Kia Stinger 2020 review: GT long term

I live with recently that's bound to be a rare situation these days, but it's, probably you as I know, there's a very good chance. You found this video by searching for it and instead of a van or SUV, you might be looking for a twin turbo. V6. 0 to 100 performance in less than 5 seconds a rear drive chassis with genuine performance, cred and Brembo brakes all wrapped within a low slung body. That'S dripping with sexy design details the KS stinger GT in this new neon orange color for 2020 also scores plenty of family brownie points, with five seats and five doors, with one of the latter being a huge lift back that promises wagon like practicality. So this is the story of my family living with the stinger for three months and eight thousand kilometers, which is easily the least likely family car we've had to date, following on from the Tiguan escape six five CRV Golf R wagon Santa Fe, six, nine and carnival We'Ve had over the past three years and as always, if you're looking for more detail, you can read my full review on the cars guide site and, if you're, watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit like and subscribe to stay on top of all our latest Videos, but right now, let's head to the back it's hard, not to mention the dear departed Falcon and Aussie Commodores been discussing a stinger but here's something the legendary sedans couldn't.

Do this massive hatch leaves a much bigger hole than any boot lid and yes, she could get the Ford and hold in a wagon, but they never quite looked this good. This bigger hole means it's, much easier to load, big items and I was within 10 millimetres of being able to fit a washing machine back there. The outright volume isn't in the same league as a falcon or commodore though, but it did the job for my two toddler family and we carry around plenty of stuff under the boot floor – is a space saver spare which isn't as useful as a full sized unit. But much better peace of mind than the inflation kit. A lot of new cars have gone to so the boot does the job. For me and it's, fair to say the back seat. You might find the roofline a bit low for loading and unloading. Your kids particularly compared to an SUV or van, but thankfully mine are now old enough to climb in themselves. So I only need to reach in here to sort out their belts. There'S. Also two ISOFIX points back here, so they can fit the seats as tightly as possible, but you'll be pushing it to pit three across here and you'd also be pushing it to fit three adults across the back. Unlike a falcon or Commodore, one little hack, I'll recommend is that I removed all the headrests back here, because my kids didn't need them, which frees up a lot more rearward visibility through that shallow rear window.

My kids also appreciated the directional air vents in the back of the center console and there's also independent temperature control. So you can have that hot back here, while it's cool in the front and vice versa and it's easy enough for mum and dad to toggle from the front seats up the front is where the stinger feels a lot more special than most family cars. He said much lower than you, wouldn't have felt on a Commodore and it actually feels more like a luxury coupe, a with that long bonnet stretching out ahead of you. I know a lot of people would prefer the higher driving position of an SUV or van, but horses for courses. The GT gets soft, perforated napa leather on the seats and everything else feels like excellent quality. With really nice ergonomics. I can't actually think of any important features it doesn't have. But if you can, let us know in the comments it doesn't sacrifice: everyday practicality, either with all the important bottle and cupholders power points and there's also a wireless phone charger in the dash Music. Most important of all, though, is the stinger takes all the important safety boxes for my family, so it's pretty amazing that it handles all these serious jobs plus look the way it does, and on top of all that it's a genuinely good Drive. The headline act is that engine which is smoother and easily punch your downloa than any Aussie v8 that wasn't supercharged I've found that to get the best out of it, though, you need to flick the drive mode selector across to smart every time.

You start it up because annoyingly it defaults to comfort. This is a bit of an oversight in my opinion, and it should be really easy fix. With a few software changes. Smart mode essentially tailors the driving mode to the driving editions, which means generally, that the engine and transmission and suspension are far more responsive than when it's locked into comfort mode. With the drive mode thing sorted, the Stinger GT delivers a true grand tourer Drive experience in that it's, more than comfortable enough to travel, hundreds of kilometers with a full boot and all the passengers on board. But then more than ready to carve corners and deliver some serious performance whenever the opportunity presents itself. Unlike a lot of low slung performance cars, the Stingers bumpers have heaps of clearance for clearing steep driveways and speed bumps, but you'd want to keep an eye on that 306 degree. Camera system to avoid scratching those good looking 19 inch alloys. There are a few little things we didn't like so much, which included the occasional fluttering noise coming from the passenger side B pillar on the highway, and also that shallow rear window could also really do with a windscreen wiper to help you see through it. It'S. Also, a bit cheap that those two bonnet vents don't actually do anything. You think that with two hot turbos under the bonnet you'd actually need working vents to keep under bond temperatures down, but yeah I'm also sure that any fan of ossie v8s will hate the Stingers.

Like of exhaust note, it just sounds like a regular car and a pretty quiet one at that. You can actually get an optional bimodal exhaust from care, but in my opinion, it actually makes more noise without actually making an appealing sound. But in the grand scheme of things these are all pretty trivial and as an overall package, the stinger GT is far better polish than any Commodore or Falcon yep deal with it, and it comes with key. Is seven year warranty with road side and cap pro servicing, which is still arguably the best ownership package in the business after eight thousand kilometers of everyday driving, we've averaged ten point: five, four liters per hundred kilometers, which is oh so close to the ten point. Two liter official combined figure and unlike most performance cars, we're gon na think of it'll, do it on regular unleaded petrol. We actually got the consumption figure down to eight point: zero, seven liters per hundred kilometers on one highway run down to Canberra and that's with the car fully laden in the middle of summer, the car weighing more than 1800 kilos and that's on regular fuel to get The equivalent experience out of a German product you'd be spending about twice as much so, if you're after something with a lot of panache and performance, that'll stand up to daily duties for a family of four here's.