The Kia Stinger is refusing to let larger passenger cars die, with 428 sales in May marking an all-time monthly record.
The Stinger’s May 2022 sales figure was 162.8 per cent up on May 2021 and accounted for 84.4 per cent of the mainstream Large Passenger segment in VFACTS (car sales data) reporting.
Granted, the only other entrant in said segment is the Skoda Superb (79 units, up 41.1 per cent), but when you consider some 95 per cent of Stinger sales in Australia are the flagship GT with its twin-turbo V6 and $69,890 drive-away price tag, the fact the big Kia outperformed the likes of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class (389 units) and BMW 3 Series (261 units) is also worth noting.
Overall the Stinger was second only to the Toyota Camry (568 units, down 58.5 per cent) when you combine the Medium and Large passenger segments in VFACTS, showing its strength in the declining market.
Stinger GT
Even more interesting (or shocking), the Stinger beat out big names from the Small Passenger class, with the supply-hit Mazda 3 (358 units, down 65.3 per cent) and Volkswagen Golf (280 units, down 5.1 per cent) unable to match the Stinger’s volume, either.
The record May result comes after the Stinger marked a 200 per cent monthly increase in April (316 units), with a spokesperson from Kia Australia confirming with CarExpert there are still a number of months-worth of Stinger backorder to work through moving forward.
As of May 31, the Kia Stinger has seen 1371 sales in Australia – growth of 76.2 per cent on the Jan-May period in 2021.
Kia Australia’s chief operating officer, Damien Meredith, recently poured cold water over international reports the Stinger’s future is in doubt.
Stinger GT-Line
“The future on an operational level is fantastic,” Mr Meredith said, “we haven’t heard anything official from Korea on whether or not we’re going to a new model for Stinger or not so we’re just happy at the moment that we’re getting fantastic supply for the car and it’s doing exceptionally well in market.”
Beyond private buyers, the Stinger also currently serves on a number of Australian police forces, namely in Queensland, Northern Territory, and Western Australia.
Mr Meredith has also indicated Kia Australia is forecasting an all-time sales record in 2022, with 72,000 vehicles expected to be delivered throughout the course of the year. For reference, the brand returned 67,964 registrations during the 2021 calendar year.
The Korean brand even finished second overall for the month of May with 7307 sales, in some part attributable to the declines recorded by most key rivals. Nevertheless, it beat out parent Hyundai, as well as Mazda, Mitsubishi and Ford.
Stinger GT-Line
That’s even despite crippling supply issues across a number of model lines, with particular variants seeing wait times quoted at over 12 months.
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MORE: VFACTS – May 2022 car sales figures
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