2021 Kia Stinger GT-Line family car review

Is the 2021 Kia Stinger a very cool looking family sports sedan or is it an impractical sedan? Let’s find out with our BabyDrive testing!

I have driven the Kia Stinger a few times before and I LOVE this car! I love the way it looks and drives, then when it comes to my family I already know the boot space is fantastic! A twin stroller easily fits in the boot and there’s room for a few shopping bags too.

Thirteen shopping bags fit from empty, which is comparable to the Volvo S60 that also fits thirteen shopping bags, the Mazda6 and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe will both fit twelve and the VW Arteon holds fifteen.

The boot is shallow though, so when it comes to modular prams with bassinets or tandem attachments, they take up a lot more boot space as it's not really possible to stack all the parts.

Moving inside the car, when it comes to child seats there are ISOFix points in the two outer rear seats that are in plastic guides that are really nice and easy to use and connect to.

There are three top tether anchorages on the back of all three rear seatbacks that are easily accessible through the boot. We found two child seats fit nicely in the rear outer seats. There was not enough room for a third child seat in the centre or for a passenger to sit between the two child seats.

Legroom is good in the Kia Stinger too and a 184cm driver can sit in front of a rear-facing child seat, however, kick room isn't too good for rear passengers who are not in child seats. One thing to consider, like with all sedans, is the low roofline. It does make posting babies into their child seats and reaching in to do up harnesses tricky and there is less visibility out of the windows for rear passengers too.

The media screen has been updated in the 2021 Kia Stinger. The system is really nice and easy to use and navigate.

It contains Sounds of Nature, like all the most recent Kias, which for families is white noise at your fingertips and great for getting little ones to sleep in the back. Our youngest loves the calm ocean waves to get her to sleep!

The 2021 Kia Stinger also has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and it was nice and simple to connect my phone.

There is a wireless phone charging pad in the 2021 Kia Stinger too.

There are air-conditioning vents in the back of the central console box so rear passengers can be kept cool as well as across the front dashboard. The rear passengers are well catered for with a 12V socket and USB charging point in the back also.

When it comes to storage the central console box and glove box are both lined, which helps minimise rattling sounds…

…and a lined glasses case in the ceiling.

There are ample good size cup holders, in the front…

…and in the back.

As we've seen, as a family car and a BabyDrive, the Kia Stinger has some great practical features for families. BUT there are some considerations too…

As well as the low-slung roofline making posting babies in and out of their seats from inside the vehicle (if it's raining for example) very difficult, for rear passengers not in child seats, headroom in the back is just enough for a tall passenger but the knee room is not great and the front seats sit low down so there is little kick room.

The rear windows are shallow which makes visibility extremely poor for little rear passengers and can impact travel sickness.

Visibility for the driver is also affected, especially out of the rear side windows. Thankfully the 2021 Kia Stinger's upgraded reversing camera is very clear and you can use it without selecting reverse using a button on the central console, and you can turn it on or off.

There are also new indicator cameras in this 2021 Kia Stinger that give you great visuals down both sides of the car in the driver display screen.

The central console and dashboard wrap right around the driver and front passenger; it is beautifully designed and has a feeling of a business class seat on an aeroplane.

If you are wanting a fun, sporty sedan that you can also cart the kids about in too, the 2021 Kia Stinger has some great practical features for families like boot space and legroom when rear-facing child seats are used, which are pretty important. You do have to be mindful that in those early baby months and years the low roofline can make it a bit of a back-breaker for putting them into their child seats.

The Kia Stinger Si, Ex, GT-Line, GT Sport and GT variants all got a 5-star ANCAP safety rating in 2017. Whereas the 200S and 330S variants only scored a 3-star ANCAP safety rating in 2017. So choose carefully if you buy second-hand!

BabyDrive Indepth

BabyDrive Indepth - Storage

How good is the storage in the Kia Stinger? How big is the boot of the Kia Stinger?

In the front of the Stinger there are two cup-holders in the central console that will hold a reusable or disposable coffee cup, or a large refillable water bottle.

The central console box is quite shallow, but at least it is lined so things won't rattle around while you are driving and there is a little shelf in the top.

In front of the 2021 Kia Stinger's gear lever is a wireless phone charging well, with USB and 12V socket too.

The glove box is a good size and will hold the iPad and my wallet with the manual.

There is a lined glasses case in the ceiling and both front visors have a lit vanity mirror.

The front door pockets will hold a large refillable water bottle with an iPad too.

In the back, the door bins are slightly smaller but will still hold a large refillable water bottle.

There are net map pockets on the back of both front seats.

In a fold-down armrest in the central seat back are two cup holders, they would hold a reusable and disposable coffee cup.

Boot space in the Stinger is great, topping some of the mid-sized SUVs and wagons I have tested.

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Bub’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.

Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.

I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres ia not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

From empty I can fit thirteen shopping bags into the boot of the 2021 Kia Stinger, which is comparable to the Volvo S60 that also fits thirteen shopping bags, the Mazda6 and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe will both fit twelve and the VW Arteon holds fifteen.

A twin stroller fits nicely in the boot, with four shopping bags alongside it.

The boot is shallow, so although a modular tandem pram fits in the boot, only one shopping bag fits alongside it. The low parcel shelf doesn't leave much room for a bassinet either.

A single stroller fits nicely in the boot, with five shopping bags beside it.

A compact stroller fits with nine shopping bags.

Loading things in and out of the boot is easy, the space is very large and the boot lid opens very wide.

The floor is carpeted so a baby can easily lay down for a nappy change in the boot of the Kia Stinger.

BabyDrive Indepth - Noise

How noisy is the Kia Stinger GT-Line?

The Kia Stinger is quite a vocal car! There are quite a lot of beeps and chimes but you can customise a fair few through the media screen.

The new media system in the 2021 Kia Stinger is larger than before.

The touchscreen is modern and easy to use and navigate. It has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so you can easily access podcasts and kids listening apps while driving.

I found the 2021 Kia Stinger easy to connect my phone to and there is a wireless charging well too.

One of the newest additions in the 2021 Kia Stinger is Sounds of Nature. This is gold for parents as it is white noise at your fingertips! We find it really good for getting little ones to sleep while driving and our youngest child loves the Calm Ocean Waves, which sends her straight to sleep!

The reversing camera image is really nice and crisp and clear in the 2021 Kia Stinger, much better than previous models. You get a birds-eye view which is great for parking and there are different views you can choose from down the side of the screen too.

You can turn the parking sensors on and off with a button down in the central console.

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!

That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.

If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?

It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?

A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.

Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!

I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

The indicator volume is quiet enough that it would not affect sleeping children on board.

The sat nav voice commands can be customised in the media screen, which is a great family feature.

The doors and windows both open and close with really nice quality feeling mechanisms and are quiet enough that they would not disturb a sleeping child.

The doors and windows can be locked from the driver's door control panel.

BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats

How many child seats fit in the 2021 Kia Stinger?

The Stinger has ISOFix points in the two outer rear seats.

They are within plastic guides and some of the easiest to use of all the cars I've tested.

There are top tether anchorages on the back of all three seatbacks, they are within plastic guides and easy to connect to through the boot.

Two child seats fit nicely in the back, one in each outer seat. We could only fit two child seats in the back of the Stinger and although there is the third top tether point for the central seat, there was not enough room for a third seat or a person to travel in the central seat.

There is a good amount of legroom in the Kia Stinger, we found a 184cm driver can travel in front of a rear-facing child seat but the kick room underneath the front seats is not good for older kids and adults travelling in the back.

Reaching in to do up child restraints isn't too bad for me at 162cm but for anyone taller, it is pretty back-breaking.

Posting babies into their child seats from inside and outside the Kia Stinger is VERY difficult. The low-slung roofline means there are some bumped heads and the door opening is tiny as you can see from this picture of an earlier model I tested.

Australia being a country of weather extremes- blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!

There is room to feed Bub in the back seat if you only have one child seat installed. All the seats in this GT-Line model are perforated leather, so keeping them clean is difficult as all crumbs and sand will get trapped in the perforations.

The back seats are quite angled but not as bucket-like as the front seats. This means you may need to level the angle of your baby capsule. Personally, I find travelling in the back of the Stinger a little claustrophobic, due to the narrow windows and low roofline.

BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort

How comfortable is the Kia Stinger GT-Line? And How good is the Kia Stinger GT-Line to drive?

I found the front and rear seats of the Kia Stinger to be comfortable.

The front seats in the GT-Line I tested have heated and cooled seats which were very nice and easily controlled down in the central console.

If you sit in the central seat, the seatback is hard because of the fold-down armrest and there is a tall hump in the central footwell so when sitting there, you have to straddle it with your legs.

For the first year of Bubs life when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with Bub so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!

In the back of the central console box, there is a 12V socket and a USB socket for charging phones. These are situated below the two air conditioning vents and controls.

The second-row seats do not adjust for legroom and the backrests do not adjust for reclining their angle either.

The windows in the back shape up towards the back of the doors, which makes visibility poor for little rear-facing passengers especially. For forward-facing passengers, visibility is not too good either because the windows are very shallow and I found it claustrophobic in the back.

One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Bub has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread when we get the big cars and utes as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, the poor visibility of the Stinger meant it was not quick to park but the excellent camera and parking guides made it much easier!

The front headrests are super adjustable; you can simply push them forward in stages and I found you could make them very comfortable while wearing a ponytail! Yipee!

I spent hours doing my hair this morning, said no new mum ever!!!

The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.

The cruise control buttons are located on the right of the steering wheel and were simple to use and quite accurate on motorways as well as at 60km/h on undulating roads.

There are five air vents in the front of the Kia Stinger. Three circular ones in the middle of the dashboard, the kind that sometimes looks really cheap and plastic but in the Stinger they don’t. Also, one large one at either end of the dashboard.

There are air vents in the back of the central console box for the rear passengers also. I could reach these with my hands while driving.

I found the air conditioning very effective and strong enough in the hot Queensland summer. The controls are very easy to use and well located in the centre of the dashboard.

There is a light in the ceiling in the back above the central seat. It is positioned too far back for me to reach while driving.

I find it important to reach the interior rear lights so that when I am driving Bub at night I can turn the lights on while she is awake so that she is not scared in the dark and then I can switch them off once she is asleep.

There is a handle above the back doors, which you can hang a child’s toy from.

The 2021 Kia Stinger GT-Line is a fantastic car to drive. It is so nice and smooth and fun when you drop the kids off as well as practical and easy to drive around town and for school drop-offs.

BabyDrive Indepth - Safety

How safe is the 2021 Kia Stinger GT-Line?

In the front of the Stinger, there is a good seatbelt removal visual on the dashboard.

The 2021 Kia Stinger is fitted with seven airbags that include a driver's knee airbag, frontal driver and passenger airbags and front side airbags, curtain airbags to protect front and back passengers from side impacts.

All models of the 2021 Kia Stinger come with ABS brakes (Anti-lock braking system), Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Vehicle stability management (VSM) and Hill-start assist control (HAC), emergency stop signal (ESS), cyclist detection and junction assist functions within the autonomous emergency braking system, improved lane-keep assistance and as well as lane following assist and active hood lift system (AHLS)

The Si and GT models come with Driver Attention Alert (DAA) and the GT-Line and GT get rear cross-traffic collision-avoidance assist, blind-spot collision-avoidance assist, blind-spot view monitor and safe exit warning.

The top-spec GT models also come with a 360-degree bird's eye view camera. This feature would really help when manoeuvring and parking the Stinger as it is really difficult to get a sense for the extremities of the vehicle and this would make parking easier.

Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound.

I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Bub's asleep!

FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2021 KIA STINGER GT-LINE