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The Kia Stinger has attracted former Commodore owners as its primary target market based on research conducted by the company in Australia.
Of the first 200 sales of the Kia Stinger in Australia, 18 per cent of the trade-ins were Commodores, making it the most popular trade-in model type of car for Stinger buyers. Of the remaining sales, 28 percent were a mixture of other Kia models.
Interestingly, according to Kia Australia's chief operating officer, Damien Meredith, very few Japanese cars have been traded in for the Stinger, even when compared to more expensive European cars.
That would tend to make sense, as both Commodore and Euro buyers would favour the Stinger's rear-wheel-drive setup with a more powerful engine up front.
The buyer type is clearly car enthusiasts as upcoming orders for the Stinger are seeing more than 60 per cent of buyers opting for the optional and Australian-developed exhaust system ($2649 fitted) for new arrivals.
Meanwhile, Stinger sales are still hindered by lack of supply.
"It's going very well, we are very happy with the volume," Meredith told CarAdvice.
"We are still [struggling with] tight supply constraints but we are averaging about 180 a month, 85% are V6 GTs, so we are very happy with how good those things are going."
According to Meredith, all Stinger buyers so far have been private customers and once the supply issue is sorted and Holden finally runs out of rear-wheel drive Commodores to sell new, sales could increase to around 250 a month and that's before any potential for fleet sales, of which four police forces around the country are testing the model for use as highway patrol and potentially general duty vehicles.
"At the moment we have QLD, NSW, SA and WA testing, the only ones not testing are Vic Police. You will probably find that if it goes up, QLD would be the first to do it."
Meanwhile, those that have come in to buy a V6 Stinger and haven't been able to stretch for the price are either resorting to the four-cylinder model or even going for the front-wheel-drive Optima.
The expansion into the police force - particularly as highway patrol - will likely be a big boost for Kia Australia both in terms of sales and also reputation.
Read more on Car Advice.
