You already know, at least I hope you know, that the 2019 Kia Stinger GT is a world-class sports car worthy of your consideration. It’s like nothing Kia has ever built before, a low-slung rear-wheel (or all-wheel-drive) four-door sports car with a hatch in back. Its thrust provided by a twin-turbocharged three-hundred-sixty-five horse V6 that pushes you back in your seat during a 4.7-second blast to 60 mph. So why not build a Kia Stinger GT Wagon too? After all, if you build it, they will come…right?
Just look at that beautiful sport wagon profile (top right), or as they say in Europe, “shooting-brake” which sounds a bit cooler. In fact, the name “shooting-brake” is said to refer to the wagons people in England would take on “shooting parties” for wild game in the late 19th century. The word “brake” developing from the term “break” used to describe the process of hooking a wagon chassis to a horse to “break” them.
Thankfully, there are still a select few wagons on the prowl in America but not nearly as many as they have to choose from across the big pond. Even Kia builds a station wagon version of its awesome front-wheel-drive Optima sedan (in Europe) but sadly, it’s not offered here.
So, to truly stand out from the crowd, to offer an option to those of us who like the versatility of a wagon with its sport sedan handling and mini-SUV utility, it seems only logical to embrace the 2020 Kia Stinger GT Sport Wagon. Here’s why it makes sense.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m a fan of sport wagons, shooting-brakes, station wagons or whatever you want to call them. Fun fact; In America, the “station wagon” name developed from the days of trains, horses, and wagons as a traveler by train would be picked up at the train “station” by a “wagon” that could carry them and their bags to their final destination.
See that beautiful Squall Blue ’05 Mazda 6 Sport Wagon (bottom center) above? That was mine, bought right after my wife and I had our first of two boys. It not only served us well for eight years as a solid and safe family hauler, but it also provided me with a means of escape to the lake with my canoe or to take on a challenging mountain bike trail. It was a low profile, super sleek wagon with a 220 hp V6, a Yakima luggage rack on top and retractable cargo net behind the rear seats. My wagon had all the utility of a CUV but with great handling and road manners like a sports sedan. That’s why we need a Kia Stinger GT Wagon, a long, low, sleek, agile, and powerful sedan with the extra utility of a wagon out back. Who’s with me?
Unfortunately for us in the States, it’s a dwindling market. Subaru has been making the venerable Outback in its current generation for almost a decade so there is a good supply of Subie wagons in the used car market but so many great wagons of yesteryear like the 2012 Acura TSX Sport Wagon and my old Mazda 6 wagon have gone the way of the Dodo bird.
But fear not my fellow wagon enthusiasts because I have compiled a list of some of the best new sport wagon/shooting-brakes available to you today in the good ‘ole U.S. of A. These super wagons would provide a great benchmark for Kia if they decide to engineer a Kia Stinger GT Wagon for us.
So, there you have it. Seven, (soon to be six) cool and fully capable utility vehicles that just happen to be “wagons” that you can find today plus a few notable models on the used car market, (and I didn’t even mention Volvo). Yes, it is a dwindling field of dreams but for those of us who like to haul when we “haul” and look good doing it, it’s a field that needs the presence of a 2020 Kia Stinger GT Sport Wagon, don’t you think?
Written by Mark Arsen for LeithCars.com
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