The all-new Kia Stinger is a gran turismo with rear wheel drive.
This is the new Kia Stinger which is an impressive offering and the firm’s first rear-wheel drive and gran turismo in the UK.
Even better, the starting price for excellent levels of performance is £31,995. The most expensive model will be £40,495.
Potential owners will have the choice of five versions with a choice of three engines and three trims.
Kia says its new car will help bring about memories of grand tourers of yesteryear.
Engines for the Kia Stinger
The engines for the Kia Stinger include a 3.3 litre twin turbocharged V6 producing 365 bhp which will help propel the car from 0 to 62 mph in 4.7 seconds and on to a 160 mph top speed.
However, all three engines are turbocharged are coupled to an eight-speed automatic gearbox.
There’s a choice of a 2.0 litre four-cylinder unit producing 244 bhp or a 2.2 litre turbodiesel unit producing 197 bhp with economy 51 mpg; this level of economy should give the car a range of over 600 miles.
The new model also sees rear-wheel drive and five different throttle and shift programmes including full manual control when using the steering wheel mounted panels.
Plenty of equipment on board the Kia Stinger
There’s also plenty of equipment on board the Kia Stinger including an 8-inch touchscreen satnav and regular traffic updates wherever the driver is in Europe. There’s even a speed camera warning alert.
As with all new cars, there’s a lot of connectivity to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto using a smartphone. There’s also Bluetooth voice recognition along with music streaming, a reversing camera as well as front and rear parking sensors. Another standard feature is a head-up display that will show the driver the speed and satnav instructions and is a first for Kia in this country.
Get this car on personal contract hire
The two top trims, the GT-Line S and the GT-S also have a 360° around view monitor.
To help deal with the speed of the Kia Stinger, the car also has a variety of standard safety features including autonomous emergency braking, driver attention warning, lane keeping assist and speed limit information. There’s also blackspot detection and rear cross traffic alert.
There’s no doubt that the new Kia Stinger will create interest in a market dominated by the BMW 330i and the Audi A4, so while they have higher specs the better equipped Stinger offers better value than its Mercedes and Audi rivals.