Saw Panthera/Thunder Grey in person today and can confirm on an overcast day it is almost black. I think in bright light/sunshine it lightens up a bit.
My trip was to see the red Nappa interior, which I planned to order with the Panthera/Thunder exterior. Sorry, it is not as dark as the brochure and swatch suggested, which was not to my liking. But the real deal-killer was the quality of the leather. I am down-grading, so have been spoiled by high quality European leather in cars for many years. Both the black and red Nappa are far from high quality--it just shows more on the red. Nothing wrong with it, it just isn't "premium" in a way that I would want to draw attention to it. (Not as bad as the centre steering wheel cover, but not impressive upon close inspection.) So, back to boring black interior for me.
I can confirm this also. It is nearly black when the sun is not shining. When the sun is out, and it is washed it looks very silky, or very liquid. But overall, it's still too close to black and too dark. I've decided on Micro Blue.
That said, I've confirmed that Kia, whenever selling a GT or GT1 AWD model, and it has Drive Wise, it will have 18-inch wheels with all season tires on them. Every - single - pickin' - time! But the GT2? Oh no, it comes with 19's and summer tires with AWD and Drive Wise (standard).
Who in Kia marketing made this moronic decision?! So is the mentality of this thinking? So what if I want blind spot and auto sensing wipers on my GT AWD, so that means I must be a grandma wanting a softer ride on smaller rims and all seasons?! Please!
Looks like Kia performing a cost cutting measure big-time.
The 18-inch All Season Bridgestone's they slapped on the GT or GT1 AWD w/Drive Wise Pkg, are a LOT cheaper than the 19-inch summer Michelin's that any other GT variant ships with. The rims are going to be slightly less in cost also.
Such a shame they did this. I'm NOT getting a GT with All Seasons and 18's. I was waiting this fall anyway, so now I'll see what the 2019's contain to see what takes place, since I CANNOT custom order with Kia. Ugh...
To me, this is akin to an M-series BMW or S-series Audi doing the same thing - which they would NEVER do with such vehicles. The standard 3-series and A4-series they sell to real estate gals, sure, but not on the high-end performance cars. And of course, Stinger wants to play big-boy and then Kia does this. Ugh...
Thanks for the vent, I feel slightly better...