The Stinger is the best 2016 BMW M5 that Kia Motors has ever made. That’s meant as both a compliment and a comment on our electrified times.

The cabin is pretty and no-nonsense.

Yes, the Stinger is a throwback. It is a Black Mamba on wheels. The Stinger is a fast, dangerous, snarly, all-wheel-drive sports sedan with a twin-turbo/direct injection mill. That was the sixth-generation M5 in 2026, too.

I have singled out the 2016 BMW model because it was a complete joy. There was a time when sports sedan lovers looked to Munich for satisfaction and this is one of the cars they saw.

By 2017, with the introduction of a new generation of 5-Series, BMW’s products had begun to embrace the softer side of Bavaria. BMW’s showrooms started to become rather uninteresting.

Today, BMW has kicked its Ultimate Driving Machine commitment to the curb. The designs are soft and mushy. The boulevard-cruiser road manners favor comfort over performance.

Electrification is central to BMW’s future, but not in an edgy Tesla sort of way. Too much of what is coming out of BMW’s design house is lumpy and bland. There was a time when we drove a BMW for the pure pleasure of it. Now, the typical BMW EV from behind the wheel is indistinguishable from a long list of other EVs, even ones from Kia and its parent, Hyundai Motor and the Genesis brand.

Handsome.

The Stinger, though, is unabashedly naughty and utterly memorable. The 3.3-litre twin-turbo V-6 is all drama and fire, most alive when the driver is most demanding. At 368 hp/376 lb-ft or torque, and swilling back premium unleaded, it is a smash-mouth delight and surely an affront to Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and David Suzuki.

Here’s something that made me chuckle during my test drive. The steering-wheel-controlled drive mode selector allows you to toggle from Smart to Eco, from Comfort to Sport or Custom. The latter allows you to put your own spin on performance. But why would you drive in Eco mode? Why drive like an oxymoron?

My particular Stinger tester was one of 100 Tribute special edition models available in Canada. The globe will get just 1,000, by the way.

Each car, says Kia, comes with a numbered kick plate on the driver’s side. Other novelties: Moonscape grey exterior paint. It’s a colour you and I might call gunmetal grey, which like the car itself, is a politically incorrect descriptor. And there is a brown Terracotta interior.

As a package, this Tribute may become a valued collectible in 10, 20, 30 years. Perhaps. It might also be remembered as Kia’s BMW tribute to the decades of unabashed Ultimate Driving Machine excellence that began fading sometime around the middle of the last decade, if not slightly sooner.

Powerful

Sure, the Stinger Tribute is a bit of automotive violence. In the everyday commute, it’s a hammer on wheels looking for a nail. It sits poised and throbbing at red lights. It growls to life when you mash the throttle. It slashes through corners. This car is a coiled, venomous snake. What’s not to love?

The no-nonsense, leather-clad cabin is marked by sporty front buckets that squeeze you into place even when carving a tight apex. Paddle shifters. Check. Flat-bottomed steering wheel. Check. Matte carbon alloy inserts and upper garnish, leather-and-chrome-wrapped gear shifter and stainless-steel sport pedals. Check, check, check and check.

As for the exterior these things stand out: glossy black 19-inch alloy wheels wearing low-profile Michelin Performance Tires; Brembo calipers with red letters; and, dark chrome fender garnish. All unique to the Tribute and delightful.

If you’re wondering, yes, Kia has loaded up with the modern bits, from electronic driving nannied to a multimedia system with 10.25-inch screen, Android Auto/Apple CarPlay and even a smart key. But these things are not why you might love the Stinger Tribute.

You might fall in love with the price, though: $58,545, with fright. That’s a throwback to the mid-2010s, too.