KIA Stinger going after the twins?
 

Anyone been reading up on the concept KIA Stinger?
I welcome all challengers to our twins. Wonder if more folks will jump into this market.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/13/k...-detroit-2014/

looks like it.

the segment is still evolving. for a while miata and to a lesser degree S200 pretty much owned the affordable, small, light, RWD segment. the 86's were initially targeted there but one hears about cross-shopping mustangs etc more so than the MX5 these days.

That's crazy I had no idea Kia was doing that. I wonder if Nissan will do the same/

To answer the question in the title, yes. The team working on the Stinger concept said they were targeting the Twins. Competition is good IMO. Subaru/Toyota have definitely re-ignited the small, affordable RWD sports car segment.

Check out the Nissan iDX concept. It's their theoretical answer to the twins. The picture below was from NAIAS this year:

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps633505da.jpg

Discussion about it going on in the Other Cars section
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53854

Yes, bring all the competition! I welcome more similarly set up cars for fun track time and better innovation.

Sorry, I have a BRZ and pretty much only go to the BRZ section. Never really check the other crap out. And its been moved. But now I know. Thank you.

Not sure if serious or troll...

So with more hp and weight comparible to the twinz. Sound like if it hit the assembly line. Only stafety rating and price dictates its success.

Honestly I don't think either poses serious competition to the twins...the Kia loses all aspects of creditable RWD sports car because... it's a Kia. The nissan has more of a chance, but is easily multiple years away. I doubt the production model iDX will look anything like the concept, similar to most concepts it's way to futuristic looking. In my personal opinion it's ugly, the body lines are too contrasting to one another, it just doesn't look pleasant. The ultimate failure of the iDX though will be price... It's a nissan so anything less than 30k base price would be surprising. Which in its own is kind of humorous given that this is nissan'so answer to the twins which their president says is a "midlife crisis car" at 25k base, but the 370z is not at 47+k (I'm not 100% on the base price and too lazy to look it up) because most young 18-26 year olds make the kind of money to pay that much for a car.... Long story short Kia is nothing because "Kia sports car" is nothing more than a joke and nissan just needs to bring back the S chasis, the rb motors, and stick with the gt-r's. LONG LIVE THE TWINS!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Or, instead of claiming based on brand name alone that Kia can't make a competitive car, wait until it's out and make your decision based on actual evidence and observation. They're a large company and they definitely have the resources.

They just haven't yet.

I'll admit that was rather close minded on my part and I'm not completely writing the car off, I will eat my own words and be the first one to admit I was wrong. You're right in the fact that they're a large company with the resource to make a legitimate sports car, but it's not like they all of a sudden have the resources out of nowhere, and they haven't produced in the past so I was solely basing that on Kia's prior cars. But on the other hand everything has to start somewhere so maybe. Just maybe Kia will pull out to prove me wrong. Maybe. I just doubt even if it is successful it'll be big enough to be even remotely competitive to the twins. See as they are pulling from two car enthusiast groups that already exist in toyota and subaru guys.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Until the twins, neither company had a quintessential sports car in their line up. Before this, the Internet was full of garbage about how Toyota lost its way but here we are

Toyota didn't have a current sports car, but still had a following to draw from with cars from the past like the supra, celica, and the ae86. Subaru didn't have a RWD car but had a following from the wrx and it's variants. So yes they did not have a RWD sports car when the twins came out (no one did since the early 2000's), but they both have car enthusiast followings. I might be wrong but I've never seen any Kia meets.....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I guess I just don't see how having a following had anything to do with being able to build a car

It's not relevant to building the car, it's relevant to the success of the car's marketability. Kia's sports car may be every bit as good as the twins on paper or even on the road/track but I don't think it will sell like the twins are and have. A car's success goes beyond performance, if it doesn't sell they won't continue to build it. The following of the companies is what made the twins so desirable, people who are loyal to toyota or subaru but looking for the RWD sports car that had been gone for so long are why the twins took off so fast.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

are there any other good sports cars that have failed because of who made them?

I would like to point out that neither had developed a 'pure' sports car in 10+ years before the Toyobaru came out. I'd argue that the WRX/Impreza and Lexus cars are too heavy and utilitarian to be considered 'sporty'. Meanwhile Kia/Hyundai have been trying to capture the enthusiast market with the Genesis, Tiburon and Veloster.

I don't think you're looking too hard for Kia meets, they certainly exist:
http://thekoreancarblog.com/2012/04/...mesquite-meet/
Not too different from the local meets set up on this site.

Take me back to 2010 and ask me who I'd rather put money on for a lightweight fun RWD sports car and I'd bet Kia/Hyundai over Toyota/Subaru in a heartbeat. I would have laughed at the notion of owning a Toyota built post-2000. Here I am.

KIA Stinger going after the twins?
 

I stand corrected as far as the Kia/Korean car meets goes. I'd agree that the wrx is too heavy to be a sporty car, but argue that it is enthusiast driven because it is a Racecar, subaru owned rally racing for a long time.
My point isn't necessarily that the Kia won't be successful, I just think that the twins took off SO fast and continue to grow in popularity at such a rate that the Kia won't be able to complete along side of them. You're right in saying that they've been trying to capture the RWD market outside toyobaru with those three, but with the exception of the genesis(which I admit there are a lot of in my area) I rarely ever see tiburons or velosetors, that might just be where I live though.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

twins
 

The Twins still need to evolve to stay ahead of the game. Technology advances and will put today's interest to tommorrow's could-have-been. It looks like Suburu might grow (Sti>4WD>turbo???), but it doesn't look promising for the 86 to grown under the Scion umbrela at least in the US.

:cheers:

I think we've got an understanding.

I'd just like to point out that Subaru hasn't participated in WRC since 2008 and with 3 championships (either driver or constructor) while they were certainly competitive in the mid 90's and early 00's I think "owned rally racing for a long time" may be a bit of an overstatement.

There's a great documentary about Colin McRae that shows the struggles of Subaru very well during his tenure as a driver that led to 3 constructors championships and a drivers championship.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx61QAZaTxc&list=PL24C8BF0B4807C195&featur e=share&index=27"]Racing Legends - Colin McRae - YouTube[/ame]

There's also two other shows in the series about Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart that are fantastic.

I hear a lot of about kia's being bad quality cars from Kia owners. I honestly think the fact that Kia making an affordable, light weight, rwd coupe is actually pretty cool and hope that more manufacturers would do the same.

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk