To bring this back to the original topic of the thread--kind of, as I'll digress--what did I do to my Stinger today? Nothing. Other than metaphorically beat my head against the hatch repeatedly.
I have spent my morning cursing a Kia rep under my breath. I got a message (from the underling the mgr. passed me on to) to come in and test drive the display model at one dealer, at any time starting today. I called back, only to find out that the red GT2 I'm willing to buy will stay in the showroom once it arrives, until they receive one or more additional GT2s--in other words, no test drive in it (not even on Tuesday, as I'd been promised earlier), no taking it home until they have more, and no timeline on when that will be. I asked about the test car, and he said it was a 4-cylinder, and I pointed out that won't exactly answer my big questions about the way the GT2 handles. (Since this retiree has never driven anything over 275 HP, I'm worried maybe it will be TOO powerful for me. That's unlikely, but hey, I need to be sure.) I soon determined that the test car is the one they've had on display for several weeks--a Korean spec. I told him I was dubious that this car was even street legal, and he got somewhat befuddled. I added that even if I could drive it, it's not like the U.S. spec cars. More befuddled.
I asked if white was coming in the next batch, and he didn't know, but only three GTs were coming to SoCal in this shipment; they are all red; and he didn't even think they had manufactured any white ones yet. I let this pass, and asked whether there was an alternate cash back offer to the 0% financing. He backed down on Wednesday's conversation and (I quote inaccurately) "um er, well, since it's a new model I can't really say if they'll do the 0%, or if there's a cash back, um, er." I told him I'd call later if I decided to do the test drive, but since it's the power and the torque I want to test, why bother? He also is supposed to let me know how long the wait will be for white.
I immediately called another, smaller dealer and was told indeed, the Korean specs cannot be taken out on the street (which we all knew anyway), and beyond that, she doesn't know when their GT2 will be in or what colors are available, but she will call me immediately when she finds out. Not helpful, but I tend to believe she's at least honest in her ignorance.
If I believe them, it appears that mostly 4-cylinders are coming in. I'm beginning to believe that, as proposed on another thread, they don't really want to sell these, at least not the GT2s, but just use them to draw folks in to gawk and then buy other models.