Kia Stinger will continue into 2023

The Kia Stinger seems certain to still be on sale in Australia in 2023.

While the demise of the last affordable rear-wheel drive performance sedan on sale in Australia has been widely predicted, it has never been more popular here or more wanted by Kia’s local division.

“There’s been a question mark hanging over Stinger since the day it was released,” said Kia Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith.

“But we haven’t received anything official. I would be heartbroken if that [end of production] occurred because we are starting to get that critical mass with sales we always thought we would get.

“It’s my expectation it will be in our showrooms in 2023.”

After setting an all-time record 428 sales in May, the Stinger followed up with another solid 312 sales in June. Its sales are up a massive 74 per cent year-on-year with 1683 purchased so far in 2022 compared to 967 in 2021.

Recent RedBook data also shows that the Stinger is also among the best cars on the market for retained value.

“We are doing amazingly with Stinger,” said Meredith.

The Stinger first went on sale in Australia back in 2017 with much hoopla as the car Aussie sports sedan fans could switch to following the demise of the locally-built Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore.

Kia also won Stinger fleet deals with Queensland, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania police and an example was even shown at the SEMA hot-rod show in Las Vegas.

After the initial positive reception, Stinger sales settled and speculation soon started about its future. Much of it was driven out of the US, where it has been a critical but not sales success.

It is expected to depart the US this year, but Meredith says that doesn’t mean production will end as well.

“I think we would have heard by now if it was going to stop at the end of 2022,” he said. “We have had no official word from Korea that CK [Stinger] is all over.

“I would hope that it wouldn’t be.”

Meredith said he understood the widely touted theory that Stinger could be pensioned off because the electric Kia EV6 was now the brand’s lighthouse model.

Certainly, there is no sign of a new generation emerging, despite the car being six years old.

But he argued there was still room for Stinger, especially with pricing for the top-spec GT twin-turbo V6 topping out at $64,960 plus on-road costs – well underneath where the EV6 starts, especially with this week’s $4600 price rise taken into account.

“It would be great to have that type of car to satisfy a segment of the market that gets excited about their cars, that love rear-wheel drive vehicles,” he said.

“Is it something that is innate to Australia? Probably it is.”

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