My new Kia...

[Shahpor]

Rare and unusual was something that I was looking for as I missed that aspect of owning a Lexus.

Yep, fuel consumption is what it is and I am happy to put up with it.  Interesting enough, a leisurely cruise to Newbury and back along the A339 today yielded 33mpg!

I am also impressed by the fact that it is equally happy just poodling around as it is being pushed.  I was doing 60-65mph on the motorway yesterday and it was as perfectly content as it was when I was doing, ahem, 70+mph earlier in the day.

Might have another issue though, so perhaps another chance the evaluate the service department at the dealer might be coming up.

[serbarry]

Congratulations for the car Shahpor!!! Is it automatic or manual gearbox?

[Shahpor]

Thanks Sergio.

They only come with a 8 speed torque converter auto box.  Not that I would have chosen the manual version if there had been one available!

Unfortunately, another update from today is that it has to go back next Wednesday to have its drivers seat removed and inspected.  I noticed the other day and one side bolster was pressing into my side more than the other, which made me sit crooked.  As they are air bladders, there is a possibility that something has gone wrong with the motors or the calibration.

So, on the face of it, it is certainly not built like a Lexus!  However, from speaking to other owners, I might have been a bit unlucky with mine.

The positive is that the dealership in Reading have been brilliant.  I turned up unannounced this afternoon and their master tech and sales manager spent over an hour with me trying to see what the problem was.  The tech was then more than happy to remove and inspect the seat to see if he could find the fault and the sales manager again offered to loan me one of his cars to speed things up.

Fingers crossed these are just teething issues.

Other than that, over 850 miles now and loosening up nicely 🙂

[Winston]

I am enjoying your thread , keep up the postings.

I have always liked the Stinger whenever I have seen it on the road.

and as the Korean brands have come such a long way it is interesting to see how you get ion with the stinger as it is not their normal type of car.

[Shahpor]

Will do Winston 👍

The initial 'newness' is wearing off and it is become a normal driving experience now.

So what I have found is that during my normal commute, it is a nice place to be 🙂  It is generally comfortable - hopefully more so once I get the seat fixed - quiet and well behaved.  The downsides are minor:  Damn lane keep assist can't be permanently turned off, so I have to hold the button every time I turn it on, and the ride is a bit firmer than my old GS450h used to be.  It isn't overly harsh, and it is variable so it is on the soft setting as standard, but it doesn't have the wafting ability my Lexus did.  Different kind of car really, but I do miss the comfortable smoothness.

Also, I am up to 20mpg on my commute, so a definite improvement there! 🙂

[Bill Dawes]

Just noticed your Kia posting, I have a Niro, my third Kia,  Sportage twice before Niro, awaitng delivery of a Lexus UX.

Kia is an excellent brand, just felt like a change and a more premium level, if I had the opportunity to have another Niro with a level of spec the same as my UX Takumi I might have been tempted.

Bill D.

[Shahpor]

Hi Bill,

I think there is no doubt that Kia isn't quite up to Lexus' level in terms of quality!

Whilst waiting for some work to be done last year, I had a loan Niro-E for a few days.  Perfectly nice place to be but not my cup of tea.

Like I have said before, if Lexus did an equivalent model to my Stinger at a similar price point, I would probably have stuck to the brand.  In fact, it wouldn't even need to have as much in the performance department as mine, so if they have brought the new IS to the UK, that would have been tempting.

Oh well, perhaps next time.

Having said that though, apart from some build quality issues, my Kia is doing very well and I do stare at it when I am walking away 🙂

[Shahpor]

Hi all,

Latest update from my seat saga is that it needs a new one!  To be fair, once the dealership confirmed that something wasn't right, apparently Kia said to just replace it and don't mess about changing parts.

So the good news is that I will get the problem sorted but the bad news is that the part has to come from Korea, so will probably take a few months to arrive.  Not a big problem since the current seat is perfectly fine to sit on for now but it does beg the question of what if the car wouldn't work without it?  Hopefully the supply chain isn't that bad for most parts as I can see why a seat wouldn't be something they kept around.  In fact, the same thing happened on my IS when that needed a new seat as it took quite a while for the part to come from Japan.

As per usual though, the dealership have been amazing and certainly rivalling Lexus in the customer service department!  Constant calls with updates, even if it was just to say that they haven't heard anything yet but will let me know when they do at the end of the day.  Also, to potentially speed things up, they are getting a new Stinger demo car sometime in July, so the sales manager offered to swap over my seat with that one and they would change their seat when the new one arrives.

Lastly, whilst I was there picking my car up from its seat inspection, my wife called to say she had been in a car accident.  Thankfully nothing too serious but as I was there I showed the sales manager some pictures to see what he thought.  He then offered for her to bring her car to the dealership and the techs could try and stick the bumper on to make it driveable (even thought it is a Mazda 3!) and even loan her a car if it wasn't.  This is the kind of service that makes me want to stick with a brand, and even though my car has had a few issues, I don't mind nearly as much as I would have otherwise.  So if anyone wants a Kia, I know a good place 🙂

As for the car itself, it is now up to 1100 miles and going along nicely.  Got 21mpg on the commute the other day, which is a record!  So far, over those 1100 miles, I am still at 25mpg average but I think that will improve slightly now that the car is loosening up and I am taking it easier.

Wow, bit of a long one today, so thanks for read if you made it this far 🙂

[Shahpor]

@Initial P if you are heading over this way any time, let me know and you can happily have a look and ask as many questions as you like 🙂

As for the gearbox, it is not double clutch; rather a traditional torque converter auto, albeit 8 speed.  Shifts fairly quickly in manual mode, so I can't really complain.

[ALAW]

On 6/16/2022 at 11:18 PM, Bill Dawes said:

Just noticed your Kia posting, I have a Niro, my third Kia,  Sportage twice before Niro, awaitng delivery of a Lexus UX.

Kia is an excellent brand, just felt like a change and a more premium level, if I had the opportunity to have another Niro with a level of spec the same as my UX Takumi I might have been tempted.

Bill D.

my mate is considering a kia sportage looked at one he said very nice car.

[First_Lexus]

On 10/28/2022 at 12:24 AM, ALAW said:

my mate is considering a kia sportage looked at one he said very nice car.

I was a passenger for a test drive in the new Sportage. Perfectly pleasant, lots of tech but iffy build quality for the price and not at all practical compared with the competition if you need to carry passengers - it just isn’t wide enough across the back seats for three grandchildren aged under twelve!

The biggest issue though was the price. It can’t be sensible for a £40k KIA Sportage to cost more than a £50k Volvo XC60 (which felt as though it was from several leagues above) but that was the case once discounts, trade in prices and PCP interest rates were considered. Unsurprisingly my Sister has her new XC60 on order…

[Initial P]

On 10/26/2022 at 10:27 PM, Shahpor said:

@Initial P if you are heading over this way any time, let me know and you can happily have a look and ask as many questions as you like 🙂

As for the gearbox, it is not double clutch; rather a traditional torque converter auto, albeit 8 speed.  Shifts fairly quickly in manual mode, so I can't really complain.

I will prob just wait until the next meet glad to see its single clutch for long term reliability! maybe I will settle with the 2.0 version in the future as like I'm not ready for a SUV & maybe never will be 😆 but would take a ES over one any day.

[Dippo]

If this thread has generated interest in the Stinger, I'm afraid it's too late!

https://www.am-online.com/news/manufacturer/2022/11/11/kia-bids-farewell-to-stinger-as-ev6-gt-becomes-brand-s-flagship

[wharfhouse]

1 hour ago, Dippo said:

If this thread has generated interest in the Stinger, I'm afraid it's too late!

https://www.am-online.com/news/manufacturer/2022/11/11/kia-bids-farewell-to-stinger-as-ev6-gt-becomes-brand-s-flagship

Another car that's still on sale elsewhere just not in the UK - we now seem to be offered only ever more expensive SUVs - soon to be even heavier weight BEVs... That's of course if you can even get anything new within 12 months any more.

[Shahpor]

Indeed, it is so.

According to the sales manager at my local dealer, there are currently 4 being produced at the factory that are available and that's it.

It is a shame that the car isn't being offered in the UK anymore, but I suppose it is understandable.  Having said that, it would have been nice if it's 'replacement' wasn't a SUV, like Phil says.  The EV6 is a great car, but in very few ways is it related to the Stinger, so it is not exactly a like-for-like for any potential owners.

Nice to know that Pistonheads considers me a legend 🙂

[First_Lexus]

15 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Having said that, it would have been nice if it's 'replacement' wasn't a SUV, like Phil says.

I remember having a similar discussion with Honda when I came to replace my Accord in 2015. At the time they’d decided not to import the new Accord, and have never replaced it in the UK. 

That said, all manufacturers need to sell cars in order to continue existing, and SUVs are what (many of) the people want to buy. Ford have just announced the end of both the Fiesta and Focus, and the EV replacements will be SUV in style.