Top Gear Feature

[MBro]

Kia shoots itself in the foot by giving Top Gear a pre production car to review - or at least that’s how it seems. Wonky knobs and weird faux carbon fibre centre console that is nothing like the UK car. Top Gear were unlikely to rave about it anyway but why give them more reasons to dislike it? I know it was probably filmed last year before the car was officially released but IDK - if I had seen this before deciding to go to a showroom I’d have not bothered...

 

[JustThatPenguin]

Couldnt care less about the new top gear. James May, former top gear did a great piece on it on grand tour.

 

[MBro]

Well I agree it’s crap - Grand Tour too as far as I’m concerned, but if Kia want to sell cars into a difficult UK market they really need to give it a better chance when it’s on prime time TV.

 

[mev202]

Kia shoots itself in the foot by giving Top Gear a pre production car to review - or at least that’s how it seems. Wonky knobs and weird faux carbon fibre centre console that is nothing like the UK car. Top Gear were unlikely to rave about it anyway but why give them more reasons to dislike it? I know it was probably filmed last year before the car was officially released but IDK - if I had seen this before deciding to go to a showroom I’d have not bothered...

I tweeted Rory about this piece, saying it is the press car. He simply said, "well we are press" which is true.

Kia have been short sighted sending that car. They are trying to shake off the old shoddy build image and they go and do that...

Kia have been open in saying that the Stinger is the car to get people into the showroom, so that they then go, "oh didn't know you did that" and then buy a sportage or other car... this film will make them drive past.

 

[StingerGT68]

Well that sucks. I was looking forward to this week's episode, too. Bad job, Kia PR. A lot of people will poo-poo the Stinger now...

 

[AV8R]

Well that sucks. I was looking forward to this week's episode, too. Bad job, Kia PR. A lot of people will poo-poo the Stinger now...

Ye of little faith.
And the lord of stinger said to it’s English Stinger owners... I give you a diesel for your sins and the rest of the world the V6 petrol! Go unto top gear and speak of the word of the stinger lord for mine is the GT2.

 

[mev202]

Ye of little faith.
And the lord of stinger said to it’s English Stinger owners... I give you a diesel for your sins and the rest of the world the V6 petrol! Go unto top gear and speak of the word of the stinger lord for mine is the GT2.

Put the glue down

 

[AV8R]

Put the glue down

Sniff...what? Snort...I don’t know what u mean

 

[voon]

I read the text on the Stinger on their site ... it's not thaaaaat bad or off. The usual stuff. 6/10 is probably a bit harsh, but lets not forget an S4 is also 8/10 to them etc.

 

[Chapindad]

Not a fan of the new Top Gear, the tr way to hard. Grand Tour is more my liking but the Stinger is not going to stand up against 150k+ cars and neither will my wallet. I have seen both and the reason I looked up the Stinger in the first place. I would have never looked at a Kia before that.

 

[MBro]

At the end he says there is no smart tech in the car - the UK spec GTS is fully loaded with options that would cost £15k extra on a BMW....

 

[bluecatsup]

Kia shot itself in the foot because... fake fake carbon fiber. Aluminum trim should be world wide. I think it'll age well too.

 

[StingerGT68]

Kia shot itself in the foot because... fake fake carbon fiber. Aluminum trim should be world wide. I think it'll age well too.

I don't think any production Stingers made it out of the factory with that carbon fiber interior.

 

[NickUK]

i thought it was weird how he totally dismissed the stinger. I know we are probably a little biased, but didn't give the car enough credit imo. I don't think he completely understood that the Stinger, while fast, isn't a track car and was never intended to be one. Another thing, as was mentioned earlier, was the statement saying the Stinger lacks smart tech - think the top gear researchers should take another look!

KIA should have waited and given them a produciton car - can anyone confirm if the driving mode dial wiggles like that? "more matalan, than Mercedes" apparently?

 

[StingerGT68]

Doesn't wiggle for me...the car's fit and finish is excellent. On par or better than my 3-series.

I think they really needed to "bash" the Stinger just to make their script work in a way that allowed them to say "South Korea brought back up" and then show the Hyundai N.

 

[Berzerker]

There were a bunch of "pre-production" issues with the pre-production Stingers, though (unsurprisingly).

Kia just kinda of screwed up by not sending them a production model. I'm sure if they did, they may have increased their opinions of it.

 

[MBro]

It was pretty dismissive in the end. I’ve said it before but Kia has a real image issue in UK. This does not seem to be the case elsewhere - maybe in Germany as well IDK? Some of the British reviewers have been able to see past the badge to their credit but the TG reaction is kind of expected. Most of the journalists have been amazed at the price point to spec ratio in a positive way. The TG guy was horrified that a Kia should cost £40k.

 

[AV8R]

Th whole thing was very biased against the stinger , it did not even get on lap time board!

 

[bluecatsup]

Could've been as simple as how they wanted the script to flow towards the actual performance N-brand. Too bad they segued into the i30N leaving the Stinger on a negative note, instead of appreciating it for what it is... a GT. Sounds like a lack of research from TopGear.

 

[Stinger73]

That's because Top Gear lacks in so many ways anymore. I wouldn't take any of their reviews seriously now. They might as well review a Hotwheel or Matchbox toy car and probably still too clueless to be subjective/bias to tell the difference between the two. They would have to force my eyes open like Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange to watch the talentless hacks fumbling about the steering wheel and pretending to know what they are doing.