Kia Might Kill the Stinger – Here are some other cars we loved, but people didn’t buy it

Kia had just refreshed its Stinger sports sedan for 2022 when we heard the entire lineup would be dead by next spring.

Despite receiving critical acclaim in 2017, the Stinger never shifted the volume that Kia was hoping for. So it reportedly has another year to live, after which its production line will be modified to build the Carnival Hybrid minivan.

Mind you, that’s just a rumor at the moment. We contacted the automaker and this is their answer.

“As for Stinger, Kia America has nothing to announce right now, but the Stinger is an important part of the Kia brand and remains a Halo vehicle in the US lineup.”

Also: Somehow these discontinued cars were still being sold last year

The Stinger was and is a solid product: good-looking, well-equipped and especially with a V6 design, driving is fun, albeit a bit on the pig’s side. But that wasn’t enough. The problem with the Stinger is that most people would rather have a crossover than a sedan, and many of those who stay true to the four-door creed would rather wear a German prestige badge than a Korean badge, still with the last bits shake off their budget beginnings.

But the Kia Stinger is by no means the only car that had a harder time attracting potential customers than journalists.

McLaren F1

Yes, though it’s hard to believe, the McLaren F1, the car that took supercar performance to levels unimaginable just a few years before its launch in 1994 and the example of which is over $ 15 million today (£ 10.8 million) are worth. , with a recent record at $ 20,465,000, was a box-office bomb.

The few journalists fortunate enough to drive one were overwhelmed, but at the time the world was in the grip of a recession and was not yet used to the idea of ​​a road car that will cost the equivalent of $ 1.5 million in 2021 ( £ 1.1 million) cost money. When production ended in 1998, McLaren had built just 106 examples, including 64 street cars.

Acura NSX

The Honda / Acura NSX isn’t quite dead, but it’s definitely life sustaining. In the 2020 COVID hit, only eight cars found buyers in Europe, but even in 2019 Honda only moved 36 units. Sales in Australia were so bad that Honda stopped importing, and for God’s sake even the Japanese can’t buy an NSX anymore. Acura has admitted that its days are numbered and has launched a hardcore Type S to say goodbye.

One could argue that Honda made a mistake in reinventing a purist iconic sports car as a heavily overcomplicated all-wheel-drive hybrid, but the fact is that the NSX has been praised by car testers – and widely ignored by everyone else.

Dodge Viper

Doge Viper fans know that one of the main reasons their favorite sports car was discontinued in 2017 is because it did not have the curtain airbags necessary to legally remain on sale.

But if buyers queued to buy it, FCA would have invested money to make the necessary changes or even come up with an entirely new Viper for the 2020s. They weren’t, so FCA didn’t, and the Viper, despite impressing testers with her performance on the track, especially in ACR guise, died and remains dead.

Kia K900

We started with a Kia so it seems appropriate that we should finish with one. Motor Trend described the Kia K900 sedan as the size and interior of a Mercedes S-Class for the price of an entry-level E-Class. And Car & Driver summed it up as “an impressive choice for premium car buyers who value high value”.

Unfortunately for Kia, those buyers were few and far between. Kia recently ditched the K900 from North America, blaming buyers’ preference for crossovers, though the car itself lives on as the K9 in other markets.