Tigershark
Sustaining Member
Hello everyone,
My name is Rob, I'm a Crew Chief with the USAF, and I'm the proud new owner of this beauty:
Tigershark (as I've decided to name it) is a 2019 Stinger GT2 AWD in Ceramic Silver with, at the time of purchase, 9780 Miles on the clock.
I'll be honest, I never ONCE even considered this car or looked at it seriously for any reason. Here's the kind of long winded version of how I stumbled into happy ownership:
Coming from a heavily modified 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon diesel on 37's, daily driving that beast was starting to take it's toll on my comfort and sanity. With the aerodynamics of a brick, just about any drive was exhausting (don't get me started on treking out to Moab and back) and I truly just wasn't using it's true capability enough to justify keeping it around. I started in September of this year hunting for a wagon, SUV, hatchback that fit my needs better and was still fun to drive. I managed to narrow that list down pretty quickly to the Alfa Stelvio Quadrifoglio, Audi S5/RS5 Sportback, and Mercedes GLA45 AMG. Trying to find a decent Alfa was difficult to say the least and the horror stories I read in maintenance killed it pretty quickly. I did manage to find a nice GLA45 but it was just too small and the 4 cyl turbo was meh overall. That left the Audi Sportbacks and to be honest, my last Audi was a total trainwreck to deal with, so I wasn't super keen on exploring it without finding at least one more comparable in the mix. Enter the Stinger GT. At first I had completely forgot these existed until one randomly passed me on the road and I did the double take/neck break to figure out what it was. I immediately went home after finishing my errands and started doing my research. I knew Kia had poached ex ///M engineer Albert Biermann years ago but I didn't realize this was one of his first projects with them. This definitely got my attention knowing first hand what this mans track record with BMW had produced:
This is my other pride and joy 'Cherry', a 2004 Imola Red BMW M3 6MT with just under 50K miles. Needless to say, if the Stinger had old ///M boss Biermann behind it, consider me intrigued.
I've owned TONS of performance cars over the years (Trans Am, Charger Scatpack, Charger Hellcat (x2), Porsche 911, Multiple BMW's including a 6266 precision swapped 335Xi, D1SC Procharged Corvette C6, and R35 Nissan GTR) and driven many exotics on track in vegas, so I'd say I have a decent eye for good performing vehicles and this one looks to tick all of the boxes for what it's intent and use will be.
I found Tigershark locally and listed the day after I had started doing my research on the car...at a BMW dealership I am all too familiar with. What are the odds?
I went out the following day without contacting anyone at the dealer (I like to show up unannounced most of the time. Gives me more control over the situation and they don't already have me on their 'bug the crap out of this guy nonstop' list). When I first showed up, a sales guy approached me and I immediately recognized him, a gent I had previously worked with at a local Jeep dealership. He was a little caught off guard when I knew his name right off the bat, but then recognized my vehicle and remembered our previous interactions. I told him why I was there and he took me straight to the car.
It was such a fresh trade, they hadn't even got it into their 'Recon' phase yet to see what sort of maintenance it needed. Despite a cracked windshield and some dust under the hood, everything was in pristine shape (a '19 with so few miles and 2 previous owners definitely will make you question it's history). Although normally they want to give it a good once over before letting anyone drive a used vehicle, he said "We can take it around the block and see if you're interested in pursuing it any further; just don't tell my boss".
Relationships like this in the local automotive market are worth their weight in gold.
After 3 short miles of driving and parking it back up at the dealer, I shut it off, paused, then turned to him and said "Wtf was Kia thinking killing this car and when can I buy it?" I was literally sold just from that short stint. Barring anything coming up during inspection, this was a done deal right then and there. He said he'd prioritize it in the que for service and get the windshield fixed asap. Fast forward 2 days later and I received his phone call letting me know it was ready to go and passed inspection with flying colors (the carfax wasn't lying, it really was as clean as it suggested. No hidden previous repairs or paint work to be found). They gave me good money for the Jeep in trade (considering the market right now which is incredible) and after a few signatures, I had the keys to my new beast. My sales guy is actually looking to buy my Jeep from the dealer as a new off road toy for himself which is good news to know it's going into good hands.
So, what's next? Plans at this point aren't really coming together yet. I'm mostly focused on getting to grips with the laundry list of functions and controls still (this thing is about as loaded up and complex to use as my wife's GLC63 is which speaks volumes of the bang-for-the-buck proposition it is) but beyond that, it needs a set of winters to get through our upcoming snow season. Anyone familiar with Colorado will know we've already been hit with one pretty major storm this year, so being on the factory Pilot Sport 4 tires isn't exactly ideal even with AWD.
The TL;DR version for everyone that skipped ahead is "Hi, Car is epic, glad to be here", but to everyone that managed to digest my short story, thank you. I'm excited to learn more about this platform and have many more smiles per mile going forward in my new daily. Cheers.
My name is Rob, I'm a Crew Chief with the USAF, and I'm the proud new owner of this beauty:
Tigershark (as I've decided to name it) is a 2019 Stinger GT2 AWD in Ceramic Silver with, at the time of purchase, 9780 Miles on the clock.
I'll be honest, I never ONCE even considered this car or looked at it seriously for any reason. Here's the kind of long winded version of how I stumbled into happy ownership:
Coming from a heavily modified 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon diesel on 37's, daily driving that beast was starting to take it's toll on my comfort and sanity. With the aerodynamics of a brick, just about any drive was exhausting (don't get me started on treking out to Moab and back) and I truly just wasn't using it's true capability enough to justify keeping it around. I started in September of this year hunting for a wagon, SUV, hatchback that fit my needs better and was still fun to drive. I managed to narrow that list down pretty quickly to the Alfa Stelvio Quadrifoglio, Audi S5/RS5 Sportback, and Mercedes GLA45 AMG. Trying to find a decent Alfa was difficult to say the least and the horror stories I read in maintenance killed it pretty quickly. I did manage to find a nice GLA45 but it was just too small and the 4 cyl turbo was meh overall. That left the Audi Sportbacks and to be honest, my last Audi was a total trainwreck to deal with, so I wasn't super keen on exploring it without finding at least one more comparable in the mix. Enter the Stinger GT. At first I had completely forgot these existed until one randomly passed me on the road and I did the double take/neck break to figure out what it was. I immediately went home after finishing my errands and started doing my research. I knew Kia had poached ex ///M engineer Albert Biermann years ago but I didn't realize this was one of his first projects with them. This definitely got my attention knowing first hand what this mans track record with BMW had produced:
This is my other pride and joy 'Cherry', a 2004 Imola Red BMW M3 6MT with just under 50K miles. Needless to say, if the Stinger had old ///M boss Biermann behind it, consider me intrigued.
I've owned TONS of performance cars over the years (Trans Am, Charger Scatpack, Charger Hellcat (x2), Porsche 911, Multiple BMW's including a 6266 precision swapped 335Xi, D1SC Procharged Corvette C6, and R35 Nissan GTR) and driven many exotics on track in vegas, so I'd say I have a decent eye for good performing vehicles and this one looks to tick all of the boxes for what it's intent and use will be.
I found Tigershark locally and listed the day after I had started doing my research on the car...at a BMW dealership I am all too familiar with. What are the odds?
I went out the following day without contacting anyone at the dealer (I like to show up unannounced most of the time. Gives me more control over the situation and they don't already have me on their 'bug the crap out of this guy nonstop' list). When I first showed up, a sales guy approached me and I immediately recognized him, a gent I had previously worked with at a local Jeep dealership. He was a little caught off guard when I knew his name right off the bat, but then recognized my vehicle and remembered our previous interactions. I told him why I was there and he took me straight to the car.
It was such a fresh trade, they hadn't even got it into their 'Recon' phase yet to see what sort of maintenance it needed. Despite a cracked windshield and some dust under the hood, everything was in pristine shape (a '19 with so few miles and 2 previous owners definitely will make you question it's history). Although normally they want to give it a good once over before letting anyone drive a used vehicle, he said "We can take it around the block and see if you're interested in pursuing it any further; just don't tell my boss".
Relationships like this in the local automotive market are worth their weight in gold.After 3 short miles of driving and parking it back up at the dealer, I shut it off, paused, then turned to him and said "Wtf was Kia thinking killing this car and when can I buy it?" I was literally sold just from that short stint. Barring anything coming up during inspection, this was a done deal right then and there. He said he'd prioritize it in the que for service and get the windshield fixed asap. Fast forward 2 days later and I received his phone call letting me know it was ready to go and passed inspection with flying colors (the carfax wasn't lying, it really was as clean as it suggested. No hidden previous repairs or paint work to be found). They gave me good money for the Jeep in trade (considering the market right now which is incredible) and after a few signatures, I had the keys to my new beast. My sales guy is actually looking to buy my Jeep from the dealer as a new off road toy for himself which is good news to know it's going into good hands.
So, what's next? Plans at this point aren't really coming together yet. I'm mostly focused on getting to grips with the laundry list of functions and controls still (this thing is about as loaded up and complex to use as my wife's GLC63 is which speaks volumes of the bang-for-the-buck proposition it is) but beyond that, it needs a set of winters to get through our upcoming snow season. Anyone familiar with Colorado will know we've already been hit with one pretty major storm this year, so being on the factory Pilot Sport 4 tires isn't exactly ideal even with AWD.
The TL;DR version for everyone that skipped ahead is "Hi, Car is epic, glad to be here", but to everyone that managed to digest my short story, thank you. I'm excited to learn more about this platform and have many more smiles per mile going forward in my new daily. Cheers.
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I don't have any experience with the Stelvio but it IS a nice vehicle...
