Aftermarket Paddle Shifter Replacements

[DeltaV]

Has anyone had any experience with this company or these replacement paddle shifters?

Kia Stinger Carbon Fiber Paddle Shifters — Carbon Fiber Goodies

Real carbon fiber paddle shifters that will directly replace your OEM paddle shifters. These are not 3M or screw on, they are replacements. Fits ALL Kia Stinger models Colors between: black, red, blue, yellow (contact us for custom color) Could take 1-2 months to deliver

www.shopkiastinger.com

They appear to be the longest full replacement paddles at 160mm, but if anyone has had a good experience with longer paddles I’d like to hear.

Not interested in extenders to the stock paddles, though.

Thanks!

 

[Striker's Stinger]

Yea I have the black CF ones. They look amazing with the CF wheel. Great quality, they are really smooth and feel rock solid. I would also say they are tougher to grasp and don’t have any grooves in the back so it always feels like my fingers are going to slip off. I feel like they’re shorter and harder to reach than the stock ones too. They shift smoothly, but now whenever I’m in manual mode it’s one hand on the wheel and one hand on stick shifting.

 

[DeltaV]

By shorter, do you mean you’d need longer fingers to reach them?

They’re supposed to be more than twice as long (top to bottom with the wheel fraught ahead) as the stock paddles.

Your review is that they’re great quality but useless?

 

[Striker's Stinger]

By shorter, do you mean you’d need longer fingers to reach them?

They’re supposed to be more than twice as long (top to bottom with the wheel fraught ahead) as the stock paddles.

Your review is that they’re great quality but useless?

I didn’t explain it well enough. Yes they are longer but thinner so you would need longer fingers to easily reach and I wasn’t the biggest fan of that. It’s not completely out of reach, just a bit thinner than OEM. I still have them on, I would buy them again for looks alone since I prefer stick shifting more anyways.

 

[D.J.]

Do they operate smoothly if you pull them from the extremes (where the red and blue arrows are?)




They don't appear to be much less wide than the OEM!

 

[DeltaV]

Do they operate smoothly if you pull them from the extremes (where the red and blue arrows are?)

View attachment 87015


They don't appear to be much less wide than the OEM!

View attachment 87016

Good question.

Manufacturer says yes, but what do real people say?

 

[DeltaV]

Do they operate smoothly if you pull them from the extremes (where the red and blue arrows are?)

View attachment 87015


They don't appear to be much less wide than the OEM!

View attachment 87016

No.

The answer is a resounding no.

They do not work at all at the extremes you’ve indicated…or even halfway out that far.

There is so much flex in the way the paddle is connected to the stock electronic module that it fails to shift if you’re anywhere past where the stock paddles ended.

I can’t see how even the stick-on paddle extenders could be worse.

And since these are further inboard from the wheel, the stock paddles are much, MUCH better.

I was REALLY hoping these would work, but since www.shopkiastinger.com doesn’t care that their product has no advantages and blames me for not asking before I ordered if their extended paddle shifters extend where the paddle can trigger a shift (really?) I’m out $250.

Guess they think we’re all so stupid that the only thing we care about is cosmetics…that our paddle shifters look longer and have a black weave…and that we don’t care if they work or not.

 

[Snicklefritz]

This is highly amusing, the way you answered yourself as a member of "the real people". I appreciate the confirmation of the suspicion that I've held for years, that extenders are only for looks. When they are attached to the OEM paddles, it seems that grabbing the offered extended ends would put a strain on the OEM paddles and eventually crack them? Anybody know the answer to that one? I would never replace the OEM paddles with something that is less utilitarian. The CF does look very attractive, though.

No.

The answer is a resounding no.

They do not work at all at the extremes you’ve indicated…or even halfway out that far.

There is so much flex in the way the paddle is connected to the stock electronic module that it fails to shift if you’re anywhere past where the stock paddles ended.

I can’t see how even the stick-on paddle extenders could be worse.

And since these are further inboard from the wheel, the stock paddles are much, MUCH better.

I was REALLY hoping these would work, but since www.shopkiastinger.com doesn’t care that their product has no advantages and blames me for not asking before I ordered if their extended paddle shifters extend where the paddle can trigger a shift (really?) I’m out $250.

Guess they think we’re all so stupid that the only thing we care about is cosmetics…that our paddle shifters look longer and have a black weave…and that we don’t care if they work or not.

 

[DeltaV]

This is highly amusing, the way you answered yourself as a member of "the real people". I appreciate the confirmation of the suspicion that I've held for years, that extenders are only for looks. When they are attached to the OEM paddles, it seems that grabbing the offered extended ends would put a strain on the OEM paddles and eventually crack them? Anybody know the answer to that one? I would never replace the OEM paddles with something that is less utilitarian. The CF does look very attractive, though.

Meh, I’m not claiming any importance, but since there hadn’t been any other responses and I had an update, I thought I’d share so others don’t fall into the trap.

To be clear, these replace the stock paddles so no cracking is possible since they’re in a drawer somewhere, but that’s why I selected these…they’re full replacements, just not well-made, though in telling me to take a hike www.shopkiastinger.com said that 35 other people were happy with the product. If that’s so perhaps I got a bad example (which he wouldn’t even discuss making right since he and the manufacturer had no control over it), he ignores or never received any complaints, or (shudder) they slapped them on for looks and never use them.

I need extended paddles for improved function. Finding the dinky stock ones when blasting out of turn 7 at Road Atlanta crossed up trying to put power down is sub-optimal. He advertised a solution…full replacements, not just Lee Press-On paddles…but claims that he never said when he quoted me their length that this longer length was cosmetic-only and didn’t add any of the necessary and implied functionality.

The boss says, “Work your butt off, set a new sales record a you’ll win a brand new Toyota!” Months later you set the record and he puts on your desk a Star Wars doll…A toy Yoda.

“Pay me $250 and I’ll send you longer paddle shifters that offer you double the reach of the stock paddles!” What arrives is reached more easily (further around the steering wheel, but further away from your hands) but can’t DO anything when you reach them.

Kinda feels like those ads for x-ray glasses and sea monkeys in the backs of old Superman comics. Not a kid anymore, so I’m taking the knocks for not asking every conceivable question to ensure a valid product (“Question 479: When you say ‘carbon fiber’, do you actually guarantee that the material is composed of long strings of the 6th element of the periodic table as designed by Mendeleev woven into sheets of parallel fibers, impregnated with resin and placed under controlled pressure and temperature in an autoclave for the correct period of time?”), but I can make sure as many others as possible are aware.

As I’ve said elsewhere, the real solution is column-mounted paddle shifters. Steering wheel-mounted ones are rarely where you need them when you need them (at-the-limit driving…not cruising Main Street). Even better, I should have kept my bought-new FD RX-7 5-speed.

…Time for some more self-flagellation.

 

[rk88]

I have these (Kia Stinger - Carbon Fiber OEM Paddle Shifter Full Replacement Set) and they are awesome. I had the stick on type previously and like others have said they did not actuate when hitting on the extremes. These on the other hand are much improved.

 

[DeltaV]

I have these (Kia Stinger - Carbon Fiber OEM Paddle Shifter Full Replacement Set) and they are awesome. I had the stick on type previously and like others have said they did not actuate when hitting on the extremes. These on the other hand are much improved.

Really?

I’m very serious. Before I drop $450 for sxthelement, my original first choice, can you post a quick video of the actuation at the extremes?

Please?

 

[D.J.]

Really?

I’m very serious. Before I drop $450 for sxthelement, my original first choice, can you post a quick video of the actuation at the extremes?

Please?

I too, have significant doubts.

I can't see how the carbon fiber version could be better since they use the exact OEM switches, the OEM switches are not very tolerant of off-axis performance.

I cannot see how they could possibly be better at the extremes of the paddles

Skeptical I am

 

[rk88]

Very top there is some flex, rest of it solid.

 

[DeltaV]

Very top there is some flex, rest of it solid.

Hey, thank you!

Very helpful!

 

[Buzzman12]

Interesting thread, which kind of begs the general question: who uses their paddle shifters, and under what circumstances?
I'm sorry to say that both my last car (2017 Mazda 6 GT), and of course the Stinger, have/had paddle shifters, and I've rarely if ever used them.
I never even think of it to be honest. That's just me I guess.

 

[Snicklefritz]

Interesting thread, which kind of begs the general question: who uses their paddle shifters, and under what circumstances?
I'm sorry to say that both my last car (2017 Mazda 6 GT), and of course the Stinger, have/had paddle shifters, and I've rarely if ever used them.
I never even think of it to be honest. That's just me I guess.

And I use the paddle shifters nearly all the time. The stock ones are perfectly sized for me.

 

[djerickd]

I have this version but you can't pull it from the top and expect it to engage the shift: Kia Stinger - Carbon Fiber OEM Paddle Shifter Full Replacement Set

 

[DeltaV]

And I use the paddle shifters nearly all the time. The stock ones are perfectly sized for me.

Coming out of 40 years of driving stick (Mustang II [don’t say it], TR7, ‘68 Camaro, VFR Intercepter, Probe [REALLY don’t say it], G20, FD RX-7, RX-8) because *someone* (ahem) wanted to be able to get out of the house when I had the van to run donation/Home Depot/animal rescue errands for her and without agreement on the budget for an M3 Competition… well, here we are.

It’s a good automatic, but only *I* know what’s coming up…hold 4th to power out of a sweeper, drop 2 gears to pull out and make that pass, slowing down for a light that goes green before I get to it, etc. I’m always in manual mode. I wish it didn’t automatically downshift as I slow or drop to Drive when I hit 4mph.

I guess it comes mostly from the RX-7 which saw so much track time that I was never out of that mode even on the street (hyper-focused, no audio, becoming one with the car…not childish racer-boy antics - that’s what the track is for) that it became my modus operandi.

So, as all good drivers do, I shuffle steer, which keeps the hands in the strongest and most controllable positions of the steering wheel but the paddles wander off. The real fix is column- rather than wheel-mounted paddles, but this is, for most people, a Camry replacement not a Z06-killer replacement.

And 80% the M3C for 50% of the price, better ride, more comfortable rear seats, and the same stupid MacPhersons anyway? The Stinger was the right choice.

 

[DeltaV]

I didn’t explain it well enough. Yes they are longer but thinner so you would need longer fingers to easily reach and I wasn’t the biggest fan of that. It’s not completely out of reach, just a bit thinner than OEM. I still have them on, I would buy them again for looks alone since I prefer stick shifting more anyways.

Man, I’ve learned my lesson. I REALLY should have read between the lines here as the information I needed was implied in this response, and that is:

“The shopkiastinger.com paddle shifters are for looks only. I think they look great, but they’re so useless that I now have to use the stick to trigger shifts.”

I was so hopeful that they would work that subconsciously I must have thought either that I’d get a better-built pair now that they’ve had this feedback or that I’d figure out, with my decades of automotive customization to meet my performance needs, how to make them work for me.

In fact, their website now states: “Extended paddle shifters do not extend the reach of the paddles connecting to shift. These are OEM paddles with carbon fiber molded on top to extend the length visual aspect. The only option for extended paddles that will also connect at the top and bottom when you shift on them would be choosing magnetic paddle shifters which are a much higher cost.”

Wish they had been so honest before.

 

[DeltaV]

In case I haven’t posted this, the SXTH Element magnetic paddle shifters are great.

Stinger GT Magnetic Paddle Shifter Kit - SXTH Element

Hyundai N Carbon Paddle Shift Kit Utilizing 3D modeling and months of testing we have created an - SXTH Element

sxthelement.com

They work as expected (and as advertised) all the way to the very, very end of the points at the tips! I almost don’t mind that they’re not as long as hoped since they work so well. Another half inch, top and bottom would have been ideal, but as they are they stay out of the way when not needed yet only very rarely are out of reach.

The blades screw on to the actuator (an all-metal complete replacement for the bendy stock one) and there’s a few to choose from. The woven CF is dead flat, the molded CF are forged and have a smooth, subtle ridge on the backside for grip (my choice), I don’t have info on the aluminum.

Pricey, but worth it, for me.