Discussion of Stinger paint quality (Was - Paint Chip Issue)

Paint Chip Poll - Have you experienced unwarranted paint chipping with your Stinger

  • Yes - Yellow

    Votes: 37 7.9%
  • Yes - Blue

    Votes: 57 12.2%
  • Yes - Deep Chroma Blue

    Votes: 6 1.3%
  • Yes - Silky Silver

    Votes: 13 2.8%
  • Yes - Ceramic Silver

    Votes: 40 8.6%
  • Yes - Black

    Votes: 70 15.0%
  • Yes - Panthera Metal

    Votes: 18 3.9%
  • Yes - White

    Votes: 28 6.0%
  • Yes - Red

    Votes: 49 10.5%
  • No - Without permanent protective coating

    Votes: 113 24.2%
  • No - With permanent protective coating

    Votes: 36 7.7%

  • Total voters
    467
Stop with your egregious misuse of statistics regarding the issue and we wont have to "go through this" over and over and over. You either really do not know how to calculate and interpret the stats from the poll or you are being intentionally deceitful. You are misleading potential buyers who fly buy and assume you know what you're talking about. Stop it. You are wrong. It's so frustrating to have to call you out on it every damn time you bring them up.
Who exactly is misusing statistics? Or lacks reading comprehension? Who on the top of this page posted this..."Sorry to hear this. It seems like all Stingers at least up until your build date (early 2018) have peeling paint of some sort".

You seem to have come into this forum with some kind of agenda and frankly it is boring and annoying. The only logical assumption is that you have some reason for bashing Kia and this vehicle. Do some owners cars have issues? Yep. Do "all" as you asserted above. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Take your bashing to a MB or Lexus or whatever manufacturers owners forums and bash them as well. Every single manufacturer has issues and recalls. That does not mean than any particular make has issues with all cars as you so blindly assert on this forum.
 
Stop with your egregious misuse of statistics regarding the issue and we wont have to "go through this" over and over and over. You either really do not know how to calculate and interpret the stats from the poll or you are being intentionally deceitful. You are misleading potential buyers who fly buy and assume you know what you're talking about. Stop it. You are wrong. It's so frustrating to have to call you out on it every damn time you bring them up.
Okay, here we go aaagain. Fine. Because it is you who are mistaken. Here, I will explain again.

You take the poll and assert that since it is near 300 responses it is more rather than less accurate as a determiner of Stinger paint failure incidence; so to you c. two-thirds of Stingers have paint issues (which you have increased to "all" on more than one occasion). If the poll is all you go by that would be true. But OUTSIDE factors impact the strict accuracy of the poll.

Using a poll and ignoring the numbers of the polling base is fallacious. We have over 5K members. They come from the world wide web, mostly from via Google searches. That's how I found this forum; a simple search for "fixing kia stinger rims", or some similar phrase, and voila! here I am. Within a week, I saw my first exposure to the paint chip issues thread. Before I even read it, I posted "No - Without permanent protective coating", then I got started reading the full (then) 23 pages. I have posted more to this thread than any other; because I am INTERESTED for emotional and "academic" reasons.

Evidently, I am part of an extreme minority: 95% of OUR MEMBERSHIP either are blind to the problem or don't care (they don't notice the paint failing, think it is normal, are too dense to question physical reality, don't worry themselves about what other people are going through, can't be bothered, etc.). Whatever the reason, only 5% have responded. This statistic is constant over the last half year or more (the life of the poll); as the poll has gained hits, pro and con, the response stat has remained constant at c. 5%; with 3% of members saying that they have failing paint / poor quality paint. CONSTANT.

Look at it this way. Say we didn't have any knowledge of the number of Stingers; or the size of this forum's membership. All we had was the poll. Would you be right about two-thirds of all Stingers being cursed with poor paint? The reality (which we hypothetically do not know) is that virtually every member has come across the poll within days of joining up, and frequently thereafter: they just pass by and never even open the thread; thus the only ones who have responded "No - with(out) permanent protective coating" are the few who opened the thread and participated in the poll: the other 95% either never opened the thread in the first place or never bothered to answer the poll.

But you assert that two-thirds of these disinterested members must have paint issues and are just too dense to notice or care. Ludicrous assertion! Every thread on this forum exudes enthusiastic interest in this car, and a sense of pride dominates. Are you saying that the mass of evidence of Stinger pride/concern is accompanied by two-thirds of owners simply being too dense to notice or care what their cars look like!?o_O

Zero evidence, Forz, for two-thirds (much less your "all") of Stingers having paint quality issues. Massive evidence for c. 3% having issues. And if we count the unknown thousands more who have come across the poll doing just a Google search about "kia stinger paint quality", who have not bothered to sign up so that they can add their disappointment to the poll and let the world know, we either have a much larger population (c. 20K) of uncaring, stupid, dense Stinger owners, or we have, instead, tens of thousands of Stingers with no paint issues at all: the owners just don't see it, so they pass by, or never ask the question in the first place; that would be me.

To prove the point of not caring and passing by (i.e. not being within the poll's purview), I can point to myself: I have ZERO interest in performance mods; and even less (if that were possible) in what people pay for their cars. At the top of the New Posts listings, on virtually a daily basis, are the Borla, tune, lowering springs, sway bar, and "what did you pay for your Stinger" threads; they are constantly getting bumped to the top: and I have never opened most of them, not once. Am I unaware of what others are doing? Talking about? Not at all. I just, do, not, care. I have no interest, no connection to the topics and they pass by without my participation. If a poll were started, "Exhaust enhancement, Borla or other, or none and why not?"; or "have you paid thus or thus amount?"; or, "have you chipped your car?"; or "lowering springs, yes or no, and why?": my participation would not happen; yet I have a Stinger. If someone concluded from their poll that two-thirds of respondents means that two-thirds of Stingers out there have Borla exhausts on them, and only 33% of all Stingers have no exhaust enhancement at all, they would be completely, inarguably, WRONG.
 
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I'm not debating either side of the statistical analysis, but I think there are far to many factors to actually gather how representative this sample size is compared to the ownership size.
True. But any factors making the poll divide more accurate would swing the "No - with(out) permanent protective coating" stat higher; how much higher is going to remain unknown. We only have the known limitations of the immediate polling base: c. 5K Stinger Forum members. The 5% who have participated at all would not increase the "Yes" votes as a percentage. If 100% of joining members had to participate in this poll before having their membership activated (silly idea, but proves the point), the poll would be flipped on its ear: a huge majority (unknown) would vote "No". To assert otherwise is to deny the evidence of the rest of this forum: it loves the Stinger and does not add the caveat, "except for the damned paint!". Paint simply does not come up, except here. There is no corresponding evidence to support the assertion that "two-thirds" ("all", heh!) Stingers have paint quality issues.
 
They come from the world wide web, mostly from via Google searches. That's how I found this forum; a simple search for "fixing kia stinger rims", or some similar phrase, and voila! here I am

And on that subject which I will take my tangent, I found the Stinger forum through a search of "Kia Stinger rattles" since I hate rattles. I found this forum, found some had rattles and some didn't. I bought it, had rattles, fixed most, and still have 1. I knew what could come, and I still bought it. I'm realistic enough to understand many cars have rattles, but I thought I would luck out. Why would I test my non existent luck?

A tangent, but relevant to the paint. I was aware of the paint issue, but I took a risk. I've had minor concerns, and I will observe escalation of the problem. If none, perhaps I have some luck (luck means I'm completely ignoring the manufacturing process, employee involvement and other factors that completely remove luck from the equation).
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
Who exactly is misusing statistics? Or lacks reading comprehension? Who on the top of this page posted this..."Sorry to hear this. It seems like all Stingers at least up until your build date (early 2018) have peeling paint of some sort".

You seem to have come into this forum with some kind of agenda and frankly it is boring and annoying. The only logical assumption is that you have some reason for bashing Kia and this vehicle. Do some owners cars have issues? Yep. Do "all" as you asserted above. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Take your bashing to a MB or Lexus or whatever manufacturers owners forums and bash them as well. Every single manufacturer has issues and recalls. That does not mean than any particular make has issues with all cars as you so blindly assert on this forum.
he's a troll. Doesn't even own a Stinger and every time he posts it's something negative. I really don't understand why he's even here, maybe he works for the Germans. Ok that's half a joke, but I do think people underestimate how powerful spreading negative information on the internet can be, heck it got our current president elected. If I found out BMW was hiring people to talk negatively about competitors cars on message boards/social media, I wouldn't be surprised in the least. This guy definitely does fit the bill.
 
he's a troll. Doesn't even own a Stinger and every time he posts it's something negative. I really don't understand why he's even here, maybe he works for the Germans. Ok that's half a joke, but I do think people underestimate how powerful spreading negative information on the internet can be, heck it got our current president elected. If I found out BMW was hiring people to talk negatively about competitors cars on message boards/social media, I wouldn't be surprised in the least. This guy definitely does fit the bill.
Oh wow, a Trump joke? He really triggers you that much hey? Also, I bought a red 19 in Sept so enough with the lame skin in the game argument. I love the car. I have expressed the positives many times on the forum. What I don't like is the overly defensive ownership group here that seems to have a major inferiority complex. The conspiracy theories like the one presented in your post just serve to perpetuate that complex. Stop embarassing yourself.
 
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Okay, here we go aaagain. Fine. Because it is you who are mistaken. Here, I will explain again.

You take the poll and assert that since it is near 300 responses it is more rather than less accurate as a determiner of Stinger paint failure incidence; so to you c. two-thirds of Stingers have paint issues (which you have increased to "all" on more than one occasion). If the poll is all you go by that would be true. But OUTSIDE factors impact the strict accuracy of the poll.

Using a poll and ignoring the numbers of the polling base is fallacious. We have over 5K members. They come from the world wide web, mostly from via Google searches. That's how I found this forum; a simple search for "fixing kia stinger rims", or some similar phrase, and voila! here I am. Within a week, I saw my first exposure to the paint chip issues thread. Before I even read it, I posted "No - Without permanent protective coating", then I got started reading the full (then) 23 pages. I have posted more to this thread than any other; because I am INTERESTED for emotional and "academic" reasons.

Evidently, I am part of an extreme minority: 95% of OUR MEMBERSHIP either are blind to the problem or don't care (they don't notice the paint failing, think it is normal, are too dense to question physical reality, don't worry themselves about what other people are going through, can't be bothered, etc.). Whatever the reason, only 5% have responded. This statistic is constant over the last half year or more (the life of the poll); as the poll has gained hits, pro and con, the response stat has remained constant at c. 5%; with 3% of members saying that they have failing paint / poor quality paint. CONSTANT.

Look at it this way. Say we didn't have any knowledge of the number of Stingers; or the size of this forum's membership. All we had was the poll. Would you be right about two-thirds of all Stingers being cursed with poor paint? The reality (which we hypothetically do not know) is that virtually every member has come across the poll within days of joining up, and frequently thereafter: they just pass by and never even open the thread; thus the only ones who have responded "No - with(out) permanent protective coating" are the few who opened the thread and participated in the poll: the other 95% either never opened the thread in the first place or never bothered to answer the poll.

But you assert that two-thirds of these disinterested members must have paint issues and are just too dense to notice or care. Ludicrous assertion! Every thread on this forum exudes enthusiastic interest in this car, and a sense of pride dominates. Are you saying that the mass of evidence of Stinger pride/concern is accompanied by two-thirds of owners simply being too dense to notice or care what their cars look like!?o_O

Zero evidence, Forz, for two-thirds (much less your "all") of Stingers having paint quality issues. Massive evidence for c. 3% having issues. And if we count the unknown thousands more who have come across the poll doing just a Google search about "kia stinger paint quality", who have not bothered to sign up so that they can add their disappointment to the poll and let the world know, we either have a much larger population (c. 20K) of uncaring, stupid, dense Stinger owners, or we have, instead, tens of thousands of Stingers with no paint issues at all: the owners just don't see it, so they pass by, or never ask the question in the first place; that would be me.

To prove the point of not caring and passing by (i.e. not being within the poll's purview), I can point to myself: I have ZERO interest in performance mods; and even less (if that were possible) in what people pay for their cars. At the top of the New Posts listings, on virtually a daily basis, are the Borla, tune, lowering springs, sway bar, and "what did you pay for your Stinger" threads; they are constantly getting bumped to the top: and I have never opened most of them, not once. Am I unaware of what others are doing? Talking about? Not at all. I just, do, not, care. I have no interest, no connection to the topics and they pass by without my participation. If a poll were started, "Exhaust enhancement, Borla or other, or none and why not?"; or "have you paid thus or thus amount?"; or, "have you chipped your car?"; or "lowering springs, yes or no, and why?": my participation would not happen; yet I have a Stinger. If someone concluded from their poll that two-thirds of respondents means that two-thirds of Stingers out there have Borla exhausts on them, and only 33% of all Stingers have no exhaust enhancement at all, they would be completely, inarguably, WRONG.
Again, that's not how statistics work. You cannot apply a percentage against the global ownership group for one factor and then apply the other percentage to the sample size in the poll. That makes the two sets of data independent and useless. You're skewing data and would have received an automatic fail in any legitimate statistics course. I'm done explaining this to you.
 
Again, that's not how statistics work. You cannot apply a percentage against the global ownership group for one factor and then apply the other percentage to the sample size in the poll. That makes the two sets of data independent and useless. You're skewing data and would have received an automatic fail in any legitimate statistics course. I'm done explaining this to you.
And I am done as soon as you are done. But you keep coming back with the "logic" that a poll stands alone, and, if big enough, becomes representative of the wider population. This is called selective polling. It doesn't work in determining political climate and it doesn't work assigning accuracy to the quality of cars as a whole either.

I never applied a "percentage" to anything but the membership here. Worldwide is speculated to be even less of a problem. That is logical. But nobody is taking "our" poll and applying its percentages to the c. 30K Stingers sold so far. So you have this bassendackwards, still.

To do this right, you should look at the poll first, obviously, and see the breakdown of yes and no votes. You then question if the c. 275 votes in over half a year means anything vis-a-vis the Stinger population at large. First thing is the rest of the forum, since this poll is limited to it alone. Before even looking at total membership (to get some kind of relationship to how the poll's participants apply as a demographic of our forum population), one is struck by the almost utter lack of "Paint" in any other thread anywhere on the Stinger Forum: and how only a tiny number of posters "inhabit" this thread: and how praise and satisfaction for the car dominate the entire forum. The lack of complaints, the obvious pleasure, are a convincing bit of empirical evidence: that the car is terrific and any number of other positive thumbs-up words people care to use. The troubles with the car span the spectrum of what can go wrong with a brand new machine. And these concerns are drowned in the responses of "no problems with my car!" Or, "I got that taken care of, no issues since", etc.

Paint gets talked about here. Five percent of members have voted. Three percent have issues. Are you going to retract any of your wildly inaccurate assertions about the size of the Stinger population that has failed paint? You have used the word "ALL" more than once. And it makes no sense because an assertion without evidence is all that it is. Your assertions are a perfect example of "fake news", and derived the same way; from reading more into a poll than is there; and presenting it as evidence of something that is not true. :D
 
Oh wow, a Trump joke? He really triggers you that much hey? Also, I bought a red 19 in Sept so enough with the lame skin in the game argument. I love the car. I have expressed the positives many times on the forum. What I don't like is the overly defensive ownership group here that seems to have a major inferiority complex. The conspiracy theories like the one presented in your post just serve to perpetuate that complex. Stop embarassing yourself.
Huh? no joke, just stating facts. Russia used an internet disinformation campaign to help him get elected, those are facts based on the information gathered by every single one of our intelligence agencies, not some "conspiracy". I'm just using that instance as an example because it's probably the best one to show just how powerful disinformation on the internet is.

I've never once seen you express any positives toward the car. Every single time you post it's about how Kia cut corners, how bad a certain aspect of the car is, how some other car is better. If it looks like a troll and smells like a troll, it's probably a troll.
 
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From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
Using The Donald and his Russian friends to make a point is going to get this thread slammed shut if it goes any further than a single exchange. So, please desist. :)

Forz is an interesting cat. He says he's got a Stinger. But he's even more disparaging of a car he owns than @CaliSting and that's saying a lot! :D

The on topic focus right here is "our" poll: what it says, and what people think that it says.
 
Facts are Kia has formal respray program for 2018 cars. Many reports of poor paint quality. Some here argue this is to be expected in intro year . I say it’s death nail in Kia trying to break into luxury market in US. Rapidly declining sales don’t lie and indicate this is just another Kia / Hyundai Failure to break into new Luxary markets in US.

Don’t get me wrong the stinger is a fabulous $35k car. Great engineering for the price point. It is not however a fabulous $45k car. Too many initial quality issues, poor dealer service for entry level luxury car.

I bought this car full well understanding there would likely be issues. Both because it’s a Kia and intro year for the Stinger. What I didn’t expect was piss poor Kia response to fixing numerous quality issues.

What I will say is my 2018 Dodge Durango RT AWD which was $41k has offered far superior ownership experience to date. No initial quality issues after 2500 miles. No sqeaks or rattles. Perfect paint. Great dealer experience. Same experience with my 2015 Dodge Durango RT with 85000 miles.

I still think Stinger GT2 RWD is a cool car . Just don’t know if I’d defend it as second coming in car world as some on this forum do. I don’t see it as a substitute for well engineered German car but it’s a great step up for Optima owner for sure. And yes I do believe Stinger as we know it will die by end of 2020. They may still make it but sell in low hundreds units for US market. Sort of how k900 has hung around and poor selling Genesis cars.
 
So a quick update on my car. I have an October 2017 build date 2018 Hichroma red GT2. I had peeling paint under my driver side headlight. Long story short, the Arizona lemon law was in my favor and Kia offered me 3 options: a buyback, a replacement, and a lump sum of cash. Another long story short, I negotiated up the cash offer and took it and kept the car (all 2019s I saw had the same paint issues).

I recommend looking up your state lemon law and being aware of its requirements. At the end of the day, even if you want to keep the car, it may make sense making a buyback request and negotiating a cash settlement. It’s not easy, but let’s just say it was well worth it.
 
A quick update on my paint issue. Yesterday's visit at Battleground Kia in Greensboro, NC, for my fist service (5,500 miles), went very well. They've acknowledged there is an issue with the paint adherence on the hood. However, a regional warranty claim manager is not going to be available to approve any repairs at this point as they currently don't have one! The new guy will start first of the year, work through some back log and then hopefully will be available to check out the hood. So for now the paint issue is in limbo. More on that later when things move forward.

Otherwise they are ordering a new head unit to fix the fader issue, have resurfaced all 4 rotors to remove the brake pad deposits and changed the oil - this time with the correct weight. I'm still waiting to get an updated Nav SD card but it may show up with the new head unit so I'll lay low for now.

This first visit went well. The folks in the service department were competent and very friendly. I'll give them all a thumbs up. BTW got my HK Stinger Headphones today! It's a very nice set and arrived rather unexpected as I forgot that Stinger buyers get these...Merry Christmas to me ;)
 
(all 2019s I saw had the same paint issues)
How many would that be? All the 2019s I've seen (a whole six, looking for failing paint) are pristine. And the headlight assembly is an issue, not "issues".
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
How many would that be? All the 2019s I've seen (a whole six, looking for failing paint) are pristine. And the headlight assembly is an issue, not "issues".
I didn’t count. But I’d estimate it was about 13-15 and maybe saw 2-3 that were “pristine.” The rest had peeling paint. Some under both headlights. So “issues” is correct. Seems that the light colored ones were peeling. Saw no issue with blue or black.
 
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@Never thought same here. I found something wrong paint wise with every single Stinger GT that I saw on the lots.

It is sad they still have a questionable process ... But it isn't isolated to the stinger or Kia. Lots of other manufacturers deal with issues like this... But most often those are economy vehicles
 
@Never thought same here. I found something wrong paint wise with every single Stinger GT that I saw on the lots.

It is sad they still have a questionable process ... But it isn't isolated to the stinger or Kia. Lots of other manufacturers deal with issues like this... But most often those are economy vehicles
I heard the Tesla Model 3 has paint issues. But not sure if that’s true or how wide spread they are. But better paint issues than engines or turbos! See Audi
 
I heard the Tesla Model 3 has paint issues. But not sure if that’s true or how wide spread they are. But better paint issues than engines or turbos! See Audi
I feel a @forzanerazzurri quote coming on. I'll paraphrase: no brand new car of any price range should have issues with failing paint. End of argument.

If the entire automobile industry sinks below our expectations, what does that say about us?

Unacceptable, to have brand new cars with less than perfect paint.

Now, down the road, how will "perfect" paint hold up? That is the corollary. And I don't suppose that anyone on this forum has a lot of confidence in how durable Kia's paint is: thus all the rush to PPF, wrap and ceramic. I was into my car three months and got the entire front right up to the windshield done in PPF, because I was applying the touch up pen too much, because of road damage. The bumper paint by itself is just too vulnerable to debris impacts.

Will cars ever get back to where they were in former years? Will the paint be thicker, stronger, and adhere better?

The new paint is weaker because the more "hazardous" ingredients have been swapped out for "greener" (biodegradable) ingredients; and none of those are as durable. Am I right about that?

Here is a related question that just occurred to me: is the chemical composition of PPF and ceramic less or more hazardous than the previous chemistry of "hazardous" paint? Because if weaker paint (more environmentally friendly) causes a huge increase in PPF/ceramic, the outcome could be worse (for the environment) than the earlier, stronger paint. (Sort of like the lithium battery disposal argument, points to EV being at least as harmful for the environment as ICE vehicles.)
 
Valid point. I definitely wasn’t excusing the paint issues. But if I had to choose between paint and mechanical reliability, mechanical all the way. Although I just got word from the dealer my limited slip differential is failing and needs to be replaced...

I cant give you an answer as to how the environment is impacted by PPF and ceramic coatings, but I am glad I did both to this car.
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
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