Queensland Police locks up Kia Stinger
BY JUSTIN HILLIARD | 5th Jul 2018
QUEENSLAND Police has announced an agreement with Kia Motors Australia (KMAu) that will see 50 V6 Stinger liftbacks added to its road policing command by December this year as replacements for the outgoing Holden Commodore SS and Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo vehicles.
While the three-strong V6 Stinger line-up ranges in price from $48,990 to $59,990 before on-road costs for the 330S and GT variants respectively, a special package featuring high-tech equipment has been created for the Queensland Police examples.
As with the Commodore and Falcon police vehicles of yesteryear, some luxury items, such as sunroofs, have been left out of these V6 Stingers to help reduce the cost to taxpayers.
A mismatch of consumer specification is otherwise found, including the Brembo braking package from the flagship GT and the 19-inch alloy wheels from the mid-range 330Si.
As with all V6 Stingers, a 3.3-litre twin-turbocharged petrol engine produces 272kW of power at 6000rpm and 510Nm of torque from 1300 to 4500rpm.
An eight-speed torque-convertor automatic transmission exclusively sends drive to the rear wheels, enabling a sprint from standstill to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds.
After an extended assessment program, the V6 Stinger received the tick of approval, with Queensland Police commissioner Ian Stewart expressing his excitement with the decision.
“This is a very important day for us,” he said. “We needed a special product to do a job for us, and that is what we have here. A wonderful product.”
Queensland minister for police and corrective services Mark Ryan added that the decision became easy after key stakeholders started to consider the V6 Stinger’s credentials.
“It was not a big step at all once we had begun the investigation process,” he said.
“Reading what the experts had to say, and seeing how efficiently the Stinger was changing minds and perceptions once people had been exposed to it … it was not a difficult decision.
“You often hear police ministers talking about providing the best equipment for those at the coal face. In this case, I truly believe we have been able to do that.”
Despite Mr Ryan’s enthusiasm, Queensland Police assistant commissioner for road policing command Mike Keating explained that the evaluation process was comprehensive and culminated in an unprecedented result.
“It started with the desktop evaluation, then a track performance evaluation and then the operational evaluation conducted in real-world conditions,” he said.
“The final overall evaluation and review included the very important aspect of maintenance and cost. The Stinger performed very well in all areas and we had nothing but top reports from all the field officers.
“The result is a road policing first for us – the first foreign car to perform these duties.”
KMAu chief operating office Damien Meredith indicated that receiving this commitment from Queensland Police is the latest string in the perception-changing V6 Stinger’s bow.
“This level of public exposure and endorsement from a high-profile government utility is something which wouldn’t have been on the radar just a few years ago,” he said. “It is just a beginning, but a very important one for us.”
According to KMAu, police forces in other Australian states are continuing to evaluate the Stinger for deployment alongside different Kia models, such as the Sorento large SUV.
New South Wales Police Force started rolling out Chrysler 300 SRT Core and BMW 520d sedans to its highway patrol fleet this month, while Victoria Police added the latter earlier this year alongside Holden Colorado pick-ups that serve as divisional vans.
