Two years after introducing the Kia GT4 Stinger the 2014 North American International Auto Show, the Korean automaker made good on its promise to bring the Stinger GT4 into the production. It took some time, but the new Kia Stinger has finally arrived.

Packaged as a premium compact sedan that will eventually tussle with the likes of the BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the Kia Stinger is poised to become an imposing presence in its segment in more ways than one. For one, it immediately becomes one of the biggest models in its specific market, thanks in part to having one of the longest wheelbases (114.4 inches) among the competition.

More than just its size, the Stinger also packs a varied engine lineup, highlighted by a range-topping 3.3-liter bi-turbo V-6 engine that’s expected to top 365 horsepower and 376 pound-feet of torque. That’s enough to help the sports sedan hit 62 mph in 5.1 seconds on its way to hitting a top speed of 167 mph. The Stingers GT’s numbers are impressive because they actually compare favorable to a car like the 3 Series, whose 340i variant “only” produces 320 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque. It does have a quicker acceleration to 62 mph (4.8 seconds), but its top speed is capped at 155 mph.

U.S. customers of the Stinger are also expected to receive an entry-level model that packs a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and hits an output of 255 horses and 260 pound-feet of twist. Those figures put it in the crosshairs of the BMW 328i, which itself comes with 250 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque.

Good news for would-be customers too. The launch of the Kia Stinger is expected to happen soon, or at least far quicker than the car’s concept-to-production phase as the sedan is expected to go on sale later this year. It took a long time for the Stinger to get here, but now that it’s arrived, it looks like Kia has a good one on its hands.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

There's a lot to like with the Kia Stinger

Raise your hands if you didn’t think the Kia Stinger would look as impressive as it does? My hands are up too because my expectations for the sedan were modest at best. I didn’t think it would be a failure by any means, but I really wasn’t expecting much since the Stinger counts as Kia’s first foray into the premium performance market. The standards are high in that segment and for a relative neophyte, it’s normal to have some kind of concerns about how the model’s going to fare.

Fortunately, a lot of those concerns have been answered emphatically as the Stinger looks completely at home in this premium compact sedan segment. It’s not just about the car’s power even though the numbers themselves are impressive. It’s also about how sharp the car looks and the amount of technology it has. The latter, in particular, is very impressive when you take into account some of the tech features it has, including mechanical limited slip differential and Kia’s newly developed Dynamic Torque Vectoring Control system for the rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive models, respectively.

Other tech features are also making their debuts on the Stinger, none more important than the new Driver Attention Alert system, which keeps track of the driver’s driving inputs and automatically sounds a warning chime and displays a graphic to advise to the driver if it senses that he’s losing attention when he’s driving.

We’re going to save some of the other features of the Stinger – the sporty styling and premium interior, among others – for the review, but we all know how important first impressions are in the auto industry these days. And as far as the Stinger’s first impressions, Kia has so far presented us with a premium compact sedan that has the potential to one day become a thorn on the side of its counterparts over in Germany.

Engine

2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder Theta II

3.3-liter twin-turbo V6 Lambda II

Horsepower

255 HP @ 6,200 RPM

365 HP @ 6,000 RPM

Torque

260 LB-FT 1,400 – 4,000 RPM

376 LB-FT @ 1,300 – 4,500 RPM

0 to 60 mph

TBA

5.1 seconds

Top Speed

TBA

167 mph


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