westcoastGT
5000 Posts Club!
As an automotive writer who's blessed (or cursed) with strong opinions on cars, my vote for the North American Car of the Year award is usually a slam dunk. Not this year. The 2018 Kia Stinger and equally-new Honda Accord have had me straddling the fence and engaging in Socratic arguments with myself. But decision time is at hand, so here goes: The Kia Stinger is my 2018 North American Car of the Year. And my esteemed fellow jurors, if they’re not idiots, should agree with me.
There’s a third finalist for the prestigious award, which reliably finds automakers scrambling to get their contenders in the hands of 57 voting jurors, all auto journalists in the U.S. and Canada: The 2018 Toyota Camry. That Camry is markedly improved, but nowhere near as good as the redesigned Accord, its perennial nemesis for the hearts and dollars of family-sedan buyers. To be blunt, the Camry doesn’t have a prayer of winning the award, which also honors a Truck of the Year and—since 2017—a Utility Vehicle OTY.
That leaves the Stinger in a comfortably-familiar awards position, the same one it occupies in the marketplace: The dark horse, the Rocky Balboa, the car no one expected from Kia. Actually, that last bit is only partly true. Together, Kia and its South Korean sister brand Hyundai have grown to sell more than 1.4 million cars a year in America. Millions of consumers now rightly view Hyundai and Kia as legitimate cars and brands, no disclaimers required. Yet despite Hyundai’s toehold in the luxury market through its Genesis division, the Kia Stinger—with no separate luxury brand to elevate its image—remains a stretch for a Kia brand built on smart-shopper value. Priced from $33,000 to nearly $53,000, the Stinger is still a relative value...but that's relative to luxury cars with more socially-approved badges, including the Audi A7 and A5/S5 Sportback, the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, and sedans like the Mercedes C-Class and Lexus GS. Read a lot more and watch videos...
There’s a third finalist for the prestigious award, which reliably finds automakers scrambling to get their contenders in the hands of 57 voting jurors, all auto journalists in the U.S. and Canada: The 2018 Toyota Camry. That Camry is markedly improved, but nowhere near as good as the redesigned Accord, its perennial nemesis for the hearts and dollars of family-sedan buyers. To be blunt, the Camry doesn’t have a prayer of winning the award, which also honors a Truck of the Year and—since 2017—a Utility Vehicle OTY.
That leaves the Stinger in a comfortably-familiar awards position, the same one it occupies in the marketplace: The dark horse, the Rocky Balboa, the car no one expected from Kia. Actually, that last bit is only partly true. Together, Kia and its South Korean sister brand Hyundai have grown to sell more than 1.4 million cars a year in America. Millions of consumers now rightly view Hyundai and Kia as legitimate cars and brands, no disclaimers required. Yet despite Hyundai’s toehold in the luxury market through its Genesis division, the Kia Stinger—with no separate luxury brand to elevate its image—remains a stretch for a Kia brand built on smart-shopper value. Priced from $33,000 to nearly $53,000, the Stinger is still a relative value...but that's relative to luxury cars with more socially-approved badges, including the Audi A7 and A5/S5 Sportback, the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, and sedans like the Mercedes C-Class and Lexus GS. Read a lot more and watch videos...
