say that, but it's becoming more true by the day.

 

[adam1991]

Less than three months later began my rollercoaster of problems with the braking system that took Kia over six months and 3000 miles to fix.

Did you talk with a lemon law lawyer?

What you describe is a classic lemon law situation.

 

[WRXtoStingerGT]

Back to the OP. You will rarely be wrong by underestimating the intelligence of the average American. I hate to say that, but it's becoming more true by the day.

ugh don't get me started - so many people in this country are comically foolish and ignorant... worst of all they are so proud of their lack of understanding of the world around them...

Did you talk with a lemon law lawyer?

What you describe is a classic lemon law situation.

yupperz... in fact it wasn't taken very seriously until I got a lawyer involved... I still am keeping the car but some other stuff played out in my favor... legally I have to leave it a that...

 

[GenesisG70]

I am not in your financial situation, I have been looking at the Stinger for a year now but have not driven one yet. I think it was in this forum that a person who worked for KIA said Kia has been having problems with the radios working. It seems I have seen a fair amount of posts about that. There just seem to be to many posts about problems that don't seem to get fixed. That it is more of a crap shoot on the quality control of the manufacturing of these cars. I have had many cars in my life and I personally have not ever had this many problems that I am seeing on this forum especially problems that don't seem to be able to fix. Kia and Hyundai may be building better cars but their quality control does not seem to be effective or the problems would be fixed and not repeated each year.

I feel your pain hopefully u can get the money back have u thought about applying the lemon law?

 

[Nocostinger]

I remember when I first got the Stinger and started going on the two popular forums online and reading about all the headaches and problems people were having. I genuinely thought it was all blown out of proportion since yes, statistically, many more people come to car forums to vent and complain about an issue they are having. Heck, I saw and experienced that first hand on the E36 forums and WRX forums.

Less than three months later began my rollercoaster of problems with the braking system that took Kia over six months and 3000 miles to fix. I think as others have said I have to agree that Hyundai/Kia really needs to work on both their quality control and how they communicate with the dealerships and the owners. They also need to admit that they cut corners to save money on producing these cars and also are not putting money in finding ways to improve the vehicles to limit the issues.

Of course all brands, makes, and models are going to have problems... that is to be expected... but the difference is that certain brands, such as Lexus for example, seem to take quality control and customer service very seriously when handling problems much more so than other brands.

I think the Stinger is a great car but I have had to spend more time at a dealership getting warranty repairs in less than a year of ownership than anyone else in my family has owning any of their Camry's or MB or Volvo for a much longer time in their possession.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Stinger and I have huge respect for Kia for what they have accomplished, but they need to improve if they want to be taken more seriously by potential customers cross-shopping the more "refined" German and Japanese brands.

The Stinger experience is alot easier if you know cars and their mechanical workings well. I've had several Kias before and each time i've had to get stuff done under warranty, i've had to guide the mechanic and service advisor to the TSB or Recall that solved my issue.

Know your car, do your research, and tell them what TSB or Recall to look at. Most Kia dealerships seem to have rookie service advisors which, isn't a bad thing but can be difficult if you yourself don't know the car.