The Kia Stinger is a wonderful car, but it isn't cheap. Even a base Stinger costs almost $33,000 and a fully-loaded model tops out at around $51,000. Kia is typically known as a value brand, but this is the first time that the brand has produced something that actually costs more than used alternatives from luxury brands like BMW and Porsche. Even with the high price, we'd still recommend buying the Stinger, but something unexpected has happened to change that. Dealerships have decided to add markups to the car's price.
That's right, if you want to be the first one on the block with a Stinger you may have to pay above MSRP to get it. We went to our local Kia dealership (which will remain nameless) to drive a Stinger, and we saw a dealer markup of around $5,000. A few people on the Stinger Forums have even created a list of dealerships that have been marking up the car, so you can feel free to add your local dealership if they are guilty of this awful practice. Dealer markups aren't uncommon on limited edition sports cars and supercars, but we were a bit shocked to see them on a Kia. Unless a car is expected to be an appreciating limited production run, we'd never recommend paying above MSRP.
The Kia Stinger isn't exactly cheap, and paying above MSRP is just throwing money away. Right now, Kia dealerships are struggling to keep the Stinger in stock because it is a very popular car. After a while, the dealers will be able to keep them in stock and they eventually be sold at a discount like all other cars. When these cars start to depreciate, the people who paid above MSRP will really start to notice that they got screwed. We still love the Stinger, but we wouldn't advise anyone to pay over MSPR for it.