Personally, I think it's a very interesting and nice car; but between the dealership experiences and KIA's handling of the distribution here in the US I am starting to fall OUT of love with the Stinger. I'm starting to think this is a car to watch and not buy while KIA figures things out.
Well, it’s been confirmed that I’ll be waiting. I took the wife to a couple of dealers the other day in hopes of seeing some other colors in person. We saw a couple of micro blues, a red, and a ceramic silver. We also saw all three types of interior leather colors.
We mentioned to the dealer that if the Deep Chroma Blue version didn’t exist at all, she would be satisfied with the Micro Blue. The dealer agreed that it was strange that the Chroma Blue color would be shown and not offered. He did call on the spot to inquire about any possibility of getting it. I wasn’t expecting anything though and wasn’t surprised at the result. However, he said he was meeting with the regional manager the following Monday and would ask about it. I thanked him for that as I figure any sort of chatter about it filtering up might increase the chance of it being offered sooner.
Then we went back to the dealer where we saw the Korean spec Deep Chroma Blue. They still had the Deep Chroma Blue right next to the Micro Blue. The Deep Chroma Blue appeared a bit dusty. Still, my wife was not deterred one bit. Having the two side by side only confirmed for her that Deep Chroma Blue was the one, period.
On its own, the Micro Blue is a fine color. It looks younger and sportier to me. However, the Deep Chroma Blue is more luxurious and it may be the only color they have that changes depending on the light. It looks at times Blue, at times Purple, and at times almost Black depending on the light and the angle of view.
We were able to compare some details between the US & Korean spec too since they were right next to each other. My wife lamented the missing features. We tested our phones in the Qi area and found that they actually do fit Ok so we could use that feature. My wife noted the buttons on the passenger
seat of the Korean spec to move
seat forward/back. She added that as another feature she would actually use. She also very much preferred to have the cup cover holder cover. So essentially she would be happy driving off in the DCB Korean spec car.
Based on Canada and Mexico, I think there’s a reasonable chance that most of the missing features may appear in the US soon. The cup holder cover seems to be offered in Mexico, but not Canada? I don’t know about the buttons on the side of the passenger
seat though. It doesn’t appear that feature is offered on the Canadian or Mexican version either. I don’t know where it is offered. Maybe just Korea?