A first facelift further improves this athletic sedan.

Price: $74,990
Powertrain and economy: 3.3-litre twin turbocharged V6 petrol engine, 274kW/510Nm. Eight-speed automatic transmission with paddles. Combined fuel consumption 10.2 L/100km, 239 gm/km CO2.
Vital statistics: 4830mm long, 1400mm high, 1870mm wide, wheelbase 2905mm. Wheels 19-inch alloys.
We Like: Athletic turbocharged performance, particularly when in Sport mode. Low-slung big sedan looks. High level of safety specification. It’s up there with the expensive Europeans.
We don’t like: Rear seating feels a little cramped. Do we really need 64 mood lighting colours?

 HOW’s this for anticipation? When you turn the Kia Stinger’s Drive Mode selector to Sport, the side bolsters on the driver’s seat fold inwards to hold you more securely in place.

That little action acts as a prelude to some enthusiastic motoring – if you want it - aboard this big 3.3-litre twin-turbocharged V6-engined rear driven sedan.

Of course other things also happen once Sport is dialled in. A new electronic variable exhaust valve system kicks into action, poised to open and close a small butterfly valve to give a louder and deeper exhaust note. The engine and transmission control logic changes slightly for more enhanced performance.  Suspension stiffens, and the power steering assistance gets heavier.

And then if you wish you can take off, making full use of the engine’s 274 kilowatts of power and 510 Newton metres of torque, which is enough grunt to get the Stinger to the open road speed limit in just 4.9 seconds.

No surprises then that the man who co-designed this Kia, the famous designer Peter Schreyer, reportedly once drove a pre-production Stinger GT Sport to its maximum speed of 269 kmh on a German Autobahn.

Yes, Schreyer – and that underlines the significance of this first-ever rear-driven sedan from Kia.  Several years ago the German, who had earlier been responsible for the design of the Audi TT and who joined Kia in 2006 as chief design officer, teamed up with Frenchman Gregory Guillaume, the brand’s chief designer at its European studio in Frankfurt, and created the Stinger.

Then the sedan was engineered by a team led by former BMW M Division vice-president of engineering Albert Biermann. Overall that was a heady mix of design and engineering talent involved in creation of the Stinger, which was launched in 2017 as Kia’s so-called ‘halo’ car.

The Kia was launched to critical acclaim too, with many commentators quick to compare it against equivalent and considerably more expensive European luxury product.

Surprisingly then, the Stinger hasn’t sold particularly well internationally. Some suggest this has been some customers preferred to buy the Hyundai Genesis sedan  which is the Stinger’s donor platform, other suggest it is the result of badge snobbery at play, with many customers much preferring to have a Benz or BMW sports sedan in their driveways rather than a Kia.

As a result it has also been suggested the Stinger won’t make it through to a second generation, although there has been no word in this regard from the manufacturer itself.

But meanwhile the Stinger has made it through to its first facelift, which is good news because it allows it to continue to be the colourful and muscular character in what is otherwise a fleet of appealing but oh-so-practical Kia SUVs, hatchbacks and people-mover.

And in New Zealand it has to be said there is an additional attraction about the Stinger – it’s a big-engined, rear-wheel driven sedan in the tradition of the now-dead Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, which once dominated the local motoring scene. It allows all those good old boys who yearn after their big Aussie cars to still buy a rear-driven four-door sedan – even though it is Korean.

I’d happily own one. It’s a great car, a modern-day iteration of the big sedan that was once so popular here. Granted, it can be claimed that the 3.3-litre Stinger GT Sport I have just driven is expensive at $74,990, but is it? After all, a top Sorento SUV retails for $76,990, and all the European sedans of similar size and power are considerably more expensive than that.

And anyway, there is also a GT Line model available here, for $64,990. It is powered by a 2.0-litre twin-scroll turbocharged four cylinder engine that offers 182kW and 353Nm. I haven’t driven it, so can’t say how it goes. But the marketing blurb tells us it can scoot to 100 kmh in 6.2 seconds, so this Stinger has definitely got some sting.

But not as much sting as the range-topping GT Sport, though. Thanks to the installation of that variable valve exhaust system as part of the facelift, the sedan’s peak power has been boosted by 2kW, while the maximum torque of 510Nm remains available from a low 1300rpm right through to 4500rpm – a sure recipe for flexible and muscular performance.

On startup the Stinger’s Drive Mode automatically defaults to Comfort, which offers nicely relaxed motoring on softer suspension settings. I used this setting most of the time, much preferring it to the Eco setting which is there to save fuel but which quite markedly drops performance because the transmission’s shift points are tightened and throttle use restricted.

There’s also a Smart mode which is interesting because it monitors the driver’s performance over time and adjusts the likes of suspension settings and transmission shift points to suit. I suspect that if I owned a Stinger I would use Smart for an increasing amount of time because it offers pretty much the best of all of the drive modes.

And then of course there is Sport, which is committed to enthusiastic motoring. It’s a load of fun when you’re driving in that mode – the steering is stiffer, the suspension damping is harder, the transmission change points have been loosened up for higher revolutions in each gear, and of course there’s that more out-there exhaust note.

Big Michelin tyres – 225/40 R19s at the front and 255/35 R19s at the rear – help provide a secure ride at pace, and stopping power is great thanks to big 350mm front and 340mm rear ventilated disc brakes with Brembo callipers.  

From the performance perspective the biggest change via the Stinger’s facelift is installation of the sports exhaust, which was previously a $3500 option. It is obviously the major reason why the price of the car has gone up by $5000.

But there are a few other changes as part of the upgrade. The exterior has new headlights and rear combination lamps and different design allow wheels. The sedan continues to sport two fake air vents on the bonnet which I suppose is a bit chintzy – but in other ways they look rather good.

The interior has undergone only slight change, too. There’s a new 10.25-inch infotainment system which has been made easier to use, a new fully digital instrument cluster, a frameless rear-view mirror, and the cabin has a new mood lighting system which allows those aboard to select one of 64 – yes, 64 - colours. If they really wanted to. Which I didn’t.

Seating is great, and very form-fitting when the Stinger is in Sport mode. The upholstery has been made more luxurious via the use of soft Nappa leather, and the front seats are electrically adjustable. The audio system is a 15-speaker Harman Kardon unit which, incidentally, pipes in the exhaust sounds when the car is in the Sport mode.     

An already comprehensive safety suite has been enhanced with what is known as Safe Exit Warning, which uses the cross-traffic alert system to prevent doors from being opened into oncoming traffic. Stinger also has a semi-autonomous Highway Driving Assist which combines adaptive cruise control and an  updated lane-keep assist.

There’s Rear Occupant Alert which notifies the driver if passengers or pets, and presumably things such as bags of supermarket goods, are left in the back seats. The Stinger also pinches off Sorento the very good Blind Spot View Monitor which projects onto the instrument display a camera feed from the side mirrors whenever the turn indicators are activated. I found this very useful when exiting slip-lanes onto motorways, or also when changing motorway lanes.

Changes to existing safety measures include cyclist detection and a junction function added to the autonomous emergency braking system – it now detects other road users at more acute angles, such as intersections.  The driver attention monitoring system now includes lead vehicle departure warning, and the blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are now capable of automatically hitting the brakes to avoid hazards.

It all adds up to an impressive amount of performance potential, comfort and new technology in an old-school rear-driven sedan. It’s very handsome too – which explains why so many people stopped and looked at the car while it was parked outside my house.

It just goes to show that sometimes, old-school still works.