Waiting (im)patiently for the Meister

[GPhenom]

I have recently decided that my next car will be a Kia Stinger. I've seen them around and always thought they looked great. The only drawback was the stereo unit. Too much bezel, not enough screen for my tastes. Once I saw the Meister version in South Korea, I was sold. Visited a Kia dealer today just to put eyeballs on one up close and it's definitely the car for me. Now I'm just counting down until the days the 2022 version makes it to the States so I can throw my money at it. Until then, I'll just live vicariously through all the current Stinger owners and hopefully pick up some good tips and insight along the way.

 

[Jayphil]

I am waiting with you. I was about to sign for a Stinger in March just before the Covid but I backed to be on the safe side. Now I am confident enough with my situation to buy one but since I saw the refresh I want to wait for it, anyway I am working home so better for me the keep my current paid off car.

See this post I made in another thread:

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Guys, I have watched a review of the facelift GT 3.3 on YouTube, the only one available right now (all others are 2.5T) but in Korean. I have used the subtitle translation feature to English to listen, not perfect but was able to get a few highlights. Will be interesting to see if other reviewers will get the same impressions.

The visible changes are low (which we all know so far) but the invisible changes seem to be bigger:

• It is faster vs the pre facelift. The new Stinger is now very close to the ongoing G70 (only slightly slower) see below their comparison

• 0-200 KM/H G70 AWD - 17s
• 0-200 KM/H Stinger Meister AWD about 18s
• 0-200 KM/H Stinger GT AWD - 20s
• 0-240 KM/H G70 AWD - 27s (Stinger Meister very close but not stated exactly)
• 0-240 KM/H Stinger 2wd - 36s

• Throttle and transmission is better tuned / more responsive. Kick down is faster.
• Suspension tuning is greatly improved (comfort and performance / stability while cornering / High speed stability improved)
• Exhaust sound is improved, not loud but audible / welcome improvement
• Launch control not much changed, set at 2200 rpm

I also saw that he was running in city / highway with rear camera on the main screen to improve rear visibility.

12:26 Comfort bimodal exhaust sound
12:39 Sports bimodal exhaust sound
14:53 17:47 21:01 Hansang Corner
15:58 G90 5.0 G70 3.3 Acceleration comparison
19:13 0-100 km/h

 

[GPhenom]

Great observations. Presuming the colors stay the same (even though they probably won't), what color(s) are you eying?

 

[RedCal]

Welcome to the hive

 

[Jayphil]

The color selection is very limited to my tastes since I do not like too flashy colors (blue /red / orange) because they are cops magnet nor too dark (black) or the dark grey is slightly too dark because they are difficult to maintain and only good looking when very clean. I am not into white cars either. So I like ceramic grey but afraid the trend will fade, would like silver but not available in Canada. The dark bue is also not available in Canada... I heard Europe will be getting Ascot green but not picture of that yet.
Undecided as you see!

 

[GPhenom]

I love the ceramic grey. That is by far my top choice. I could probably be convinced to settle for a white or red if the ceramic grey proved too hard to come by.

 

[Jayphil]

Most likely Ceramic grey / red combo would be my top pic as well or Silver / Red if it come available in Canada. My current car is Silver though so might be a bigger change if I go with Ceramic grey.

What car this would replace for you? Me it would be to replace my 2011 BMW 535I awd slighly model (JB4, quad exhaust with M5 rear diffuser, Eibach spring and sway bars, K&N intake, ER Dowpipe, 20" wheels).

Aslo still keeping, 2017+ BMW 540I, Audi A6 55FSI 2019+, C43 2019+, BMW M340I as potential alternatives.

 

[GPhenom]

Mine will be replacing a 2018 Honda CR-V. I got that because I needed something with more space, as the wife drives an Elantra. But she's planning to move to an SUV soon. So once that happens, I'm going to drop back down to something a bit more fun to drive. Plus the sport back means the Stinger can still carry a decent load.

 

[Jayphil]

Great upgrade! I have two kids and I am using the BMW as family car, the trunk is big and with a cargo box on the roof I have plenty of space for long trip or go skiing. Planning to do the same thing with the Stinger, granted SUV are great for family but having a boring car when I need SUV space not even 1% of the time does not make sense for me!

If for a specific trip the Stinger with roof box still not have enough space ( which I doubt), in that even I will rent a Dodge caravan for a week or two!

 

[GPhenom]

That 535I looks like its in great shape, especially considering it's been used as a family car! Are the maintenance costs as bad as people say? My old boss stayed loyal to BMWs. Seemed like he had a loaner every other month due to service needs.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Welcome to the forum. Colors will probably be the same in 2022 as 2021; with the addition of whatever "Limited" color Kia brings out for the 2021 "GTS". Last year it was a Limited Federation Orange. This year is was a Limited Indigo (Dark Chroma Blue). Who knows what "GTS" color Kia will come up with for 2021? Maybe they'll give the Limited a rest for a year; or maybe I haven't been keeping up and this is all common knowledge. Heh. Anyway, all Stinger colors are good looking, in my humble opinion, and I would take any of them. What is inconceivable to me is, waiting at all.

 

[Jayphil]

That 535I looks like its in great shape, especially considering it's been used as a family car! Are the maintenance costs as bad as people say? My old boss stayed loyal to BMWs. Seemed like he had a loaner every other month due to service needs.

Yea I take care of my cars and the family knows it so they are careful too. Maintenance is not too bad if you go with a reliable model, generally turbo I6 from BMW are strong. I did mostly regular maintenance stuff at my BMW specialist and he is good and cheap at around 80-90$cad per hours. This year I had a small problem that took too much time to investigate so only this year have been very expensive (3000$) other years probably less than 1000$ in average.

 

[GPhenom]

Welcome to the forum. Colors will probably be the same in 2022 as 2021; with the addition of whatever "Limited" color Kia brings out for the 2021 "GTS". Last year it was a Limited Federation Orange. This year is was a Limited Indigo (Dark Chroma Blue). Who knows what "GTS" color Kia will come up with for 2021? Maybe they'll give the Limited a rest for a year; or maybe I haven't been keeping up and this is all common knowledge. Heh. Anyway, all Stinger colors are good looking, in my humble opinion, and I would take any of them. What is inconceivable to me is, waiting at all.

If there was a way to get the 10.25" screen into one of the current models, I'd probably go that direction and save a few bucks. But I'm a bit of a techie and while it's still an awesome car, those bezels on the current touchscreen unit would make me want to punch it. So I wait. lol

 

[Kia Stinger]

I have recently decided that my next car will be a Kia Stinger. I've seen them around and always thought they looked great. The only drawback was the stereo unit. Too much bezel, not enough screen for my tastes. Once I saw the Meister version in South Korea, I was sold. Visited a Kia dealer today just to put eyeballs on one up close and it's definitely the car for me. Now I'm just counting down until the days the 2022 version makes it to the States so I can throw my money at it. Until then, I'll just live vicariously through all the current Stinger owners and hopefully pick up some good tips and insight along the way.

Welcome aboard! And thank you for signing up. I'm glad you found us! What will the Stinger be replacing for you?

 

[GPhenom]

It will eventually replace a 2018 Honda CR-V. And I'll be looking forward to the change.

 

[GPhenom]

It's been nearly a year since I joined the forums and now I'm finally an official member of the Stinger club. Just sold my leased 2018 Honda CR-V back to the dealer and completed paperwork on a 2022 Ceramic Silver GT2 with red interior.

I have to drive across the state to pick it up so I won't have it until next weekend (unless I pay to have it delivered earlier).

Now I can do less lurking and more posting. Loved these forums, even as a non-owner. Can't wait to get the Stinger in hand.

Edit: typo

 

[GPhenom]

 

[MerlintheMad]

Picture's worth those thousand words.