Kia Stinger out on bail: How the Australian Police are saving a modern icon from following the Holden Commodore SS and Ford Falcon XR8 into oblivion

Great news for people who love affordable old-school petrol-powered rear-drive performance sedans.

The Kia Stinger will continue to be imported in Australia for the foreseeable future, despite some reports outlining its impending discontinuation in the key North American market later this year.

According to Kia Motors Australia (KMAu) chief operating officer, Damien Meredith, the turbo liftback grand touring flagship still receives strong enough support from markets like Australia for production to continue indefinitely.

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“We hope it goes for as long as possible,” he told the Australian media in Melbourne late last month. “We haven’t heard anything official from Korea regarding its end of production, so from our point of view, the longer the Stinger goes, the better it is for us as a company.”

Although the base 200S powered by a 182kW/353Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine remains very keenly priced from $51,250 before on-road costs, it’s the 274kW/510Nm 3.3-litre V6 twin-turbo-equipped 330S and GT from $55,030 and $64,960 respectively that everybody seems to want, commanding some 98 per cent of all Stinger volume this year.

Mr Meredith reckons that though his initial forecasts back in 2017 of 500 sales monthly proved hopelessly optimistic at times, a combination of much-reduced consumer choice (particularly when Holden pulled out of Australia with the ZB Commodore in 2020), skyrocketing SUV prices and exotic powertrain specification are giving the Stinger longer legs in the market than most observers would have predicted – or care to admit.

“It’s amazing, given the circumstances, that (the Stinger) does over 300 consistently on a monthly basis,” he revealed. “(It’s) a little bit short of the 500 I promised when it was first launched, but I was only a little bit out.

“If it’s on borrowed time, we will have to find 350 units each month that Stinger is doing at this point of time.”

 In a rare instance of a car company boss underselling their product's achievement, the Stinger actually managed to shift 428 units in May, against the measly 79 sales managed by the only other model in the VFACTS Large sub-$70K category, the Skoda Superb, for an 80.3 per cent share.  

Of course, widespread stock shortages are distorting the true picture (Tesla could only register 12 Model 3s), but even so, last month the Stinger easily outsold medium luxury stalwarts like the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class (389 sales) and BMW 3 Series (261 sales), and even came within striking distance of the Toyota Camry, which recorded a 568-unit shocker.

Mr Meredith is keen to highlight the Stinger’s surge in popularity amongst various law enforcement agencies around Australia, as the Kia’s unique combination of value, performance, dynamics and rear-drive packaging makes it the sort of unique selling proposition that hasn’t been available to them since the final Australian-made Commodore SS rolled off the assembly line in October, 2017.

“Our team continue to keep working with the police (departments)… and we’re in Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and even South Australia,” he said. “What we’re missing out on is in NSW and Victoria, and our fleet team have been in continual discussion with those two authorities.”

 KMAu product planning manager, Roland Rivero, added that the company is especially mindful of the support that the Queensland police departments have given the Stinger as pursuit vehicles, and that as a result of this, they would know in advance of any decision regarding the model’s future in Australia.

“We haven’t stopped orders from Queensland Police, which is one of the bigger customers,” he said.

“If anything, out of respect for a major customer like Queensland Police, we would give them a hell of a lot of heads up. They were the ones who put their necks on the line to say: 'We might pick a Kia product as our next police car'.

“Out of respect, we’d give them plenty of notice if we decided to pull out of Stinger… and we haven’t.”

Time will catch up with the Stinger, as it's now entering the second half of its decade on sale globally. 

Sharing components with the Genesis G70 probably helps keep the model in production for the time being, but the unprecedented success of the conceptually similar EV6 means that the Stinger's replacement will inevitably be based on a future E-GMP electrical architecture-based vehicle.