Kia Stinger suffers yellow paint defects, Kia admits

If you’ve laid down the coin for Kia’s new Stinger GT, you’re probably a pretty progressive, forward-thinking type. If you’re one of the five per cent of Stinger GT buyers who’s bought one in the company’s signature Sunshine Yellow, you’re probably somewhere fairly high on the extrovert curve. Unfortunately, we’ve got a bit of bad news…

Kia Australia has told MOTOR that there’s been a problem with the paint mix on the Sunshine Yellow hue, and it’s actually stopped selling the Stinger in that colour until it can be fixed. You can see for yourself if you check out the build-your-own Stinger page on Kia’s website.

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Kia officials were loath to throw anyone under a bus at this early stage, but it appears that it’s a global issue, and its being looked at very carefully by Kia’s research and development team.

However, it appears that the problem has been traced back to the supplier of the paint to Korea’s Ulsan manufacturing plant, where all Stingers are made.

“In essence, the supplier of the paint has had some technical issues,” our informant admitted. “The issue is around the paint’s adherence to primer – it’s causing the paint to easily chip off. All other colours have been tested and they’re okay.”

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Kia Australia’s product planning manager Roland Rivero says that the company will look after people who have bought the yellow Stingers.

“We don’t want our customers disadvantaged,” he told MOTOR. “That’s a key element. If they want us to buy their car back or repaint it, we can.”

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He emphasised that it’s not a recall, though. “Recalls only relate to safety-related items and the like,” he said.

Out of interest – and a source of vague disappointment for us – the number one colour for the Stinger is currently Pearl White.