living with the stinger for a year, overview

[Weareblondi]

hey all, this is just our (the mrs and my) overview of being stinger owners for the past year. purchased a sunset yellow stinger gt. love at first sight. great power, greater potential. nice materials. people can't seem to get enough of the car. too many times explaining the car, features, etc. this forum and all the great members. learning the ins and outs of the car, both by ourselves and learning from our fellow members. meeting fellow forum members. lots of fun doing cars and coffee with them. hanging with them as they visit the restaurant. just a great time all around. then, the traces of problems from other members. rattles from the tailgate, uvo being a p.i.t.a., wandering music among speakers, are there subwoofers or aren't there, weird ass tires (pilots), all the grandmother safety gadgets, sketchy aftermarket items, and hints of paint issues. watching other sunset yellow owners describe the paint chipping, forum members talking about how they are getting rid of their cars, etc. then, our first paint chip. then several more, biting the bullet to have the repaint done. 86 days to have the car repainted. deciding, while waiting, if we are going to keep the car or not. looking over replacements. getting weekly updates. visiting the dealership/bodyshop to see the work done. hokey loaner car. then another loaner car. finding out that you can drift a suburban if you try hard enough. then, the day came that they had finished painting the car. and it was love all over again. even if the front and rear ends are slightly darker (from certain angles) than the rest of the car.
problems that we have experienced:
paint
the wandering centering of music, which has been fixed since the update.
driver side mirror just decided to give up the ghost this morning. can't adjust and stays open. dealership ordered a pair of mirrors. weird clicking sound, so just a heads up to everyone.
and that is pretty much it.

items that annoy me from day one:
hard contact point that hits the side of my right knee
still think that kia should have covered the dash in a different type of soft plastic covering. there isn't anything wrong with the dash, just my own personal pet peeve.
also, where the screen is mounted, if they had covered the exposed area with either a piano black applique or some aluminum trim, just to help in cleaning.

items that I love:
power
price to horsepower
the fact that you won't see yourself coming down the street.
how happy other stinger owners are when you meet while driving
the car itself.


I have been talking with a couple of forum members and have become friendly with them. hung out, etc. and we all agree with several points that I am sure we all have figured out. with our 10 year/100000 mile warranty (from the factory) we are ahead of the curve when it comes to comparisons to other brands. Porsche, bmw, Mercedes, ford, etc etc all have warranties that range from a couple of years to 5 years. we are sitting pretty in that respect.

I had a spirited conversation with a Maserati and an alfa owner about our cars. they both eat at my restaurant, and enjoy pointing out what their cars have that mine doesn't, which is nothing. heated and cooled seats, subwoofer, power, beauty of car, blah blah blah. but, I pointed out to them, I spent 1/4 of what they did. after 5 years, my resale value will be better than theirs. their depreciation is a hell of a lot more than ours. as an everyday driver, the stinger can't be beat. the alfa has already been deemed a lemon, as usual. as for the Maserati, I can only cringe what their scheduled maintenance costs are, let alone what replacement parts run. as for us, with just a tuner, new plugs, and a cai, we are looking at around 50-65 horsepower bump and over 120 foot lbs of torque. add an upgraded intercooler and an exhaust, that will add another 15-20 horse. and we can still drive it around town with no noticeable degradation of power. and yes, I have the racechip black. add some upgraded springs and upgraded swaybars and you are still waaaay cheaper than those cars. will they still beat us? yes. but, if I wanted a race car, I would have bought a race car. we have all seen the tuners that are getting monster levels of power, huge turbos, etc. but this is a daily driver. it's a gt. great looking car when the mrs and I go out for dinner.

so, sorry for the long winded post, but I just wanted to tell our story about being a stinger owner. for a first year, newly designed car, I have no issues with the teething problems. hey, just the fact that kia paid for the repaint, and I saw the invoice on it and it was north of 10 grand!!!! who else does that? can I live with a wonky stereo system, a creaky rear hatch, a mirror that decided to burn itself out? yes. have I been lucky that I haven't had any warped rotors? yes I have, but, the fact that kia will replace them under warranty, that doesn't bother me.

thanks for making it this far. be well everybody

 

[MerlintheMad]

That wasn't a long write up for describing a whole year's experiences. I had no trouble at all staying with it. That's because I was nodding at everything you said.

The clicking mirror: I had one, but it was undoubtedly caused by ice; only occurred a couple of times (there are so many little electric motors all over these things that if one doesn't go out in a year I will be very happy, like I'm getting a bonus).

My experience so far at over ten months is almost identical to yours, but with even fewer first year model issues. So far nothing has failed or gone wonky in or on my car. Just this morning, I parked in the city park with the sunlight slanting in hard from the forward left quarter, and I noticed for the first time that my hood sits every so slightly high on the right. You'd never see it but for the slightly thicker shadow from that sun angle. It made me smile: an imperfection, I finally saw what some would consider to be a significant one. Doesn't bother me: I didn't even see it for ten plus months!

When my first year write up comes at the end of March, I'll probably just post it it here, if I don't have anything further to say about "issues" met and resolved.

 

[Ozstung]

That wasn't a long write up for describing a whole year's experiences. I had no trouble at all staying with it. That's because I was nodding at everything you said.

The clicking mirror: I had one, but it was undoubtedly caused by ice; only occurred a couple of times (there are so many little electric motors all over these things that if one doesn't go out in a year I will be very happy, like I'm getting a bonus).

My experience so far at over ten months is almost identical to yours, but with even fewer first year model issues. So far nothing has failed or gone wonky in or on my car. Just this morning, I parked in the city park with the sunlight slanting in hard from the forward left quarter, and I noticed for the first time that my hood sits every so slightly high on the right. You'd never see it but for the slightly thicker shadow from that sun angle. It made me smile: an imperfection, I finally saw what some would consider to be a significant one. Doesn't bother me: I didn't even see it for ten plus months!

When my first year write up comes at the end of March, I'll probably just post it it here, if I don't have anything further to say about "issues" met and resolved.

Merlin don't you dare do a yearly summation on your Stinger experience. You would crash the forum

 

[MerlintheMad]

Merlin don't you dare do a yearly summation on your Stinger experience. You would crash the forum

Not so far. Other than complete satisfaction I haven't anything to write about. Lucky me!