Hey, what's up man dude guess what I just bought a new car. Yeah dude, it's a Kia.
Hello
huh
Hello, everyone and welcome. Cars today some of them at least are getting pretty dull
so for example the new Mitsubishi Eclipse is now a crossover
we're losing the Ford Focus RS and the U.S. is losing the Fiesta ST
but we're gaining the Ford Edge ST
thats exciting right so while everyone in america is buying crossovers Kia is making something of all companies
very exciting. This is a Kia Stinger GT. This is actually the GT2 spec so it's the top-line
(specs shown on screen)
Pretty impressive numbers this one that we're in is rear wheel drive they do also offer it an all-wheel drive
and the all-wheel drive has a very clever center differential so it can send
50% of the torque up to the front or you can put it in sport mode and send
80% of the torque to the rear wheels.
Now the base stinger gets a 2 liter inline 4-cylinder
twin-scroll turbocharged engine still fairly potent 255 horsepower
260 pound feet of torque so regardless of what Stinger you get into
you're going to have a decent amount of power now the weight changes dramatically depending on what you get
so you know the base are gonna be around 3,600 pounds you add 200 pounds for the v6
and you add another 200 pounds for the all-wheel drive V6. So if you get in the GT with all-wheel drive
you're at 4,000 pounds which is a decent amount of heft
but you know this is actually a pretty nice pretty comfortable ride and so you've got different driving modes
you can kind of change the characteristics of the vehicle I've got in comfort now
enjoyable here in the rain and actually quite tame with the rear end so
the rear end hasn't been getting all that wild on me the tires doing a nice job, and when you get into the GT
which we are in you upgrade the tires and the suspension so it's got an electronic suspension
electronically adjustable
damping and you upgrade to Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires
and these sport for tires are fantastic wet or dry they've actually the compound is designed so that in low you know
lateral scenarios the inside of the tire is
designed for wet grip and the outside of the tire when you're in high lateral speed scenarios is
designed for dry grip so even in these terrible conditions that I'm driving in today. I've got good acceleration grip and
fantastic braking grip with these tires and also another cool thing that they do with the suspension here
one of the things you kind of notice is the steering in this car is actually quite
responsive and that comes down to the tires and also comes down to the suspension one of the cool things
they do with the suspension as its electronically variable is they soften up the front and they stiffen the rear and
that's at low speed so at low speeds
you've got a soft front and you've got stiff rear and what this does is it makes it more responsive
it makes it more eager to turn in less likely to
understeer and then as you increase your speed as you start to get in higher speeds it
stiffens up the front
and then it reduces the stiffness in the rear the damping stiffness and as a result
and gives you better stability
so you're less likely to oversteer at high speeds
so a very clever way that they're manipulating the suspension in order to maximize
you know how the car feels at low speeds, but also maintain stability at high speeds
and it is certainly noticeable the steering is actually good, and I don't know if I've ever said that about driving a Kia
it's it's pretty impressive. It's an electronic rack
it's got a variable ratio depending on how much you're turning it in and that steering rack
they've got the motor offset, so it's not in the steering column
it's separately mounted on that steering rack and then it helps to improve
the way it feels and it does actually feel pretty good now as far as these different driving modes
you've got five smart eco comfort sport and custom, and I have found myself enjoying
comfort the most which I've been surprised by in sport
you know I was trying out the paddle shifters this has an 8-speed automatic transmission developed by Kia
and you know this it's probably one of the few things about this car that I'm not totally thrilled on
the the shifts are a little rough, and they're a decent speed, but there's a there's a little kind of
uncertainty to it as it switches gears it's kind of got a little hesitation there
which you know,
it's it's not the smoothest transmission, but when you put it in comfort mode
it loses a lot of that characteristic that it has in sport, and it seems to be just as quick
except now it's actually a smooth transition, and you don't get that hesitation that notchiness that you feel in sport mode
so I've been enjoying
comfort mode driving in this car. Now every manufacturer likes to talk about the Nurburgring
this car was developed on the Nurburgring. They say that every prototype that they developed spent at least
480 laps
going around that quite long circuit
and so you know they really have punished this vehicle out on a track to prove its performance, and that's pretty impressive
you know 3,800 pounds is quite a bit of heft and so to have a vehicle that can be punished for those 480 laps
in development handle the high speed cornering handle the significant amounts of braking
you know the cooling requirements that are required to drive out there on a track and drive hard is impressive
so you know it's it's kind of something that in the automotive world has come to become this cliche of like oh, yeah
we developed it at the Nurburgring, but for KIA to do that
you know that seems pretty special they brought over engineers you know from other big-name
German manufacturers, so you know there's there's a lot of ingenuity, and there's a lot of clever designing
that's gone into this vehicle the interior actually reminds me quite a bit of a Mercedes
and I don't know if that's you know necessarily bad that it looks like they're copying it
but the interior is quite nice so kind of just like Mercedes. They've got you know this pop-out
infotainment display right here kind of looks like an iPad going on you've got you know the circular air nozzles
beneath it for your climate system. Even the speakers. You know the metallic speaker covers
look a bit similar, so there are many similarities, but you know that's not necessarily a bad thing
you've got a heated steering wheel you've got heated and cooled seats. You've got all these luxury amenities. You know adaptive cruise control
and this is a Kia, so you know you tell your friend that
you bought a BMW, and they're excited because you said you bought a BMW
and you tell your friend that you bought a Kia, and they're not excited because you told them that you bought a Kia
but the reality is
you know none of us are looking at
3-series BMWs as they drive by it's not like we're snapping our necks to check out the latest 3-series
this is a legitimately cool
very capable legitimately fun vehicle, and it has a badge that people aren't thrilled to say oh yeah, I drive a Kia
it's got the performance that matters
and it's going to you know actually entertain the person who's driving it and that seems way more important than flashing around your ego
and saying okay I drive
you know something with four rings around the front on the front of my car is it actually a legitimately great car
you know maybe yes, maybe no, but for less money
you can get quite a bit of performance out of this thing zero to sixty and four point seven seconds with the 3.3 liter
you've got four piston Brembo brakes up front two piston in the rear 15 speaker system
720 watts there's a subwoofer under both the driver and the passenger seat the sound system in this is phenomenal
it's got a tremendous amount of bass
good clarity to it very great sound system, so you know there's not a whole lot of sacrifices really that you're making
I mean, this is a truly pleasant very nice and genuinely fun vehicle to drive the brake pedal
you know it's got a sporty feel to it. It doesn't have a whole lot of travel
it's you know more pressure based as far as your braking the throttle
decent mapping with that
you know there is turbo lag, but it's it's not bad if you get up into those higher rpm put your foot down
yeah, there's a little bit of turbo lag. I mean it's certainly noticeable, but it's not bad and the thing actually sounds quite good
I don't know if it's piping in you know artificial sounds or not ignorance is bliss in this scenario. It sounds great actually
especially for a v6 and a turbo v6
which tends to just kind of mute the sound this actually sounds quite good when you get on it
and an impressive amount of grip out here in the wet
so are your friends gonna think you're cool when you tell them on the phone that you bought a new Kia sports car no
they're not going to think so but once they get in it once
they ride along with you this thing is genuinely pretty fantastic
I mean my few complaints are that I don't think the 8-speed automatic transmission
is all that phenomenal and your rear-view
visibility is pretty poor. It's pretty cramped up back there as far as looking out the back
and so you know blind spots fine out the front is fine
it's a little narrow up here, but the rear visibility isn't all that phenomenal
and you know I think there could be some tweaks to the transmission that would make it a little bit better
but again in comfort mode for the most part. It's pretty nice so overall I've quite enjoyed driving this.
Thank you guys for watching if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below.