2022 Kia Stinger GT: A legitimate BMW competitor, now more refined.
Arguably the most important *car* for Kia lands in the hangar in this combo TECH REVIEW, FIRST DRIVE REVIEW & round of our famous #OptionsGame. This time, the Kia Stinger GT has been revised for 2022 . . . yes, a tad bit more power but MotoMan learns when he gets this 2022 Kia Stinger GT RWD to his shoot road, the theme is a lot of subtle changes . . .
Today you and i are not going to kick things off with a witty monologue or a preamble rather before we get behind the wheel of the updated for 2022 kia stinger gt that means v6 an observation it took what 30 years for the bmw 3 series to become the bmw 3 series this on the other hand came out what two and a half years ago was on the market about two years in
Total and it is a legitimate competitor to the ultimate driving machine think about that as we drive this today as we kick things off today i should probably start with the headline and that would undoubtedly be a number of subtle changes so let’s look underneath the hood first they’re a 3.3 twin turbocharged v6 now you’re scratching your head thinking wait
A minute that’s the same engine as before didn’t we drive a 3.5 twin turbocharged v6 in that gv80 and the g80 genesis why isn’t it here well i don’t know why it’s not here my guess is they’re holding that engine or maybe a tuned version of that engine for an upgraded version of this or perhaps the next generation of this either way in this application with the
3.3 twin turbocharged v6 it’s 368 horsepower and 376 pound-feet of torque now that number it’s three horsepower more how do they arrive at that well they change the exhaust system they call it a variable exhaust we’ll talk more about really what it means in terms of on the road but here the biggest difference is three horsepower then there’s the whole reality
Of how you get that power to the wheels it’s still very much the same either all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive kumu of course wanted to drive the rear drive first so that’s what you and i are driving today now something unique about this type of engine that have become all the rage nowadays fuel economy is posted pretty good 18 25 20 combined it’s one mpg less
In each one of those figures with all-wheel drive but in reality it’s kind of like ford ecoboost is the minute you drop the hammer it performs like a v8 in fuel economy not a v6 that brings us to the performance figures which this car is more about and here’s the funny thing most people look at me when i talk about these and they don’t think of them as fast cars
In reality they are very quick 0-60 4.7 seconds v-max is interesting depending on the build of the car let’s say this was a gt-1 meaning regular wheels and tires 149 miles an hour but this is a gt2 with high performance tires 167 miles an hour it has been almost exactly one year since you and i have been behind the wheel of a stinger now while some things have
Changed one of them really hasn’t now be the weight 4023 pounds or depending on your expression weights and measures 1 824 kilograms now one huge hen vise there there are differing numbers i’m getting because this car is so early we’re the first ones driving it it has something like 600 miles on it we never get cars with that few miles on it so don’t sue me if
That number is a little bit off with that sport mode there’s no sport plus okay oh oh yeah this uh it’s good to be back in a stinger and it’s funny how good these things are wow this it’s fast you know you think whoa it’s got a soft s and forgot about that uh you think 368 horsepower 365 as it used to be it doesn’t sound like a lot in today’s day and age but this
This is kind of the standard bearer i have told you guys like the basic 3 series the way they deliver power almost kind of phones it in compared to this and that’s why this car has done incredibly well remember back when i first drove this thing as an 18 model year car i predicted it was the four cylinders that would sell not the six cylinder because who’s going
To buy a 50 000 kia wow was i wrong this is the one that sells and you can completely see why it’s a combination of the engine and the transmission now huge invites there about the transmission yes it is paired incredibly well with the way this engine delivers power however it’s not the kind of transmission that i want to control by manually shifting and it’s
Not a function of like don’t manually shift it there are times where it might hold a gear too long either up or down and i’ll say hey you know let’s make the change so net net what does it all mean well did you really think you’re gonna feel an extra three horsepower to be able to weighs over four thousand pounds if you did you would be mistaken but there is a
Difference here is what you hear and that’s the sound and it only kicks in when you push the engine really hard it’s not a personality change it’s a character change the note goes up a bit it’s a bit more raspy than bassy but enough about the business end from the front of the vehicle let’s focus on the business and underneath the vehicle and there it doesn’t
Feel significantly different the only thing now is you and i have more visibility into this platform because we’ve driven the g70 and the biggest difference between the two vehicles believe it or not is the wheelbase it’s not even the shape of the car this is three inches longer wheelbase than a g70 rather it feels like a more softly sprung gt sedan and there
Are two main contributing factors one the wheelbase we already discussed and two where the weight is in the vehicle not only is this vehicle longer it’s got the fastback which means it’s got more weight higher in the vehicle all in the ass end of the vehicle it feels almost softer but really what’s happening is there’s more pitch in the ass end of the car it’s
Deliberately softer in its hardware setup and they’re a bit of a recap mcpherson struts in the front multi-link in the rear five link to be exact 13.8 inch diameter rotors in the front 13.4 in the back and in this one which is a gt2 so it’s got all the options this one has the adjustable dampers there is a good balance between ride quality and composure in the
Cars that don’t have the adjustable dampers but i would argue one really needs the adjustable dampers in this vehicle i go so far as to saying that the folks at hyundai kia group should probably make a version of this that has a stiffer setup to overcome or really counteract that weight in the back and make this a bit closer to the g70 in terms of composure and
Really making it a bit sharper that’s what i’m looking for here you know what let me paint a bit of a different picture to shed some more light on the difference uh you and i have driven many audis before and we’ve driven a hell of a lot of porsches and one has the engine way back there the other has the engine way in the front drive dynamics couldn’t be more
Different between the two they’re not bad they’re just different that’s kind of the situation between this and the g70 yes it is indeed that time again to play your favorite game on the options game with today’s contestant arguably the most important car emphasis on the term car to kia to come along and say the past 10 years this one the 2022 kia stinger gt2 rear
Wheel drive for base price of 51 290 then the first stop would be that paint it is optional we do have to pay extra for it it’s called i believe high chroma red it’s more of a burgundy it looks stunning in the daylight the only thing that lets it down is the black interior can we change that either way it’s 495 for the exterior paint then there’s the question of
What does gt2 mean because there’s also a gt1 well a gt2 means it’s the fanciest one on offer so it has things like the head-up display nappa leather the harman kardon sound system the sunroof i believe is part of the gt1 the vented seats and then arguably the most important thing to a stinger the adaptive dampers that is part of the gt2 package then we press on
To the cargo mat believe it or not that’s optional on a 50 000 car 125 even more insulting floor mats granted they’re specific to the rear drive but they are optional and one must pay 155 in a 50 000 car for floor mats can we fix that but enough bitching and moaning the only other thing you and i would add would be the destination handling from sohari korea for
1045 which brings us to a total retail price of fifty three thousand one hundred and ten dollars so in keeping with the theme of subtle changes underneath the vehicle there are some outward focused subtle changes exterior wise they are very minimal in the front and the rear of the wheels although i’m not a huge fan of designing wheels on this one preferred
It in the previous generation but previous years interior there’s some more changes and kind of the stuff we asked for the thing that one noticed immediately which also happens to be subtle and that’s color and trim and tactile feel now this was a great interior to begin with the tactile feel left something to be desired specifically the dashboard and here
Someone clearly has been listening to previous episodes because now it’s changed a bit still could use a little bit of work here but this it kind of feels like something that’s in a 50 000 car now somewhat related to that one can’t help but miss the elephant room and that would be the screen if you remember it used to be kind of a narrow screen it looked like it
Was tacked on to the dash in the previous stinger this still looks tacked on however now it’s a widescreen 16×9 format which brings along the new corporate genesis hyundai kia ux which we’ve discussed in many genesis episodes with that let’s press on to my personal likes and not so much the likes are the color and trim specifically the tactile feel they’re not
So much i’m not a fan of the wheel design i’m not a fan of the design at least the stitching on the seats it was more timeless in the previous gen of the car although the doors look pretty cool and then overall can we have an interior that is not black especially with such a lovely exterior like this one please don’t please please don’t please please so net net
What have we learned today well first and foremost the hyundai kia group very wisely chose not to screw with a formula of success as such it is now just a more refined version of the car we learned to respect about two years ago which brings us to the wish list and here you kind of already know where i’m going absolutely positively needs a different setup for
The suspension not that it’s not good in terms of ride quality or around town but as part of that how about bringing over that 3.5 twin turbocharged v6 maybe tuned to something about 450 horsepower because if anything i learned over the past two years i thought people wouldn’t buy a kia for 50 grand everybody buys the 50 000 kia no one buys the 30 000 one that
Has only 250 horsepower now glad that may change with a 300 horsepower car which we will drive in a future episode but something tells me as many people that are buying tellurides and stingers that there may be some blue sky for maybe a 60 000 stinger that has 450 500 horsepower with a different suspension setup anyway turn this around to you guys to a point in
The comments below or via social media moto man tv onward moto man tv onward facebook twitter and instagram and with that one more item i might add to the wish list or perhaps really consider this an open letter to the folks at kia over in korea um this was a show car and it became a real car which sells very well there was another show car that was two doors
More of a sports car how about bringing that one to life because really as i see it there’s only two competitors they could use a third anyway just saying till i see you guys in the next episode
Transcribed from video
2022 Kia Stinger GT: A legitimate BMW competitor, now more refined. By MotoManTV
