Sorry folks. As you can imagine, I've been spending a lot of time doing research on the Stinger forums. I ended up leasing for 24 months as Kia was throwing more money out for the lease that for purchasing. The car was 48K - $1150 dealer incentive - $9900 Kia.
I'm having so much fun with the car that I'm questioning whether or not to keep the Fiesta as I want to attempt a quick lease buyout. I got the GTS trim, one of only 800 and its sits between the GTS and GTS-1 trim level. The other thing it has besides the color that the other trims don't have is the rear LSD and drift mode that will send up to 100% to the rear.
The things I sort of regret learning after the fact is that the GTS does not have the adaptive suspension nor the performance monitors that the GT1 and GT2 trims have. The cool thing is that the OEM for the adjustable suspension have a module and associated phone app that can be used to customize shock/strut settings. The one thing in my favor is that I read some posts indicting that the springs on the GT1 and GT2 trims are softer. I went through that with my Volvo S60R and I could never find a setting that felt right to the point that I had to change springs. The performance monitors (lap times, acceleration, g meter) might be able to be added just by changing the gauge cluster and having a Kia shop enabling them.
I have not played with launch control yet as the manual recommends that it not be used until after the break-in period (almost there). I have been playing with drift mode and the paddle shifters (shift much quicker that the G8 in manual mode) but I have broken the rear loose yet.
I initially had a lot of remorse letting the G8 go. I miss the exhaust note and the neck snapping torque off the line from the 6.0L V8. Having said that, in practice the Stinger is faster than my stockish G8 (tune, intake,cat back) and even the Chevy SS stock. After looking at dyno charts with stock Stinger info, they are definitely underrated at 365 hp, 376 ft lbs. Currently there are only piggyback devices available but with those, intakes (yes, one for each turbo) and smaller gapped plugs (stock plugs experience blowout), they are seeing 430ish hp with up to 500 ft lbs of torque depending on tuner.
I love the fact that it is a hatchback with fold down rear seats, has a Harmon Kardon audio system I don't need to touch, and CarPlay.
I'm having so much fun with the car that I'm questioning whether or not to keep the Fiesta as I want to attempt a quick lease buyout. I got the GTS trim, one of only 800 and its sits between the GTS and GTS-1 trim level. The other thing it has besides the color that the other trims don't have is the rear LSD and drift mode that will send up to 100% to the rear.
The things I sort of regret learning after the fact is that the GTS does not have the adaptive suspension nor the performance monitors that the GT1 and GT2 trims have. The cool thing is that the OEM for the adjustable suspension have a module and associated phone app that can be used to customize shock/strut settings. The one thing in my favor is that I read some posts indicting that the springs on the GT1 and GT2 trims are softer. I went through that with my Volvo S60R and I could never find a setting that felt right to the point that I had to change springs. The performance monitors (lap times, acceleration, g meter) might be able to be added just by changing the gauge cluster and having a Kia shop enabling them.
I have not played with launch control yet as the manual recommends that it not be used until after the break-in period (almost there). I have been playing with drift mode and the paddle shifters (shift much quicker that the G8 in manual mode) but I have broken the rear loose yet.
I initially had a lot of remorse letting the G8 go. I miss the exhaust note and the neck snapping torque off the line from the 6.0L V8. Having said that, in practice the Stinger is faster than my stockish G8 (tune, intake,cat back) and even the Chevy SS stock. After looking at dyno charts with stock Stinger info, they are definitely underrated at 365 hp, 376 ft lbs. Currently there are only piggyback devices available but with those, intakes (yes, one for each turbo) and smaller gapped plugs (stock plugs experience blowout), they are seeing 430ish hp with up to 500 ft lbs of torque depending on tuner.
I love the fact that it is a hatchback with fold down rear seats, has a Harmon Kardon audio system I don't need to touch, and CarPlay.
