Car Shopping

[farscott]

One pulled up next to me last night coming home and revved the engine at a stop light (I was in my 2018 Base Mustang GT). Since it was an odd highway stoplight (speed limit 70), I set the transmission to “Drag Strip” and decided to figure out who could reach the speed limit faster. Mercy rule took effect when I had 3 car lengths by the time I reached 70. He then proceeded to pull up next to me, rev his engine a bunch, and take off (probably doing 100). Kids these days...

I had a similar experience when driving my wife's 2017 GT Premium. Only difference is I kept the vehicle in "Normal" (I only use "Normal" and "Snow/Rain", never messing with "Sport" and "Track" as I keep steering in "Sport" mode) and I backed off the throttle and braked when I decided to turn off the US HWY. At that time, I had more than a dozen car lengths on him and a lot more top end. I may have exceeded the speed limit by a wee amount. It is a horrible daily driver but a lot of fun for the occasional drive. It is much better car now than the OEM Pirelli P Zeros have been replaced with Michelin Pilot Sports. On the rare occasions I commute with it, I remember why my daily driver is a large sedan.

[Crawls]

The Civic Type R looks good on paper, the Stinger looks good on paper and in real life.

Oddly both of these cars are on my shopping list. Relatively affordable; good performance, a legitimate back seat and lots of usable rear cargo space. The Stinger is very good looking in person. I think it's one of the best looking new cars on the road. In contrast, the Civic Type R is down right ridiculous looking. But in any performance metric other than straight line speed, the Civic destroys the Stinger which seems to completely loose its composure as it approaches its handling limits.

The 2018 Car & Driver Lightning Lap highlighted the differences. The Stinger couldn't safely make it around the track without a $700 brake pad swap from Kia. The Type R on the other hand, crushed the Stinger around the track and obliterated the previous front wheel drive track record by nine seconds.

Since I'm not likely to track this next car, I don't know if that performance level can negate the Civic's looks, but I seriously enjoyed my test drive in the Type R. I hope to check out a Stinger this week.

[Sigfan26]

Oddly both of these cars are on my shopping list. Relatively affordable; good performance, a legitimate back seat and lots of usable rear cargo space. The Stinger is very good looking in person. I think it's one of the best looking new cars on the road. In contrast, the Civic Type R is down right ridiculous looking. But in any performance metric other than straight line speed, the Civic destroys the Stinger which seems to completely loose its composure as it approaches its handling limits.

The 2018 Car & Driver Lightning Lap highlighted the differences. The Stinger couldn't safely make it around the track without a $700 brake pad swap from Kia. The Type R on the other hand, crushed the Stinger around the track and obliterated the previous front wheel drive track record by nine seconds.

Since I'm not likely to track this next car, I don't know if that performance level can negate the Civic's looks, but I seriously enjoyed my test drive in the Type R. I hope to check out a Stinger this week.

The Stinger has not performed well in C&D’s long term tests, iirc.


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[ragnar_d]

I was just talking about these with a millenial coworker today. Even he agreed that Honda should stop supplying their designers with meth. It looks bad in pictures and a lot worse on the road.

Specs are fine, but great googly moogly the designers must have been paid by the crease.

I think the best way I heard it put was (and I forget if it was Demuro or the Grand Tour blokes), "This car looks like they didn't know when to stop designing it."

[rob_s]

The Stinger has not performed well in C&D’s long term tests, iirc.


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Funny, I was just going to comment that I can’t see buying a $50k Kia.

To one degree or another, car buying is almost always about the look and appeal (see the Ford Raptor thread here for proof). I just don’t see any appeal in the Stinger. I like the theory, but at the end of the day the looks are bland (and not in a cool sleeper way) and I don’t think I’d ever get over the poor perception of the brand. Which is also evidently well earned.

[rob_s]

Looked at RS3 again. Wife told me to just buy it. Kinda scary. Started investigating ownership costs.... Front rotors... $1100. Will need a set of snow tires and wheels before winter as well. This thing is spendy, but the sound... It's just something else.

Seems these are he kinds of things people rarely take into account.

I kind of like premium models of standard brands because they tend to share a lot of the standard parts. So the new Explorer Sport has some appeal because event though it’s a $50k Explorer, it’s still sharing a lot of parts with the run of the mill SUV it’s based on. Same for the Charger, Durango, Grand Cherokee, etc.

With something like the RS3 you’re starting with a premium brand with inflated maintenance costs and then adding on top of that.

[BehindBlueI's]

Branding is a thing for a reason. KIA would do better if they'd spin a new brand out as a performance line and get away from the KIA "sensible budget-mobile" reputation. I wouldn't care if it was a hovercar that ran on mulched lawn clippings, I'm unlikely to have a favorable view of a KIA. I also can't really associate FWD with performance. My wife's '15 200S has 295hp and is a quick car for it's segment, but it's still a FWD car.

[Crawls]

Branding is a thing for a reason. KIA would do better if they'd spin a new brand out as a performance line and get away from the KIA "sensible budget-mobile" reputation. I wouldn't care if it was a hovercar that ran on mulched lawn clippings, I'm unlikely to have a favorable view of a KIA. I also can't really associate FWD with performance. My wife's '15 200S has 295hp and is a quick car for it's segment, but it's still a FWD car.

The Stinger is a RWD platform that is also available in AWD. It also shares engine, transmission and lots suspension and steering hardware with the new Genisis G70 that has been receiving tons of accolades and was MotorTrend car of the year. I think it would be a tough marketing exercise to spin off a luxury brand (a la Acura, Infinity, Lexus) when Kia already has the Budget Hyundai reputation weighing it down. It will be interesting to see if many of the quality issues the auto press is having with the Stinger turn out to be first year/new model problems or bigger issues. I think that the 10yr/100000mi warranty shows the Hyundai Kia engineers are confident in their product.

[LittleLebowski]

The Stinger has not performed well in C&D’s long term tests, iirc.

Mainly due to warped brake rotors that were replaced. I'm not making excuses, I'm just recounting from this article. I've a friend that has the same car and he has zero issues. Also note that all of Car and Driver's issues were fixed quickly and without issue under warranty.

I like the Civic on paper, but I don't think that its looks appeal to anyone over 22.

[GardoneVT]

The Stinger is a RWD platform that is also available in AWD. It also shares engine, transmission and lots suspension and steering hardware with the new Genisis G70 that has been receiving tons of accolades and was MotorTrend car of the year. I think it would be a tough marketing exercise to spin off a luxury brand (a la Acura, Infinity, Lexus) when Kia already has the Budget Hyundai reputation weighing it down. It will be interesting to see if many of the quality issues the auto press is having with the Stinger turn out to be first year/new model problems or bigger issues. I think that the 10yr/100000mi warranty shows the Hyundai Kia engineers are confident in their product.

The biggest hangup against Kia is the dealer experience. A 50K vehicle doesn’t belong on a Kia lot - even if the car is well sorted, that price comes with an expectation of premium dealer support Kia currently isn’t geared for. Even though German cars tend to break more, their dealerships treat you like royalty. Good luck getting that attention from your local “subprime” Kia shop.