Kia Stinger gets UPDATED – despite rumours of Kia planning its demise

The Kia Stinger, Kia’s unlikely BMW 3 Series rival, is being updated for 2020 despite rumours that its low sales would result in production ending.

It’s nearly three years since the Kia Stinger arrived in the UK as a rather unlikely GT offering from Kia. And it looked good and, in range-topping guise, offered a pretty impressive package. But sales have not been exactly stellar.

Those modest sales have led to rumours from South Korea that Kia were going to give up on the Stinger and concentrate on EVs, but despite that Kia has revealed a raft of updates for the 2020 Stinger. So it’s going to be here for a while yet.

As you’d expect for a ‘facelift’, there are new LED headlights at the front, and the tail lights now stretch across the width of the car and incorporated a chequered flag graphic in the indicators. A couple of new 18″ and 19″ alloy options have been added, and there’s the option of a wide bore tail pipes. Other optional titivation include a Dark Package with gloss black diffuser details, black wide-bore tail pipes and darker boot badge.

Kia seems to have limited interior updates to the use of better quality materials, with added chrome and contrast stitching and bits of gloss black, optional Nappa leather and a better infotainment setup.

But the main change, which perhaps does foretell the end of the Stinger, is that it seems Kia plan to offer the updated Stinger with only the range-topping 3.3 litre V6, dropping the 2.o litre petrol and 2.2 litre diesel.

Which means the most appealing Stinger is still on offer, but it probably won’t do much for overall Stinger sales when the updated Stinger arrives in the UK in 2021.