Stung: Kia Kills the Stinger
It's a sad day for fans of mid-luxury sports sedans/four-door coupes. And fans of the Kia Stinger. Or for people like yours truly, fans of both.
The Kia Stinger is officially dead. And Kia is sending it out with a special Tribute Edition.
Only 1,000 units will be built worldwide. The Tribute Edition will be based on the GT trim with the 3.3-liter twin-turbocharged V6 and offer buyers the choice of an Ascot Green or Moonscape matte gray paint. It will have 19-inch gloss-black wheels, a black trim finish, and black-painted brake calipers.
Inside, it will have Terracotta brown leather for the seats, steering wheel, and some trim bits to go along with a carbon-effect trim finish and unique badging. There will also be a numbered door-sill plate.
This news is shocking though not surprising since there's not much of a market for entry/mid-luxury sports sedans/four-door coupes. It's too bad, since the Stinger was a joy to drive.
That said, Kia will happily sell you an EV6 GT for $61K.
[Images: Kia]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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This attempted to appeal to the more sensible end of the Dodge Charger crowd. And failed. They don't exist.
Kia Stinger (not the special edition) is on my short list of vehicles to consider purchasing used one of these days. Low sales volume means expensive parts means probably not, but it's on the list. (I know you are excited for me.)