Nice post, [MENTION=477]MarkyMark[/MENTION]. Like the old story of the blind men inspecting the elephant, each of us sees the Stinger a bit differently, I suspect. I agree that the engineering focus is good. But all cars are a compromise.
Obviously 25mpg is not "world class" fuel economy on the highway with the little 4-bangers getting 30. You pay for power which requires fuel to achieve. And having come from the good old days of the '87 Buick Grand National, I am a bit cautious of turbochargers and their inherent design limitations with regard to cooling and life expectancy. But the 10/100,000 warranty got me past that hurdle because turbochargers are included in the power train warranty on the Stinger.
There are lots of "toys" in this car which raises the price. Both of my current rides are fairly "stripped" by Stinger's standards, but they are both 13 and 10 years old respectively, and were purchased by a driver (me), not a passenger needing entertainment on long trips. You can't haul a piano in the back of the Stinger but the hatchback is both stylish and functional with folding rear seats. If you haul pianos, you buy a truck (boring...) and live with those handling and fuel compromises. So as an old "car guy" the mechanical (as opposed to the electronic) technology, the power and handling are my selling points. Although my GT1 order includes the DriveWise package, I bought the car for the
car, not the toys.
Some seem to need to have all the toys to be happy, yet what do they expect at this price point? Many of the minor complaints are in comparison with cars in the $75-80K range which isn't fair. The list of "complaints" is endless and somewhat amusing. I haven't had anyone in the back seat of my GTO twice in 13 years, yet there are those complaining of the lack of heated rear seats. I've heated my own seat for over 50 years.
There are complaints of no wireless charging for mobile phones, but to use the mobile phone with Apple or Android requires them to be USB-connected which charges the phone while in use. There are complaints of no 360? camera, yet most of us learned to drive with mirrors quite effectively and safely. Sure, all of that is nice, but is any of it really related to the car itself?
The more toys you have in your car, the more things will go wrong, and they are a distraction. As a former service manager in the '80's we had some really lame options on up-scale cars that were just buyer-bait. The power antennas come immediately to mind. It cost about $200 to replace one of them. Once the warranty ran out, I don't think a single car had one that worked after winter. And as my current rides show, I keep my cars for a very long time to amortize that big first year depreciation hit. So I'm a driver first. I let the wife play with the toys while I'm driving. I often drive alone without music -- just the sound of the road and engine, and the concentration that comes with being one with the machine, aware of every unusual noise, predicting traffic flow ahead, planning for my lane or passing opportunity or watching for idiots on the road or police behind sign boards.
Yes, I'm a dinosaur, brought up in the days of Richard Petty's hemi dominating the NASCAR circuit, although I am not a NASCAR fan today by any means. I'm a driver from the "old school," wary of all the gizmos that kids today seem to need to be able to keep the fenders on the car while they mess with the media -- lane keepers, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, parking assist, backup cameras. Yes, I'll enjoy playing with all that junk, but to me, it takes away the very essence of a fine GT machine, the intelligence of a well-engineered 8-speed transmission taking over for my "old" 6-speed gearbox, and the wonderful power available from twin scroll turbos planted in a modified racing engine and bolted to a fine chassis with tunable suspension and big, grippy tires. I buy cars to drive, not to entertain me or drive for me. That is why I researched and ordered a Stinger, and it's killing me to have to wait on a factory build.