The large sedan market has all but diminished as SUV’s become the vehicle of choice however of those remaining, and there’s only two outside of the dearer prestige market, the Kia Stinger is the most compelling. A four-model rear drive sports sedan range – two V6 twin-turbo rocket ships that have caught the eye of police forces around the country and two four-cylinder turbo models – of these I tested the 2.0-litre turbo eight-speed automatic GT-line at $60,690 drive-away. Still a commendable sports sedan with a 0 to 100km/hour time of just 6 seconds. Recently refreshed with some minor styling and wheel updates, upgraded drive assist technologies and some convenience features inside the cabin.

The Kia Stinger a very good looking sedan – yes its big – a little hard to wield around the shopping centre carpark but on the open road an delightful GT long distance cruiser. Like all Kia’s, very well-tuned for our conditions and that’s been a hallmark of the Korean brand here for a long time – suspension and steering tune first rate for our road conditions in a sports sedan that may be big and heavy but on road feels extremely well balanced. I managed 9.9L/100km over the week with a fair amount of open road motoring. Well supported like all Kia’s with a 7-year/unlimited kilometre warranty and scheduled services every 12 months or 10,000kms.

I’m David Berthon

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