Shahpor

HI @Craig2795 Just wondering how things are going and if the old GS is still with you and going well? Thanks.

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 🙂

Nice looking car there you have Simon 👍 Strangely, no matter what car I get, I do still miss my IS. I am afraid it is indeed the case that the full post code cannot be entered on the Nav. That was corrected in the facelift I believe but your only option for an upgrade at this point is an aftermarket Android head unit. If you want to find out why the VSC light keeps coming on, your best bet is to pick up a copy of TechStream on Ebay along with the required cable. If that is too involving, then something like Carista would also work: https://caristaapp.com/ You can then take it back to the dealer knowing what the problem is.

@rich1068 already knows it 🙂

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 🙂

Fantastic colour combo! Wow, that is a nice red. I am jealous! 🙂

If I am welcome being a non-Lexus owning heathen, I would like to also attend 🙂

Can I come in my Non-Lexus? 😁

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! 🙂

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 🙂

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.

Not too bad so far. Longish journey today and had two people stare and 1 thumbs up 🙂 Have posted a few updates here: Only 800 miles in, so too soon to say really. Surprisingly, it is not as superior to the GS than I thought it would be. However, I don't want to hijack Ben's thread, so perhaps we should continue this discussion on the my Kia thread should you wish to do so. Sorry Ben 🙂

It is indeed a small world as I saw you on the road last week David 🙂 The car gleamed in the sunshine, so you were somewhat hard to miss!

Yes, but don't have a Lexus anymore 😄

Well, my first update is regarding the service department and the issue with my non-functional USB port. Thankfully, I can say that it was overall a positive experience. I went to the dealership on Monday for them to have a look at it whilst I waited. About an hour later I was told that the USB port was indeed dead and wouldn't recognise any inputs and I would have to bring it back for them to investigate further as it will require dismantlement of the lower part of the dash. Initially I was told the earliest I could have it done was the 20th if I wanted a loan car as that was the first date they had a service car available. Since I did need a car, especially as they wanted mine for 2 days, I was about the resign myself to not having a USB port for a while, however, the aforementioned sales manager then stepped in and said I could borrow one of his demo cars. It was then booked for Thursday morning for a Friday afternoon pickup. However, after dropping it off on Thursday morning, I then got a call on Thursday afternoon saying it was ready and they had fixed the fault. So I collected it and now have working USB music and Android Auto. Can't really fault the service department as they did well in this instance. The not so good part is that the fault turned out to be that the connecting cable wasn't plugged in properly at the factory. Make of that what you will, but it doesn't speak well of their quality control. in other news, the car now has over 600 miles on it and has managed roughly 25mpg doing it. My daily commute is averaging 17mpg, so pretty much in line with what I was expecting. I did take out some work colleagues today and my 'demo run' worked out at 9mpg 🙂

Good idea @Herbie I might just do that. Thanks.

Given Linas and your contributions to this forum, I know which one of you I would ignore...

When I picked up my new car, the dealer offered me a dashcam. It is a NextBase 322GW. Unfortunately, it appears to be faulty and needs to be returned. However, another annoyance, which I am not sure if is intended is that every time my Stop-Start system activates it resets the camera. The solution is obviously to hardwire it, but when I enquired about it I was told that Kia UK doesn't allow dealers to do it since it might invalidate the car's warranty if something goes wrong in the future. Anyone else had any experience of this I wonder?

Thanks Paul. Despite my new car, I would never say buying a Lexus is a bad idea, so hopefully you are enjoying your IS300h enough 🙂 You are echoing my thoughts as to the current model line up as I am also not a fan of SVU's, so there wasn't really a comparable choice for me to stay with Lexus, so here we are. I see that the new RX has a 2.4 4 Cylinder turbo engine option now with roughly 370hp. Put that into a rear or 4 wheel drive ES and I might consider that next. Having said that, apart from the fuel consumption, I can't see any reason why I won't enjoy owning my Stinger, and I will certainly be keeping you guys informed on my progress.

Nothing wrong with Skoda - I would consider a Superb myself if I was in the market. You will miss your GS thought when it is gone though! 🙂 Up to 400 miles now and still going strong. Needs to go back as the USB port doesn't work properly, which is slightly annoying. Hopefully their service department is as good as their sales team.

Welcome Simon, What you are describing is classic turbo lag and I'm afraid it can't be improved without considerable expense (and even then it might not get much better). When I had mine I just got used to it and it wasn't much of an issue after that. Any minute now there will be a rush of people coming on here telling you you should have bought a IS250 instead 🙂

Excellent news Lee 👍 Thanks for the update and glad it is all sorted.

@RichGS11 Thanks. If Lexus offered something similar, I would have stuck with them as well I suspect. @Barry14UK Indeed. I was speak to my brother the other day who has acquired a new Hyundai i20N and we were commenting on the fact that neither us would have expected to end up in a Korean car 5 years ago. I do really think that Hyundai/Kia have upped their game, perhaps not quite up to the German level, but getting very close. Looking around yesterday, I couldn't believe how many Kia's I saw on the road. How times have changed..🙂 @ganzoom Well, there was 2 reason for not considering the EV6: First, it costs substantially more, and second, when I ordered my Stinger they were just being released so not much info was available. Either way, I am not quite ready for the full EV route yet, so perhaps next time. @Rabbers Yep, I am a member of the UK Stingers Facebook group and quite a few people on there replace the badging. Mine has the newer style, but it never did bother me so I doubt I would have changed it regardless. These 'E' badges are quite popular: https://www.drive.com.au/news/kia-e-badge-explained-debuts-on-korean-stinger/ Oh, and up to 320 miles on the clock now, so getting there slowly 🙂

Thanks all. @Mr Vlad It has a Harmon Kardon system as standard, so it sounds pretty good. I am by no means an audiophile though, so can't say for sure which is better. @royoftherovers Indeed, I have not heard of any issues with warranty work, which bodes well. Fingers crossed I don't need it! @Herbie @The-Acre Thank you. Glad I picked the blue in the end as it has a nice sparkle in the sun. I was lucky that the demo car at my local dealer was in this colour, so I got to see it in person before deciding. I think I made the right choice 🙂 @Las Palmas That is a shame. I have to say that I got nothing but good service from Lexus Reading, so no complaints there and I do miss visiting the showroom. @Vlady I will keep this thread updated when I have something to update it with! 🙂 Yes, I too am surprised by the lack of digital dash. The only thing I can think of is that the original design of the interior was from 2017 so Kia didn't want to go to the expense of modifying it too much, which is a shame. My brother picked up his Hyundai i20 N last month and his has a digital dash that looks very nice. Sad to hear that you might be moving on from the GS. Any idea what you might be going for next?

Thank you. Yep, exceptional value for money considering what you get. As you say, fuel consumption aside 🙂 So far I am managed 25mpg, but that is mostly A roads, so I am expecting 15 - 20mpg on my town commute. Oh, and it took all of 15 minutes and my first stop from picking it up for the first random stranger to come up and talk to me about it 🙂 Fun is certainly part of the plan but I will admit that the 7 year warranty is what sold it for me, even though I doubt I will keep it that long.