BBAStinger
Newish Member
I’ve owned a lot of cars, but none quite like the Stinger, and definitely none with a prodigious appetite for tyres like this Stinger. You see, when I clamped eyes on it in July of 2019, I weakened and bought it home. Now at that time it was fitted with the factory Continentals on the front and woeful Chinese-made ‘Habilead’ rubber at the rear end. This provided no shortage of entertainment as the rear stepped out more times than Marilyn Monroe in a lead role. The fronts wore badly and folks, this car handled like a pig.
One day I was traversing a roundabout like a total nanna when the car simply bit me and slid out. Luckily I caught it at this low speed. From there it was off to a reputable fitter in January 2020 (summer in Australia) to have a set of Hankook Ventus S1 Evo 3 tyres fitted with an alignment. All was good until six months later with a severe case of tyre wear (especially LH rear-which was wearing phenomenally fast)) and I was having a really bad case of déjà-vu (or groundhog day-whatever floats your boat!)...In any case we’re two up and I was still experiencing severe wear. Again the LH rear tyre seemed to take the brunt of the acceleration even though we have an LSD. I questioned the alignment with the fitter again the second time around in June 2020 and they countered that the alignment was in order. Well, lo and behold, here we are in December 2020 and I have just bitten the bullet on an expensive set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. This time though I had my Kia dealer perform the alignment in conjunction with my 80K service. What a revelation! Dealer informs me the alignment was out by quite a margin, especially at the rear, and in driving the car, I am amazed how nimble it now is. Before it seemed cumbersome, but now it’s agile with a sharp turn in, nice response, sharp braking and seems to ride much better with minimal rolling resistance. In essence, it feels like a much smaller, sportier car. While the Hankooks were a great tyre, these Michelins are hot to trot..definitely winner, winner chicken dinner..
Moral of the story, if you‘re not sure, get a second opinion. I had a weird feeling my alignment was bad, and I’ve learnt the expensive way...
One day I was traversing a roundabout like a total nanna when the car simply bit me and slid out. Luckily I caught it at this low speed. From there it was off to a reputable fitter in January 2020 (summer in Australia) to have a set of Hankook Ventus S1 Evo 3 tyres fitted with an alignment. All was good until six months later with a severe case of tyre wear (especially LH rear-which was wearing phenomenally fast)) and I was having a really bad case of déjà-vu (or groundhog day-whatever floats your boat!)...In any case we’re two up and I was still experiencing severe wear. Again the LH rear tyre seemed to take the brunt of the acceleration even though we have an LSD. I questioned the alignment with the fitter again the second time around in June 2020 and they countered that the alignment was in order. Well, lo and behold, here we are in December 2020 and I have just bitten the bullet on an expensive set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. This time though I had my Kia dealer perform the alignment in conjunction with my 80K service. What a revelation! Dealer informs me the alignment was out by quite a margin, especially at the rear, and in driving the car, I am amazed how nimble it now is. Before it seemed cumbersome, but now it’s agile with a sharp turn in, nice response, sharp braking and seems to ride much better with minimal rolling resistance. In essence, it feels like a much smaller, sportier car. While the Hankooks were a great tyre, these Michelins are hot to trot..definitely winner, winner chicken dinner..
Moral of the story, if you‘re not sure, get a second opinion. I had a weird feeling my alignment was bad, and I’ve learnt the expensive way...
It's easy to go through two or even three sets of tires with this car being DRIVEN as intended, in that amount of distance. Rears, especially. I know from reading others' experiences, that you can easily burn through a rear set of Michelins in less than 7K miles.
