KSIMP88
Newish Member
Greetings fellow Stinger fans! Here's a very long post.
tl;dr It's neat and I like it.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased #807 of the 2023 Kia Stinger Tribute Edition. Ascot green. I found it in Seattle and the previous owner seems to have taken very good care of it. The asking price was $44,000 in just about perfect condition with 5921 miles on it, and of course a clean title. I ended up paying a little bit more to obtain a bumper-to-bumper 105,921 miles and 10 year (from the day I bought it) warranty (RoadVantage Preferred Elite, $100 deductible). They will service the vehicle at my local dealership, should I need it.
I also took it straight to a detail shop in Salem, SCA Auto Detailing. They double-coated the front of the car in Revivify self-healing ceramic coating. It basically is something like a polymer mix that repairs surface marks, swirls, and similar non-paint damage in the sun. This includes headlights and all the trim. They also coated the rest of the car with Revivify, to include the wheels, all the glass, taillights, etc. Everything. They also removed the badges before coating it.
I'm considering getting the stinger logo in black for the rear, but the original badges will be put in my file cabinet. It would be nice to see a quality Tribute Edition logo for the front or rear. I am looking around at the center caps out there, I don't want to see the word Kia, ideally. Not that I'm ashamed, but this is the kind of car where it looks cooler without it. It would also be nice to see something to cover the new logo on the steering wheel.
I love this car, although it does have it's quirks. I am not a fan of how we can't have a standard cruise control setting. I really dislike the automatic braking that occurs on hills. As a result, I'm using SCC less and less. It's a major upgrade from the 2016 Kia Soul I've been driving. There's a whole story on when I bought that car on the Kia Soul Forums .
I was drawn to the stinger because of what I used to have and loved to drive. My first car was a 1992 Volvo 940 Turbo. I started driving with a Turbo, and I love how they accelerate. I also enjoyed all the bells and whistles it had, considering how old it was. When I found factory Alpine speakers from a junk yard, I was able to cut the fabric behind the rear headrests and install them to the hidden factory harness and mount point. That's when I found a new appreciation for quality audio. My next was a 2001 Volvo S60 T5, around 2009. It had much more power and features, but sadly it would loose traction too easily. That's when I learned about the Volvo S60R. I fell in love with that car, so I bought one as soon as I could, a 2004 with the manual 6-speed. AWD, 6 speed manual, Dolby surround, it was awesome. But, I got some tickets, so I ended up selling it. Fast forward a few years of maturity and a few other cars, I relapsed and bought a 2006 S60R Automatic. It was Very nice, and I added a touch-screen radio, backup camera, and boost gauge. I sold it a few years later, as it had over 160k miles and I wanted a truck. Now it's been several years and recently bought the Kia Soul and did all the work on it and wanted an actual car. So I started shopping. I was originally drawn to Kia because of the Soul, and my dad had bought a new Telluride because Chevy took over a year on his Tahoe order, without any updates. The Soul was decent, and then I learned about the new warranties, and looked at what Kia was offering. I was first eyeballing the K5 GT. But I needed to sell some things, pay off some debts. While I was doing this, I noticed the Stinger. It looked to be too expensive for my blood, and I thought as much as I wanted it, what with it being discontinued I should focus on the K5, so I placed an order. A couple months passed and in my spare time I would do car research. I learned more about the Genesis G70, and thought I could maybe wait and buy one of those. I then learned how compact they are, and decided against it. But that when I considered how it's the sister car to the Stinger. If I could find a Stinger with less than 20k miles, I decided I could stomach the only 60k warranty, knowing the aftermarket support would be there. So I kept my eyes open, casually. One day I was talking to my coworker and I did a quick search and showed him this car and how I'd consider driving to Seattle for it. I wasn't taking it seriously, as I wasn't quite ready, or so I thought. Over the course of two days I kept admiring the pictures, until I noticed the unique interior. The dealership didn't know anything about the car being special. I know it's not the most amazing thing, but this was underpriced, a lot. I learned about the Tribute Edition some more, and ran a proper KBB on it. It was priced at $44k, and KBB had it at $48k. I knew I was sold. Took the train up to Seattle, they drove me to the dealership in a crappy EV, and I made my purchase.
My other cars:
2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Crew Cab 6.6L Duramax
2015 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ 5.3L
2016 Kia Soul Base 1.6L (selling)
tl;dr It's neat and I like it.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased #807 of the 2023 Kia Stinger Tribute Edition. Ascot green. I found it in Seattle and the previous owner seems to have taken very good care of it. The asking price was $44,000 in just about perfect condition with 5921 miles on it, and of course a clean title. I ended up paying a little bit more to obtain a bumper-to-bumper 105,921 miles and 10 year (from the day I bought it) warranty (RoadVantage Preferred Elite, $100 deductible). They will service the vehicle at my local dealership, should I need it.
I also took it straight to a detail shop in Salem, SCA Auto Detailing. They double-coated the front of the car in Revivify self-healing ceramic coating. It basically is something like a polymer mix that repairs surface marks, swirls, and similar non-paint damage in the sun. This includes headlights and all the trim. They also coated the rest of the car with Revivify, to include the wheels, all the glass, taillights, etc. Everything. They also removed the badges before coating it.
I'm considering getting the stinger logo in black for the rear, but the original badges will be put in my file cabinet. It would be nice to see a quality Tribute Edition logo for the front or rear. I am looking around at the center caps out there, I don't want to see the word Kia, ideally. Not that I'm ashamed, but this is the kind of car where it looks cooler without it. It would also be nice to see something to cover the new logo on the steering wheel.
I love this car, although it does have it's quirks. I am not a fan of how we can't have a standard cruise control setting. I really dislike the automatic braking that occurs on hills. As a result, I'm using SCC less and less. It's a major upgrade from the 2016 Kia Soul I've been driving. There's a whole story on when I bought that car on the Kia Soul Forums .
I was drawn to the stinger because of what I used to have and loved to drive. My first car was a 1992 Volvo 940 Turbo. I started driving with a Turbo, and I love how they accelerate. I also enjoyed all the bells and whistles it had, considering how old it was. When I found factory Alpine speakers from a junk yard, I was able to cut the fabric behind the rear headrests and install them to the hidden factory harness and mount point. That's when I found a new appreciation for quality audio. My next was a 2001 Volvo S60 T5, around 2009. It had much more power and features, but sadly it would loose traction too easily. That's when I learned about the Volvo S60R. I fell in love with that car, so I bought one as soon as I could, a 2004 with the manual 6-speed. AWD, 6 speed manual, Dolby surround, it was awesome. But, I got some tickets, so I ended up selling it. Fast forward a few years of maturity and a few other cars, I relapsed and bought a 2006 S60R Automatic. It was Very nice, and I added a touch-screen radio, backup camera, and boost gauge. I sold it a few years later, as it had over 160k miles and I wanted a truck. Now it's been several years and recently bought the Kia Soul and did all the work on it and wanted an actual car. So I started shopping. I was originally drawn to Kia because of the Soul, and my dad had bought a new Telluride because Chevy took over a year on his Tahoe order, without any updates. The Soul was decent, and then I learned about the new warranties, and looked at what Kia was offering. I was first eyeballing the K5 GT. But I needed to sell some things, pay off some debts. While I was doing this, I noticed the Stinger. It looked to be too expensive for my blood, and I thought as much as I wanted it, what with it being discontinued I should focus on the K5, so I placed an order. A couple months passed and in my spare time I would do car research. I learned more about the Genesis G70, and thought I could maybe wait and buy one of those. I then learned how compact they are, and decided against it. But that when I considered how it's the sister car to the Stinger. If I could find a Stinger with less than 20k miles, I decided I could stomach the only 60k warranty, knowing the aftermarket support would be there. So I kept my eyes open, casually. One day I was talking to my coworker and I did a quick search and showed him this car and how I'd consider driving to Seattle for it. I wasn't taking it seriously, as I wasn't quite ready, or so I thought. Over the course of two days I kept admiring the pictures, until I noticed the unique interior. The dealership didn't know anything about the car being special. I know it's not the most amazing thing, but this was underpriced, a lot. I learned about the Tribute Edition some more, and ran a proper KBB on it. It was priced at $44k, and KBB had it at $48k. I knew I was sold. Took the train up to Seattle, they drove me to the dealership in a crappy EV, and I made my purchase.
My other cars:
2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Crew Cab 6.6L Duramax
2015 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ 5.3L
2016 Kia Soul Base 1.6L (selling)
Check out the 
