My thoughts on the horsepower war...

[Kia Stinger]

Ya know… I’m not a big fan of Chrysler. Or Dodge. Or Plymouth. Or whatever the “F” they’re called or who owns them these days. It seems they’re always owned by somebody new. As if nobody wants to own them for too long. I’ve only owned one – and there’s a reason – it was an unreliable car (brand new Chrysler 300C) and the service was utter F’n unbelievable GARBAGE. Worst service I’d ever experienced. Even worse than Honda. And that’s saying something because Honda service is what you deserve if you’ve lived a life of sin and gone to Hell for it.

All that being said, I have to say – I have a lot of respect for Dodge (I don’t know who owns them anymore because they keep changing owners and I don’t care enough to do the research. Fiat or something?!) for bringing us the Hellcat and Demon cars.

One of the things that’s “irked” me for a long time is the horsepower wars. Mercedes-Benz. BMW. Audi. Cadillac. Anyone else? Did I forget somebody? Jaguar? “F” Jaguar. They suck.

So, back to the horsepower wars… The top brands are always giving me, him, her – “us” – a little more. A tiny little more horsepower with every generation. Oh! Gee! Thank you! 25 more horsepower for the next six or seven years! Wow! Awesome! What am I going to do with ALL this extra horsepower?!

No. That’s B.S. Especially now that everything is either turbocharged or supercharged. It’s as easy as typing a few lines of code into a computer to boost performance significantly – making an actual difference. Oh! Wow! The new Cadillac CTS-V does 0-60 in 3.6 seconds! Wow! Wow! Wow-WEEEEEE! What am I going to do with all that POWA?!?!?!?!?!?! .3 seconds faster than the previous generation!

I hope it comes with special driving lessons! Read more...

 

[app_master]

Goooooood rant!

I think these "Wars" are all about sales and/or bragging rights. 99.9% people like to brag off specs alone, whether they own the car or not.

For those of us here looking at owning a stinger (any model of) really wont allow any bragging rights in regards to RAW HP. If that is your game looking elsewhere might be a better bet. I'm looking for great value, performance and driving pleasure. You can always have more HP, but you're right ... it needs to be usable. In the end maybe it's more about perspective?

Saying all that .... I'd still be keen to see someone do a modified 600+HP Stinger (but it won't be me).

 

[Clarence]

Yep. The way I see it, we are (hopefully) buying into a driving experience, something that makes you feel great every time you go for a blast. Stinger excites me because I reckon they've spend loads of time and effort to prioritise the "driving dynamics". That takes a lot of patience, track time, effort and smarts - Kia have the right people on the task. Here in Oz, where we have the odd "safety camera" 365 hp / 510NM is stacks of power / torque and I'd guess more that enough for me to enjoy the dynamics. Fingers crossed it lives up to our high expectations.

 

[app_master]

I actually plan to track day it, soon after purchase, just so I can "legally" wind it out, testing mine and the car's limits (within reason). If it becomes too addictive these local track days are not to expensive to arrange. This is much cheaper and safer than speeding and getting fined, be more fun too!

 

[Clarence]

Good idea. I'd be in that.

 

[mediocrepizza]

This is my issue with horsepower wars, and also the reason I'm opting to purchase the 2.0T Stinger over the 3.3T GT: I'm never actually going to realize the horsepower to its full potential or benefit from the extra cost of the vehicle. Does it REALLY matter to me if I can make 0-60 1 second faster? Hell no. 80% of the time I'm putting around the city, which you can essentially do in any modern car regardless of horsepower. However, in the few situations I'll actually get the chance to wind it out on back roads or highways, I'd like the option to have some decent power and cornering ability. I'm more interested in vehicle dynamics over how fast I can move my car in a straight line. Sure, the G-forces can be thrilling, but for me, it's not the true fun of driving a car. If I only cared about 0-60 times, I'd just go get myself a Challenger and call it a day. Hell, even V6 Toyota Camry's these days are pretty fast. Besides, weight reduction matters far more for speed than just bloating up the car with a bigger engine/turbo... See Miata, Ariel Atom, Alfa Romeo 4C etc.

 

[hereward]

This is my issue with horsepower wars, and also the reason I'm opting to purchase the 2.0T Stinger over the 3.3T GT: I'm never actually going to realize the horsepower to its full potential or benefit from the extra cost of the vehicle. Does it REALLY matter to me if I can make 0-60 1 second faster? Hell no. 80% of the time I'm putting around the city, which you can essentially do in any modern car regardless of horsepower. However, in the few situations I'll actually get the chance to wind it out on back roads or highways, I'd like the option to have some decent power and cornering ability. I'm more interested in vehicle dynamics over how fast I can move my car in a straight line. Sure, the G-forces can be thrilling, but for me, it's not the true fun of driving a car. If I only cared about 0-60 times, I'd just go get myself a Challenger and call it a day. Hell, even V6 Toyota Camry's these days are pretty fast. Besides, weight reduction matters far more for speed than just bloating up the car with a bigger engine/turbo... See Miata, Ariel Atom, Alfa Romeo 4C etc.

Good perspective, 'pizza. Hyper power would be superfluous under most daily driving conditions in North America. My opinion agrees with yours; better to get a full complement of safety and driver assistance features than a 6-cylinder power plant.

 

[Moparab]

Goooooood rant!

I think these "Wars" are all about sales and/or bragging rights. 99.9% people like to brag off specs alone, whether they own the car or not.

For those of us here looking at owning a stinger (any model of) really wont allow any bragging rights in regards to RAW HP. If that is your game looking elsewhere might be a better bet. I'm looking for great value, performance and driving pleasure. You can always have more HP, but you're right ... it needs to be usable. In the end maybe it's more about perspective?

Saying all that .... I'd still be keen to see someone do a modified 600+HP Stinger (but it won't be me).

Couldn’t have said it better. I fell in love with the Stiger in January not because it’s the fastest or greatest track car but because it checked off every box for the car I’ve always wanted which until the Stiger came around was a BMW. Knowing several BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Lexus owners the one thing that kept me from pulling the trigger on a premium vehicle was how many times their cars cost them a small fortune in maintenance or problems with their cars. There’s a reason so many premier brand car owners trade in their cars after a couple of years and it’s generally because they don’t want to incur any additional costs. One of the posts I read said we should wait and buy a used Stinger in a couple of years because they will have lost half of their value. All I can say is that the proud owners of the Stinger won’t be wanting to sell or trade them for a very long time which will actually increase the resale value of these cars. Sorry for the rant but it’s Saturday night and my football team won.

 

[CoconutRob]

Hp is something I always get caught up with. Does anybody need it or really use it on the street? Track day great I get it (but in the US where is everyone doing this). I owned a 405hp z06 the fastest car I ever drove plenty of power especially for the street (too much really). I love a fast safe 0 to 60 so I will be getting a 3.3 and its also nice when you want to get away from the cluster of lemings on the hwy slothing aroud at 55mph texting. I really believe that Kia built the perfect car for me.

 

[Taimaishoo]

or bragging rights. 99.9% people like to brag off specs alone

Agree with you %100 on this. And I'm guilty of it.

But that's like people in my area that get our 1Gb internet speeds; it's all about bragging rights. Ping times, lag, latency, etc, is no better at 1Gb than it is at 100-200Mb. For most small families or roommates, 3-4 people, 100-200Mbs is fine. If you have a family of 4 at 100Mb, that's pretty much 25Mb per person which is more than enough streaming bandwidth, even 4K streaming.

Let's say you have 100Mb to an apartment that 3 people in it. There's no problem with that bandwidth really, even with all 3 streaming at 4K. Now, let's say roommate C starts a torrent. That's where the problem lies. Now you have A and B streaming at about 20Mb combined and C now wants to torrent and is trying to take up as much as the bandwidth for that torrent, the other roommates will suffer. Not to mention one of them is streaming YouTube and Netflix, all the while posting on Facebook. Ugh. What if they were to spend an extra $100 on their wi-fi router and get one in which they can set Q0S (quality of service) on it. Simply create 3 bandwidth pools. Pool A, B and C and each pool is guaranteed 1/3 of the 100Mb, about 33.3Mb. Then assign specific devices to pool A, B or C, such as PC to A, PS4 to A and cell phone to A. XBox 1 to B and cell phone to B. Pool C has, PC, XBox, cell phone, tablet and IoT stuff. Now, let's say A logs on, they get 100% of the bandwidth but as the others get on with their devices, A's bandwidth will drop to 33.3 and B's will drop to 33.3. C isn't home yet so know A and B can fight over the remaining 33.3Mb since C isn't home to use it. Now C logs on and starts using it. Each pool is guaranteed 33.3%.

Nothing about the Stinger, I know, but it's one of my many pet peeves

 

[Jayce]

Agree with you %100 on this. And I'm guilty of it.

But that's like people in my area that get our 1Gb internet speeds; it's all about bragging rights. Ping times, lag, latency, etc, is no better at 1Gb than it is at 100-200Mb. For most small families or roommates, 3-4 people, 100-200Mbs is fine. If you have a family of 4 at 100Mb, that's pretty much 25Mb per person which is more than enough streaming bandwidth, even 4K streaming.

Let's say you have 100Mb to an apartment that 3 people in it. There's no problem with that bandwidth really, even with all 3 streaming at 4K. Now, let's say roommate C starts a torrent. That's where the problem lies. Now you have A and B streaming at about 20Mb combined and C now wants to torrent and is trying to take up as much as the bandwidth for that torrent, the other roommates will suffer. Not to mention one of them is streaming YouTube and Netflix, all the while posting on Facebook. Ugh. What if they were to spend an extra $100 on their wi-fi router and get one in which they can set Q0S (quality of service) on it. Simply create 3 bandwidth pools. Pool A, B and C and each pool is guaranteed 1/3 of the 100Mb, about 33.3Mb. Then assign specific devices to pool A, B or C, such as PC to A, PS4 to A and cell phone to A. XBox 1 to B and cell phone to B. Pool C has, PC, XBox, cell phone, tablet and IoT stuff. Now, let's say A logs on, they get 100% of the bandwidth but as the others get on with their devices, A's bandwidth will drop to 33.3 and B's will drop to 33.3. C isn't home yet so know A and B can fight over the remaining 33.3Mb since C isn't home to use it. Now C logs on and starts using it. Each pool is guaranteed 33.3%.

Nothing about the Stinger, I know, but it's one of my many pet peeves

I actually just got 1gbps and my ping improved lol. It was 40 to 50 before and now it is 2! Also cheaper than my crappy 150mbps connection I had before. Got the Netgear Orbi system for my Wi-Fi as well.

As for the Stinger, if the 2.0T had all the features available, I would likely go with it instead of the 3.3T. Unfortunately, if you want all the luxury, got to get the GT2 so that's what I'm going for. I'm sure I'll enjoy the extra HP too. That isn't the reason I'm getting it though.

 

[Kia Stinger]

As for the Stinger, if the 2.0T had all the features available, I would likely go with it instead of the 3.3T. Unfortunately, if you want all the luxury, got to get the GT2 so that's what I'm going for. I'm sure I'll enjoy the extra HP too. That isn't the reason I'm getting it though.

I'm not a fan of how that works. It's like with phones. If you want the phone with all the best features, you need to buy the "phablet". I don't want a phablet. I want a phone. So I ended up with the Google Pixel 2. Great phone. Smallish. Loaded with features. Camera just as good as the XL. I'm happy. I wish car companies would get this straight...

 

[Jayce]

I'm not a fan of how that works. It's like with phones. If you want the phone with all the best features, you need to buy the "phablet". I don't want a phablet. I want a phone. So I ended up with the Google Pixel 2. Great phone. Smallish. Loaded with features. Camera just as good as the XL. I'm happy. I wish car companies would get this straight...

You and I both. And yeah, Google is pretty much the only one who's doing the whole small phone and big phone are pretty equal in specs. I almost wonder if tech companies and car companies do this to make you buy the most expensive one, thereby increasing their profits. I feel like there's no reason they couldn't offer all the options on 2.0T and the 3.3T.

 

[Kia Stinger]

You and I both. And yeah, Google is pretty much the only one who's doing the whole small phone and big phone are pretty equal in specs. I almost wonder if tech companies and car companies do this to make you buy the most expensive one, thereby increasing their profits. I feel like there's no reason they couldn't offer all the options on 2.0T and the 3.3T.

Yeah, I bet that's the idea. Silly. I think more often than not people just don't buy when they can't get exactly what they want. Options are so important when it comes to automobiles...