What are some of the quirks, features, issues you hate most about your Stinger?

[freefloyd]

That horn cracks me up every time I use the panic button to locate my car in the parking lot.

 

[upsidedown]

1) Transmission could use some fine tuning
2) Wind noise from the hatch area
3) Subwoofers aren't powerful enough (my personal preference)
4) Could use better thigh support

No the transmission could use some major retuning especially in suburban areas

And give us full manual mode on the dbw shifts and I mean full manual so that it doesn't downshift unless you have come to a complete stop. I'll worry about the consequences if I'm in too high a gear

 

[mldavis2]

No the transmission could use some major retuning especially in suburban areas

And give us full manual mode on the dbw shifts and I mean full manual so that it doesn't downshift unless you have come to a complete stop. I'll worry about the consequences if I'm in too high a gear

With all due respect, I see two issues here, [MENTION=311]upsidedown[/MENTION]. First, the transmission behavior is tied in to the "learning" mode of the computer, not just in Smart drive mode, but I think in all modes. Depending on how you drive most of the time, the shift points vary and change over time.

Second, since Kia must warranty this car for 10 years / 100,000 miles in the U.S., it is not unexpected that they will guard against potential abuse, over-revving or lugging, and anything that could potentially cause expensive repairs that are not their fault because the car was pushed beyond its design parameters. My G8 would also automatically downshift in manual mode, and I don't know of any transmission that doesn't other than the 6-speed stick in my GTO.

 

[Bubbabiker]

Last thing I would want to be doing is lugging a direct injected, high compression turbocharged engine. RPM's is your friend.

 

[Marc Collins]

With all due respect, I see two issues here, [MENTION=311]upsidedown[/MENTION]. First, the transmission behavior is tied in to the "learning" mode of the computer, not just in Smart drive mode, but I think in all modes. Depending on how you drive most of the time, the shift points vary and change over time.

Second, since Kia must warranty this car for 10 years / 100,000 miles in the U.S., it is not unexpected that they will guard against potential abuse, over-revving or lugging, and anything that could potentially cause expensive repairs that are not their fault because the car was pushed beyond its design parameters. My G8 would also automatically downshift in manual mode, and I don't know of any transmission that doesn't other than the 6-speed stick in my GTO.

ALL manual mode automatics down-shift when you come to a stop--even the very few properly designed ones that will NOT up-shift and do let you bounce off the rev limiter. [MENTION=311]upsidedown[/MENTION] you are asking for something that will never happen. I do think the car should be designed not to up-shift (ever) without user control, but only in Sport or Custom mode (where it already will not revert to D like it does in the non-Sport modes).

 

[mldavis2]

Actually, if you just give it back to the computer, it does a great job of finding and keeping the engine in the sweet part of the torque curve while protecting the low and high rev limits. Take a good look at the torque / horsepower charts for the 3.3TT and then look at what the computer is doing in Sport mode and you'll see it's spot-on. High revs generate higher horsepower numbers, but it's torque that accelerates you and high RPMs can run out of torque. And as [MENTION=320]Bubbabiker[/MENTION] says above, you don't want to lug a turbocharged engine with a late downshift.

 

[upsidedown]

ALL manual mode automatics down-shift when you come to a stop--even the very few properly designed ones that will NOT up-shift and do let you bounce off the rev limiter. [MENTION=311]upsidedown[/MENTION] you are asking for something that will never happen. I do think the car should be designed not to up-shift (ever) without user control, but only in Sport or Custom mode (where it already will not revert to D like it does in the non-Sport modes).

Marc just to clarify I actually said "doesn't downshift unless you have come to a complete stop" so we at least agree on that. The downshifting per se isn't the problem it's how it does it, the speed it does it and when it does it. Maybe you don't do much 30 mph suburban driving but when you constantly turn at an intersection off throttle to roll around the corner, and the transmission always downshifts from 3rd to 2nd for no real reason, and in the process makes the car slow down with a noticeable jump, so you then have to press the throttle harder to maintain the speed you used to be going before the shift then to me that is wrongly calibrated.

Also I'm not sure about the model you are talking about but here in Australia with the top of the line 3.3, the dbw transmission reverts to D in every mode after a paddle change. So even in sport mode if I upshift via paddle and the ecu doesn't think it should be in that gear then sure enough it will downshift again back to where it "thinks" it should be

With all due respect, I see two issues here, [MENTION=311]upsidedown[/MENTION]. First, the transmission behavior is tied in to the "learning" mode of the computer, not just in Smart drive mode, but I think in all modes. Depending on how you drive most of the time, the shift points vary and change over time.

Second, since Kia must warranty this car for 10 years / 100,000 miles in the U.S., it is not unexpected that they will guard against potential abuse, over-revving or lugging, and anything that could potentially cause expensive repairs that are not their fault because the car was pushed beyond its design parameters. My G8 would also automatically downshift in manual mode, and I don't know of any transmission that doesn't other than the 6-speed stick in my GTO.

Yes I agree with all that but as above it's all about how it does. This is the 4th automatic I have owned over 40 years and have also driven many other prestige and lesser quality cars and this is absolutely the worst automatic calibration of the lot. So "mldavis2" how does your experience compare with your G8 and other cars you may have drive?

 

[mldavis2]

This varies by drive mode. What drive mode are you using that you don't like?

 

[upsidedown]

This varies by drive mode. What drive mode are you using that you don't like?

Pretty much all of them for around town but probably the best mode for me is comfort for all around feel. I think after all my driving experience that I know what is good calibration and what isn't and I'm sorry but around town 30 - 40 mph none of the modes whether upshifting or downshifting are very well matched after the change. It's like the rev matching vs vehicle speed is off so that after a change you're never really doing the speed you were before with the same throttle application. And irrespective of it's shift pattern it can be somewhat harsh as well. Anyway as I said this is the worst I've ever had so how does it compare to other cars you have had?

 

[eliwu26]

Biggest issue: the car gets really crappy gas mileage, somehow every time I drive it the gas pedal likes to just go all the way to the floor?

 

[Marc Collins]

Pretty much all of them for around town but probably the best mode for me is comfort for all around feel. I think after all my driving experience that I know what is good calibration and what isn't and I'm sorry but around town 30 - 40 mph none of the modes whether upshifting or downshifting are very well matched after the change. It's like the rev matching vs vehicle speed is off so that after a change you're never really doing the speed you were before with the same throttle application. And irrespective of it's shift pattern it can be somewhat harsh as well. Anyway as I said this is the worst I've ever had so how does it compare to other cars you have had?

It should not shift while in Sport mode. They may have updated the software since the one you have in your car? And hopefully there will be another update soon with the truly manual mode for up-shifting, too.

 

[Chi-Guy]

Just got the car back today with new heat elements installed, feels much better.

 

[climbbike1]

I just came from a $62K Volvo where I had a list 2 pages long of complaints about it. I'm in absolute heaven with the Stinger.

The only complaint I can think of is in the US we get a sucky mobile app that does basically nothing.