![]() The centre console is mounted low between front-seat occupants, so it’s present, but not confining. The second thing to know about is the wide cabin. Give it a good stare, and you might agree that it sort of looks like a Maser-Audi. The sculpting and poise and stance and proportions are the real deal in person – even if you’ve seen many of the styling elements before, applied to other big-money missiles. If you think it looks good on your screen, you’ve got to check one out in real life. First, photos don’t do the Stinger’s looks justice. Built to be experienced in person, preferably from the driver’s seatĪ few notables. Here’s a machine designed to give shoppers more attainable access to the sort of swoopy, athletic, and potent coupes (whether two-door or four) on offer at higher cost from brands like BMW, Audi, and the like. There’s an eight-speed automatic with paddle shift (more on that later), and an AWD system as good as any I’ve ever used. Both models rock a 3.3-litre V6, running twin turbochargers for 365 horsepower and even more torque. Here, you basically pick your colour and go: the GT Limited comes fully loaded. ![]() Here’s the setup: pricing starts around $44,000 for a base-model unit, and climbs to about $50,000 for a top-line GT Limited like this tester. And though the Stinger is a unique new 3 Series–fighter that’s pretty darn good at a lot of different things, the all-wheel-drive sport-sedan-ish hatchback is especially impressive with how it tackles winter driving conditions. “FLPPPPPTHHHHHHHHHH!! FLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPTHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” This stuff was everywhere – and the tester’s Pirelli Sottozero winter tires were slicing through it beautifully, and unloading it directly into the Stinger’s floor pan. The sort that would choke your snowblower, and prove nearly impossible to shovel from your driveway. ![]() Especially when the result is what covered the roads this particular afternoon: about three inches of thick, heavy, wet slush. Snow now, though – the sort of ping-pong-ball-sized fluffs that always seem to be falling in cinematic slow-mo. The air was about four degrees below zero. Heavy rain had been gushing from the sky from Toronto to Barrie, and right on cue, it turned into heavy snow in the Muskokas as the temperature fell and the Stinger and I plunged deeper north, into the snow belt. It sounded almost like gunfire against a steel panel as your writer drove the new 2018 Kia Stinger through some of the nastiest highway conditions of 2018. Hell, I’ve been in crossover SUVs that weren’t this planted in the snow and slush and ice. The Stinger is one of the most winter-ready sports cars I’ve ever driven. ![]()
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