Kia Stinger May Not Get A 2nd Generation

Despite the almost universal praise, the Kia Stinger is unlikely to get a complete overhaul

This is the type of semi-rumour that we don’t like sharing. We were at the launch event of the new Kia Stinger, loved, and have a driven it a few times in the last few years and still love it. Thing is, the Stinger was nearly doomed from the start.

In a chat with CarAdvice.com in Frankfurt, Gregory Guillaume, vice president, senior chief designer of Kia’s styling studio in Germany said that: “At the moment I’m not sure it’s doing as good as we hoped.” He went on to add that: “We never really expected to do massive volumes. It was a halo car. We did want to be successful at least in America, the market where we thought there is a chance that it works. We had very high expectations for that market and it’s very difficult to start in such segments.”

Mr. Guillaume, who worked for Audi some time ago, reflected on the Audi A8 where it took three generations of the flagship luxury sedan to be considered as a rival to the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class. This is why he hopes that the Kia Stinger gets at least one more chance.

He concedes, and we agree, that anything sedan nowadays, even a 5-door bargain-performance car as competent as the Kia Stinger, has little hope when competing with SUVs as a whole. That said, the Stinger may not be dead but the arguments in favour of keeping it alive and kicking are few and far between.

Mr. Guillaume ended off by saying that a future car could sport a Stinger badge but it will likely be very different than the one we know today – it could be electrified.

If the Kia Stinger does die, it will quickly become a sought after affordable future-collectable car, much like the rare Pontiac G8.