Kia Stinger 2019 review: GT

The schedule for the day involved dropping off my daughters for their all-day dance practice followed by taking my son and his friend for a day out.

As four-door performance cars go, the Stinger GT is definitely one of the best-looking options. It has plenty of street presence, with a sleek side profile and an aggressive front stance. The front spoiler, side skirts, rear spoiler and rear diffuser are well integrated, and all add to the car's performance cred. 

This car makes a good first impression and is guaranteed to turn a few heads. Those in any doubt of this car’s performance potential need look no further than the menacing-looking chrome-coated quad exhaust pipes adorning the rear. I know it’s been around a while now, but it's still hard to believe this is a Kia.

Upon entering the cabin we are greeted by a significant amount of red Nappa leather covering the seats and much of the interior panels. It complements the grey metallic exterior well to convey a surprisingly premium feel. The dash design and layout is a far cry from the Kia’s of old, with a decent amount of attractive-looking materials and finishes on display. 

The driver's seat is positioned low and provides a snug fit thanks to the powered bolster and thigh support adjustment. Combined with the electric steering wheel adjustment, I was able to quickly find my ideal driving position. The front passenger seat gets electric adjustment, too, and both front seats have heating and ventilation. 

There’s ample room and comfort for the kids in the backseat, with two cupholders in the pull-down centre armrest, as well air vents and bottle holders in the doors. Head room for taller adults is slightly compromised by the sloping rear roof line, whereas legroom is reasonable and I was comfortably able to sit behind my driving positioning (I'm 180cm). You’d fit three kids across the back without too much hassle, but not three adults.

On the trip to drop off my daughters, my son hooked up the smartphone via the 8.0-inch touchscreen. And soon the fight was on to decide the driving music to blast through the 15-speaker harman/kardon audio system. It’s worth noting the touchscreen comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard, and there is built-in nav with free updates for 10 years.

The 8.0-inch touchscreen comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard.

The GT seemed perfectly at ease playing the role of taxi around the suburbs in comfort mode, and as sports sedans go, it makes for a decent daily driver. This is largely care of the adaptive dampeners (standard on the GT), which did a better than expected job of keeping us all comfortable regardless of the road condition. Equally, the acceleration in comfort mode was ample to get out of tight traffic snags.  
 
Parking the Stinger on the street or at the local shopping centre was easy, care of the 360-degree camera, front and rear parking sensors and decent visibility from the driver's position.