New GTS at Ourisman KIA NOVA

[MerlintheMad]

My GT2 does indeed, switch back to auto mode at stops. This really shouldn’t be that way, though I’m sure the vast majority doesn’t mind.

A more eloquent solution (especially at GT2 prices) would be to have the system act as it currently does, going back to D at stops IF you entered manual mode via using the paddle shifters.

But, there should have also been a manual shift gate position on the GT2 that allows you to select manual mode and it stay there. The transmission would downshift to first at a stop but remain in manual mode until you move the shifter back to the regular D position. This is the way the industry does it in general and it works great.

Granted, I agree there are owners who won’t care one way or the other. They really couldn’t care less.
I look forward to replacing my current GT2 with a second generation Stinger when they come out after a complete redesign. But the fact is, this car is really not selling in record breaking numbers. Sales are quite low (comparatively). That is a recipe for the Stinger to get cancelled, eliminating the chance for 2nd/3rd/or4th generation Stingers. The point I’m making here, is that I have vested interest in the Stinger being done right, because I want the models to continue to be produced, and sold. I’ve been on forums for every car I’ve ever owned (mostly Honda’s and BMW’s) and one thing about Stinger forums I’ve noticed is that there is a large segment of members who feel that if the car is acceptable to them, then it’s perfect. Many here truly get aggravated seeing posts about Stinger complaints, issues, problems, and flaws. That stance really doesn’t help further the brand. I care about the complaints, issues, and experiences of others, even if they don’t personally effect me or my particular car... because in the end, it will effect me. If Kia doesn’t fix some of these issues, sales will suffer further, then when I pull up to the dealership for my next generation Stinger, there won’t be one to by because low sales killed the model.

One thing is for sure, other brands owners don’t seem so lenient and/or accepting of their vehicles faults. Over on the BMW forums, we crucified BMW for some of the most trivial oversights (and some not so trivial). Same on the Honda forums... The forums are such a useful tool to the manufacturers, often times, mid year updates were made to the cars (especially at BMW) to correct said issues and complaints. Honda tends to sneak their corrections in at the start of the next model year, many times in an undocumented manner. Still, complaints, led to updates and bettered products.

When the Stinger debuted, Kia made it a point to target BMW and Porsche in their promotions. BMW and Porsche owners are notoriously picky, demanding, and aware of their vehicle. Stinger owners seem more willing to turn blind eyes to the Stingers inadequacies. The Stinger recently won a JD Power Award for best Initial Quality.
That, with the amount of Stingers delivered with overinflated tires, wonky audio system, rattling hatches, misadjusted headlights, subpar paint finish and miscellaneous squeaks and rattles. But I digress, But Kia needs real feedback if this car is going to make it and succeed in the long run.

But before I go, I’ll say it again. It would really be best if the Stinger had a dedicated manual shift gate on the GT2. Hell, it’s the only Stinger that doesn’t have one. I for one, move up in trim packages to GAIN features, not lose them. The current system is ok for some, but the discerning owners of those Porsche and BMW models Kia compared the Stinger to will surely take offense to this oversight.

Imho, you can't legitimately compare a first or second year car to models with years/decades of history. There were no online discussion forums for BMW et al. the Stinger's rival models when they got introduced. The reason why this matters is because of the way the Stinger came about: from concept to show car to production car, enthusiasts were online watching, waiting and then buying: with full knowledge of the risks of buying a first year model. And lo, and behold! hardly any complaints. Amazing! On this the largest forum the complaints are by a comparative few. It isn't that we have blinded ourselves to any faults in the Stinger: it's that the resulting experience of ownership is so trouble free and FUN that we can hardly believe this is happening.

Kia does read the criticisms. But it's almost as if you think those should outweigh the positive experiences expressed. "Misery loves company" means that most satisfaction goes "unreported". Good news rarely gets reported. But bad news travels around the globe in mere minutes. Why is that? Humans have itchy ears and bad news sells. The "bad news" on this forum is contrastingly in the minority. That says a lot about the Stinger and Kia as a success story.

People are too busy, enjoying their driving and the primping of their lovely machines, to even bother joining a forum in the first place (unless so inclined); or chiming in with their happiness. Those with complaints are more inclined to join in and echo others already experiencing less than total satisfaction. That the Stinger Forum predominantly shows satisfaction with the car is a telling evidence of its already successful design and execution.

 

[Ty Davis]

I didn't say you couldn't answer his question, it's just pointless to argue with me over how I answered his question because we're answering it with completely different qualifiers. At no point did I even argue your point, hell I agree with it, this "discussion" is absolutely pointless.



I feel like you're being nice, it's part of the reason I didn't get a GT2. I love to use manual mode and I do a lot of city driving, having to shift back into manual at every single stop was maddening in the test drive.

Imho, you can't legitimately compare a first or second year car to models with years/decades of history. There were no online discussion forums for BMW et al. the Stinger's rival models when they got introduced. The reason why this matters is because of the way the Stinger came about: from concept to show car to production car, enthusiasts were online watching, waiting and then buying: with full knowledge of the risks of buying a first year model. And lo, and behold! hardly any complaints. Amazing! On this the largest forum the complaints are by a comparative few. It isn't that we have blinded ourselves to any faults in the Stinger: it's that the resulting experience of ownership is so trouble free and FUN that we can hardly believe this is happening.

Kia does read the criticisms. But it's almost as if you think those should outweigh the positive experiences expressed. "Misery loves company" means that most satisfaction goes "unreported". Good news rarely gets reported. But bad news travels around the globe in mere minutes. Why is that? Humans have itchy ears and bad news sells. The "bad news" on this forum is contrastingly in the minority. That says a lot about the Stinger and Kia as a success story.

People are too busy, enjoying their driving and the primping of their lovely machines, to even bother joining a forum in the first place (unless so inclined); or chiming in with their happiness. Those with complaints are more inclined to join in and echo others already experiencing less than total satisfaction. That the Stinger Forum predominantly shows satisfaction with the car is a telling evidence of its already successful design and execution.

I can appreciate that 1st model year vehicles will have faults that will be ironed out over time. The Stinger has been around for 3 model years (worldwide). 2017, 18, and 19. 2020’s are being delivered now.

Positive experiences are not to be ignored. They count too.
However many of the Stingers issues are not teething problems. They are bad design choices.
I agree that bad news is in the minority on the forum. That is a good thing.
But what is important, and telling, is that the complaints revolve around a few specific issues. Brake vibration, hatch rattles, suspension calibration, paint, initial headlight aim, and sunroof rattles are The areas of the Stinger that generates the complaints. Look how long the threads/posts regarding those things are. They are significant issues. They need to be addressed. 1st car off the assembly line, or the billionth car off the line, they shouldn’t be recurring themes of a model.


You never/rarely see negative posts about engine failures, exterior styling, turbo failure, etc. Because they aren’t a problem to a significant amount of people. Stingers excel in these areas. You won’t see many, or any, posts on these topics. There’s no need because there’s no issue.

But those issues that keep resurfacing time after time, suspension/rattles/headlights/brakes/paint point out where Kia needs improvement. It would be unwise to ignore these.

I do understand that it can be hard to identify with an issue that is not present on your particular car. But the trend of likely issues can show you what you need to look out for or be aware of.

I do think you severely underestimate how many people are experiencing some of these issues. We don’t have Kia data on the outlay of general and specific problems. However, we can clearly see that all of the problems mentioned in the press and by owners are concentrated in a relatively few amount of areas on the car.

The Stinger is not a vehicle with widespread issues. The Stinger is a good car that has a few specific problem areas, when there are problems.

I’d like to see Kia address these areas. They did a good job responding to the hatch issues. They quickly released a fix. Good JOB!
That being said, they need to look at it again because the fix didn’t completely fix the issue for every one. Still they made an attempt to better the product based on customer feedback. They need to keep that up.

 

[RUFFSTUFF]

Hijacking to ask a question, since we've been discussing the shifter back and forth in here.

How do you guys with the GT2 shift OUT of manual mode? In the GT, I can slide the shifter to the left and then back to the right to get it back in auto, not sure how you would do it without the gear changes on the shifter.
.

You can just tap the shifter at any time to go back to AUTO.

 

[RUFFSTUFF]

GT2 is the annoying model that reverts it back to automatic at every stop.... if you haven't noticed it, you haven't ever really used your manual mode.

If you haven't noticed what the discussion is, you aren't really part of the forum.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Look how long the threads/posts regarding those things are. They are significant issues. They need to be addressed. 1st car off the assembly line, or the billionth car off the line, they shouldn’t be recurring themes of a model.

I don't believe that these issues are continuous recurrences. They are intermittent and in most cases rare. Paint issues are the least common; fewer than 3% of cars are affected. And brakes are even less common than paint issues. Taken as a total of all areas of noises, extraneous noises are the most common complaint. But the long threads are not long because more complainers join; that only accounts for a few additional posts; by far the most numerous posts are discussion with interested parties often repeating things; and reporting back sometimes months later.

But those issues that keep resurfacing time after time, suspension/rattles/headlights/brakes/paint point out where Kia needs improvement. It would be unwise to ignore these.

I do understand that it can be hard to identify with an issue that is not present on your particular car. But the trend of likely issues can show you what you need to look out for or be aware of.

I can't disagree for the most part. But the incidence is very important to take note of because it represents how common an issue is. There isn't a "trend" with any of these. The most elusive is the extraneous noises issue (all the others are easily rectifiable, which I know is a non sequitur when talking about asserted "trends"). Kia will improve the incidence. But the important thing is to look at where the car already is. I don't think these issues are blatant design choices that were wrong: they are individual vehicles manifesting imperfections. If the design choices were poor, the incidence would be well over fifty percent or even virtually all vehicles. None of these issues affect even close to half of the Stingers on the road. We'd be flooded with complaints here if that were true.

I do think you severely underestimate how many people are experiencing some of these issues.

I only go by the forum and percentages of responding members. This began with paint "chipping". Some few posters asserted wildly excessive numbers of Stingers with "paint failures", even as much as "all Stingers". Ridiculous hyperbole. If you consider human nature: most of us don't notice others' problems unless we share them. The main paint quality thread is enormously long and well over a year old (and has a poll). How many of our members have even bothered to cast a vote of "negative I do not have failed paint"? Silence says the same thing. Anyone noticing paint issues will pipe up sooner or later. The paucity of participation on the poll says a lot by the silence: c. 4% have bothered to cast a vote in the poll yay or nay. Everybody else either doesn't care or hasn't even noticed. The same is true of the other issues afflicting some Stingers. Low incidence.

I’d like to see Kia address these areas. They did a good job responding to the hatch issues. They quickly released a fix. Good JOB!
That being said, they need to look at it again because the fix didn’t completely fix the issue for every one. Still they made an attempt to better the product based on customer feedback. They need to keep that up.

And I think they are. That's the kind of company Kia is. They can be a lot better at customer service; very spotty; they need to work on that more than the issues afflicting random vehicles; but really they need to do both. Some of us have had nothing but good results getting Kia Corp. to interface with us and resolve issues. Others seem to be talking in a vacuum or seeing their communications vanish without trace into cyberspace. Very frustrating! That is actually Kia's biggest challenge that could undo all the good designing and production that they come up with.

 

[1macuzer]

The "market adjustment" doesn't shock me from Ourisman. I wouldn't touch that dealership with a 10 ft pole. They tanked a deal after I'd travelled a couple hours and worked with them for about 2 weeks. Tried to low ball my trade by $7k. I hope no one bites and is stupid enough to buy that car for even a nickel over invoice. I love the premise of the GTS, just wish it came in more than one color.

 

[Callum]

lol, hold up.

$995 for window tint?

 

[BlueByYouGT]

I removed The GS, GS-F, and IS from my shopping list specifically because of the infotainment system.

I had we a IS250 F-sport and never warmed up to the horrible infotainment. Everything about it was wrong. That car was gone in less than 6 months.

 

[Ty Davis]

I had we a IS250 F-sport and never warmed up to the horrible infotainment. Everything about it was wrong. That car was gone in less than 6 months.

It’s a shame how the little things can ruin an otherwise great car.
How’d you like the IS besides the infotainment?