Buyer Research

2022 Kia Stinger — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $24,000–$36,000. There are 3 high-severity known issues you need to know before handing over a check.

Deciding between model years? Compare the 6 Kia Stinger years we've written up →

Kestrel Take

The facelift year: new nose and tail, the 2.0-litre four replaced by a 255-horsepower 2.5-litre turbo in the GT-Line, and — the part that matters most when you are choosing between years — only one recall campaign instead of the 2021 car's five. The engine-bay fuse kit campaign and both fuel-supply campaigns were written against earlier build years and stop before this one; only the turbocharger oil feed pipe reaches it. The 18 complaints here are too few to call a pattern, but they are not random either: a third of them are electrical, and the specific words that keep appearing are the main wiring harness, an air conditioner that quits, and a panoramic sunroof that has broken on its own on several of these cars. Drive one on a hot day with the air conditioning running, and go over the roof glass before you talk price.

What we checked

Checked against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 18 owner complaints for the 2022 Kia Stinger, and 1 recall campaign.

That is too small a record to read a pattern from, so we are not going to pretend otherwise — with numbers this low one owner moves the percentage by a lot. What has been filed is grouped under electrics and electronics (6), the engine (4), glass, wipers and mirrors (4). Treat those as things to look at, not as the vehicle's known weaknesses. A thin file usually means few of these were sold or few owners filed. It is not evidence the vehicle is trouble-free, and the issues below are our own research rather than a reading of this record.

One recall campaign covers this model year. Recalls are repaired free, for any owner, with no time limit on most safety campaigns — but only if someone books it in. Ask the seller to show it was done, or have any dealer check the VIN; it takes them a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2022 Kia Stinger

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

The oil feed pipe to the left turbo degrades and weeps onto hot metal (recall)High — wallet impact

Campaign 24V169 is the only recall on this year and it covers 3.3-litre turbo cars: the pipe and hose feeding oil to the left turbocharger can break down and leak onto engine parts hot enough to ignite it while you are driving. Dealers fit a new pipe and hose at no cost, with letters mailed in April 2024. One owner on this exact year reported being turned away because the dealer's system did not show his VIN as covered — so if a 3.3 is refused service, get the refusal in writing and take it to Kia's consumer affairs line rather than dropping it. A GT-Line with the 2.5-litre four is outside this campaign entirely.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the engine (4); 1 NHTSA recall campaign on this model year.

Main engine wiring harness overheats and melts, taking the air conditioning with itHigh — wallet impact

The clearest thread in this year's electrical complaints is the harness itself. One owner's dealer found the engine harness melted after the same fault was 'fixed' three times; another took the car in for an air conditioner that had stopped working and was told the main wiring harness was defective. A harness is not a part a shop swaps in an hour — it is a day or more of labour threading loom through the car, and it lands in four figures once the warranty is gone. Symptoms to catch on a test drive: air conditioning that blows warm, electrical faults that come and go with engine bay temperature, and any burnt-plastic smell after a long run.

Repair cost (estimate): $1,200–$4,000 for harness repair or replacement

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (6).

Panoramic sunroof shatters on its own at speedHigh — wallet impact

Three of the four visibility complaints on this year, plus more on the 2023 car, describe the same event: a bang like a gunshot at highway speed and the roof glass breaking with nothing having hit it. It is a known failure mode on large bonded panoramic panels across many makes — the glass is under tension and a chipped edge or a stressed frame lets go. Replacement glass on a panoramic roof is expensive and insurers often treat it as comprehensive rather than collision, so check your deductible before assuming it is covered. Before buying, run your fingers along the painted edge of the glass looking for chips, and inside the car look for a hairline crack starting at a corner.

Repair cost (estimate): $1,200–$3,500 for a panoramic glass panel fitted

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under glass, wipers and mirrors (4).

Air conditioning blower motor burns out repeatedly in hot climatesMedium

One owner in Phoenix documented three blower motor failures in under a year — August 2025, June 2026 and July 2026 — the first of them while the car was still under warranty. A blower motor that keeps dying usually means the motor is fighting something: a clogged cabin filter, a failing resistor, or the harness trouble described above feeding it the wrong voltage. On the test drive, run the fan through every speed and listen for a rising whine or a click as it steps between settings, and make sure cold air actually arrives at the vents after five minutes idling.

Repair cost (estimate): $250–$700 for the blower motor and resistor

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (6).

Hot-weather no-start that leaves the car where you parked itMedium

An owner here reports that every summer, shutting the car off on a hot day means it will not start again — and that several Kia dealers could not reproduce it because the car stored no code, so nothing was repaired before the warranty expired. That is one owner, not a pattern, and we cannot name the part. What we can say is what makes it checkable for you: if you are shopping in warm weather, drive the car long enough to get it thoroughly hot, shut it off, wait fifteen minutes and start it again before you hand over money. A crank that goes on and on, or a click with dash lights holding steady, is worth walking away over.

Repair cost (estimate): $300–$1,400 depending on whether it is the starter, a relay or a sensor

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (6).

Door switch and ambient lighting flicker and change colour by themselvesLow

An owner describes the illumination on the driver's door switch pack flickering at night and the cabin's ambient lighting changing colours on its own, and suspects the two are linked. It is irritating rather than expensive, and the usual causes are a switch pack with a bad earth or a loose connector behind the door card. Worth noticing on a night-time test drive mostly because it is the same electrical system the harness complaints above come from — a car doing this may be telling you something bigger.

Repair cost (estimate): $150–$450 for the door switch pack

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (6).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Air conditioning that blows warm after five minutes at idle
✗A chip or a hairline crack at the edge of the panoramic roof glass
✗Burnt-plastic smell in the engine bay after a hard run
✗Electrical gremlins that only appear once the car is hot
✗A 3.3-litre car whose owner was told the oil pipe recall did not apply

Good Signs

✓The turbocharger oil feed pipe campaign shown closed on the NHTSA VIN lookup
✓A dealer invoice for wiring harness repair, which means the known weak spot is already addressed
✓Cold air at the vents within a couple of minutes on a hot day
✓Roof glass with clean, unchipped edges all the way round
✓A 2.5-litre GT-Line, which sits outside the 3.3's turbo oil pipe campaign