In Detroit this past week at the North American International Auto Show, one company that’s not known for performance cars i.e. performance sedan had Australian journalists excited. OK hang on to your hats this may bowl you over, it was Kia Motors! Kia have pulled their best trump card to date for the Australian automotive market with the Kia Stinger GT. So, Holden you’re on notice! Australian’s love sports sedans and on first impressions the Stinger GT will be eating into the Commodore’s market share.
The Stinger GT is a sports sedan that will have a 3.3L twin-turbo V6 putting out 365hp or for us Aussies that’s 272 kW. It also has an 8-speed automatic gear box with Brembo brakes front and rear. But it was this little fact that got my attention, it will be rear wheel drive! Wow, I couldn’t believe it when I heard that one little fact about this sport sedan. By the sounds of it Kia Motors are hoping to draw sport sedan enthusiasts away from the next generation Holden Commodore. Any Australian car nut would know that the next-gen Commodore will only come with front wheel drive and all-wheel drive.
We are lucky because in left hand drive markets the Stinger GT will be all-wheel drive, so giddy up Aussie customers we got to click on the delete button for that option. The figures from Kia are pointing towards a 0-100 time of 5.1 seconds which should be doable with independent suspension and a trusty LSD diff.
The design and styling of the Stinger GT looks impressive, and yes I can report it looks European! Which is what most car companies that aren’t European love to say when a new model is revealed these days. But let’s put my sarcasm aside about looking European, it’s going to sell and I bet in great numbers once the locally made Holden Commodore ceases production at the end of this year.
Kia hired well back in 2014 when they got Albert Biermann to be the head of Kia’s vehicle test and high-performance development. Albert formerly worked for BMW’s M division, plus coupling his experience with the development of the Stinger GT at the Nurburgring you know Kia are serious. But we can thank Peter Schreyer for designing the fastback styling that a lot of sedans have going for them. The fastback design style in my opinion is hard to pull off but the Stinger for some reason has nailed it and it just looks great.
So, you’re asking Pete how much will this car cost? Good question! $52k going off some early reports which is roughly around the current price of the Commodore SS. Plus that price was also close to the recently discontinued Ford Falcon XR6 and XR8. This car I predict will even become the main car used by most Police highway patrol departments throughout Australia. Currently there hasn’t been an alternative but the Stinger GT on paper looks like a great replacement for the Falcon and Commodore.
I guess with hindsight maybe Ford and GM Holden took the Australian market and its regular customer base for granted when it came to 4 door sedans. What took decades for these two companies to carve out was their own niche within the Australian automotive landscape, now looks like it may have been lost. They thought their customers and fleet buys of old would just stick with them after the turmoil of closing down local manufacturing. Then GM Holden along Ford decided to not to go with a rear wheel drive sedan (i.e 2018 Commodore) or have no real alternative to the sports sedan segment for its customer base.
But as the saying goes time will tell, but if I was to make a bet I think Ford and GM Holden have just seen the writing on the wall. Maybe in years to come we may see the Stinger GT everywhere.
All images © 2017 Kia Motors Global Media Centre.