It has to be pointed out that cars these days are becoming so good in terms of performance and features that it’s difficult to tell them apart if you hide their logos. While the Germans do offer brand appeal, it’s cars like the Kia Stinger that boast excellent value for money.
Taking the competition to the well-established BMW 3-series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the Stinger GT is a premium offering from a not-so-premium brand - Kia. That being said, the midsize Kia is perhaps the most underrated of its kind. Especially the V6-powered GT trim.
The 368-horsepower four-door liftback has tons of performance and features crammed in, all while costing relatively less than its mainstream competitors. Sadly, Kia's flagship sports sedan is going away after the 2023 model year. Although the Kia Stinger GT is far from a massive sales success, the car is surprisingly cheap to own and maintain. While a new 2023 Kia Stinger GT2 costs $52,000, you can find used Stinger GTs for less than $30,000.
With no major reliability concerns and relatively low maintenance costs, owning a Kia Stinger GT long-term is a fairly reassuring and inexpensive exercise. The midsize Kia is very much an underrated sports sedan bargain that easily qualifies as your ticket to cheap thrills.
Is Kia Stinger Maintenance Expensive?
Forum threads revealed that maintaining a Kia Stinger is relatively inexpensive. One owner reports, “I've found the Stinger maintenance cost to be very low. The warranty on it has been great and the only money out of pocket I've had to put, has been for normal maintenance items like oil changes and tires.” Another owner said the Kia Stinger is “a very low maintenance car if you take care of it regularly and not be a goon on the highway.”
On a more statistical basis, the CarEdge reports the Kia Stinger will cost a touch over $6,200 for maintenance and repairs during its first 10 years of ownership. Annual repair costs for the first three years lie between $240-300, which is pretty impressive for a sports sedan. CarEdge estimates that the probability of any major repair is fairly low for the first five years.
However, after the 10-year mark, things can get expensive. Probability of major repairs rises to 34% in the 12th year of owning a Kia Stinger. The website considers any repair bill that exceeds $500, including parts and labor, to be a "Major Repair."
Should You Buy The Kia Stinger GT?
Aside from its lack of brand appeal (a deal-breaker to some), there’s no other reason to not buy a Stinger GT. J.D.Power rates the Kia Stinger “Great” for quality and reliability, giving it a score of 84 out of 100. Additionally, Kia offers a best-in-class 10-year/100,000-mile warranty for the Stinger, which shows how much the company trusts the car. If it wasn’t reliable, Kia wouldn’t jeopardize its reputation or margins by offering such a competitive warranty scheme.
Now comes power and performance. Early Kia Stingers got a choice of two engines: a 2.0L turbocharged inline-four and a 3.3L twin-turbo V6. The inline-4 was reserved for the base/GT-Line trim, whereas the V6 was available on the GT, GT1, and GT2 trims. The base engine produced 252 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque, while the more potent V6 got 365 horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque.
However, for the 2022 model year and later, the Stinger GT-line got a new 2.5L turbo-four unit with 300 horsepower and 311 lb-ft of torque, replacing the old 2.0L engine. Moreover, the 2022 Kia Stinger V6 got a slightly revised exhaust setup giving it a power bump of 3 horsepower, taking the total to 368 hp. You get an 8-speed automatic with the option of either rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive.
In terms of acceleration, the V6-powered Stinger GT AWD does 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds (with performance tires), which is about as fast as a Mustang GT. Kia also equips the Stinger GT with Brembo brakes, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, a 15-speaker Harmon-Kardon stereo, and a host of advanced driver assistance systems.
How Much Is A Used Stinger GT?
A quick internet search tells us that used Kia Stinger GTs have an average price of around $39,000. However, if you don’t mind a slightly older model year, AWD examples are available from as low as $28,000. But bear in mind, these have well over 50,000 miles on the odometer. The wise decision here would be to get an early Stinger V6 with about 20-25,000 miles. These cars, however, command a slightly higher asking price, right around the $34,000 mark. If you don’t fancy having AWD, early Stinger GT RWDs are available for less than $25,000. Even 2022 cars are up for sale, but these cost well above $40,000, mileage dependent, of course.
Sources: CarEdge, J.D.Power, Kia Stinger Forum