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First take on the Kia Soul

Big Dog

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I have never owned a vehicle that didn't has a GM or Dodge emblem. Wives will steer you to do different things .... :whistling:

My wife is a representative for Quiznos subs. She has a pretty large area to cover and it keeps getting bigger. Previous area was all within a day trip and she's used a 99' Chevy Lumina (awesome vehicles IMO) I inherited in 2013 with 30K on it which now has 183K on it, yeah she puts some miles on. Side note: I've owned 4 GM vehicles with 3.X liter engines and they have all been excellent, I love them and wanted another. The Lumina is still very dependable but it was time for an upgrade for wifey.

In the last year her area expanded to overnighters and longer, so when she does longer trips she rents. She's rented everything and the Kia Soul convinced her that it was what she wanted, I objected. I just am not a fan of 4 cylinder engines and small. For Christ sakes I'm uncomfortable in the 14' Camaro I surprised her with a couple years ago that only has 4000 miles on it, how was I going to fit in a Kia Soul??? She kept telling me they have tons of room. She likes it because she swears her field of view is excellent, she can see everywhere in all directions, gets decent gas mileage and it runs good ........... yeah sure Ok.

She was away 2 weeks ago, end of the month so I went looking. Played hardball with a few dealers and bought a used 2016 red Kia Soul, + trim package with 11K miles, lots of warranty left. The trim gave me a few niceties the I wanted for her, 2L upgrade from the base 1.6L, nicer wheels, BU camera, running lights and Bluetooth along with all controls from the steering wheel. I abstained from the ! trim, I saw it as potentially less "issues", hell I thought I was stretching my gut feel far enough with a foreign car!!

Now prior to buying I sat in them only (never driven one) and came away shocked with how much room they have. I'm big and I'm very comfortable in the Soul, front seats or back! I'd never driven one until after I wrote the check mainly because I don't have to, it is my wife's car, it's what she wanted. Obviously I had to get it home and one of the reasons I bought was to surprise her when she got home.

Once behind the wheel I was pleasantly surprised at the car's performance. In PA, hills are a way of life and always my disdain for the 4 hole engine but so far so good driving away. In the pilot seat all amenities are accessible from the steering wheel, radio, cruise, info, and communication. It has USB, power, and radio auxiliaries jacks. It even has a driving mode for steering, stiffer for sport, softer for comfort and neutral for in between. Had to go a few miles before I could put it on cruise with rolling hills. Another surprise, no violent shifting with the cruise set at 70 and rpm's right at 2000! Got closer to home where the hills are a lot steeper and 2 lane (no cruise). The car did have to work a bit harder but the shifting was decent. I can live with it and I don't have to drive it.

In all, so far I'm on the + side of impressed, let's hope this continues. First tank got a smidge under 32mpg. Haven't emptied the second tank yet, she's renting this week ............. :biggrin:
 

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bczoom

Super Moderator
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Nice review.

Personally, I think the Soul is ugly and I'm not sure if I yet trust the Kia or Hyundai brands yet. I did just rent a Hyundai Sonata. Rode nice for the 100 miles I drove it but the driver controls felt wrong.
 

Big Dog

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Nice review.

Personally, I think the Soul is ugly and I'm not sure if I yet trust the Kia or Hyundai brands yet. I did just rent a Hyundai Sonata. Rode nice for the 100 miles I drove it but the driver controls felt wrong.

Oh believe me, I'm on your side on this. I'd have been much happier if she would have agreed to a Chevy Impala. There was another reason for for my reluctance to the Kia .................

In 2005 I was visiting my brother in WA state. He happen to be looking for a new vehicle. Went shopping with him and happen to hit a Toyota/Kia dealership. While he was test driving a Toyota I roamed the lot and got to looking at the Sportage. At the time it was a newly released 2nd Gen Sportage. It was nice, comfortable, performed well and they just intro'ed the 10yr/100K warranty. Long story short he bought one .............. It was a nightmare for my brother and he ended up giviing it back due to lemon law.

So now you know how many barriers it broke down for me to buy this Soul!!!
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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Does it come with hamster balls? :yum: Had to say it. Just kidding of course.

We currently own a 2012 Hyundai Sonata (same company) with currently 35K on the clock and the car has been trouble free and the dealer has been the best we have dealt with in recent memory. I say trouble free but the S on the Sonata emblem came loose and they replaced the whole emblem, also a recall on a shift cable that was replaced and then they decided the engine should have 1/2 quart more oil so they replaced the dip stick to reflect that. Still on the original every thing else. A terrific car with no second thoughts.

My last two cars had much more issues. Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Strattus. Two piss poor cars IMHO. Chrysler will never get my money again.

I believe Kia is made in the USA right along with Hyundai. That's right, American workers supporting American families put the car together and NOT UAW involved to f**k things up.

I vowed NEVER to buy another car made by the UAW after they supported OWS commies. So far, I have kept that vow. They also support Hillary so they can stick their cars up their ass.

BTW, BIG DOG, I had barriers too when I considered Hyundai. My wife could not believe it and would not believe it at first. She was convinced it was a joke. Hyundai and Kia have come a long, long way and make very good and safe cars. Read the reports. Our next car will be a Kia Optima with all the bells and whistles, only because I like the looks of the Optima better then the Sonata.
 

waybomb

Well-known member
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Buddy bought a Kia new. Not a soul but some other SUV thing. It was nice when new. After about 60,000 miles, was not so nice. Loud, harsh, not a fun ride at all. He got rid of it at a nice loss.
 

jimbo

Bronze Member
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My son has had a Soul for a couple of years. His is an amazing little car. He is 6'10" and has no trouble fitting in the vehicle along with his 6'3" dad.

The car has been trouble free. It's now being used by his son to pull a small drift boat, something didn't think it would do. We'll see how long it lasts with this service.
 

NorthernRedneck

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A sucker born every minute. Lmao. Just kidding.

Ever heard of a pig with lipstick? That's kia. There's a reason why I called the main company and asked them of kia stood for KILLED IN ACTION. We bought a brand new sephia in 2001. In 50k we had the complete exhaust changed 3 times. The doors wouldn't open either from the inside or outside in the winter. The hood latch let go on the highway causing the hood to fly up. The red paint had faded grey within 6 months. The rear brakes flew apart and locked up

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Big Dog

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A sucker born every minute. Lmao. Just kidding.

Ever heard of a pig with lipstick? That's kia. There's a reason why I called the main company and asked them of kia stood for KILLED IN ACTION. We bought a brand new sephia in 2001. In 50k we had the complete exhaust changed 3 times. The doors wouldn't open either from the inside or outside in the winter. The hood latch let go on the highway causing the hood to fly up. The red paint had faded grey within 6 months. The rear brakes flew apart and locked up

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Yeah I hear you, the older ones were, as I explained with my brothers, all appeared to be like Microsoft OS experiments. Let's let the consumer find our errors!

Today not so much, believe me I did some research before I bought. The car has a good safety rating and after talking to a few owners who frankly all gave great reviews, I decided to roll the dice .........
 

Adillo303

Diesel Truck Fan
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My wife had a KIA sportage for a month shy of 6 years. It worked reliably and got good gas mileage. She decided to broadside a ford van at 5 MPH. The entire front of the car virtually exploded. Fender ripped off hood blew off front bumper assembly fell off. car totaled. One payment left (Drat)

Seems pretty extreme for 5 MPH. Air bags didn't even go off. Seems like a lot for 5 MPH. I'm thankful this didn't happen at highway speeds.
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Big Dog

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My wife had a KIA sportage for a month shy of 6 years. It worked reliably and got good gas mileage. She decided to broadside a ford van at 5 MPH. The entire front of the car virtually exploded. Fender ripped off hood blew off front bumper assembly fell off. car totaled. One payment left (Drat)

Seems pretty extreme for 5 MPH. Air bags didn't even go off. Seems like a lot for 5 MPH. I'm thankful this didn't happen at highway speeds.

Well she took on a bigger, heavier unit so even at 5 mph I could see that ...... cars today are designed to do that to take the impact .....
 

Adillo303

Diesel Truck Fan
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I looked at it this way. If a 5 MPH crash is a total, I'm glad she is not running around at highway speeds. Of course then air bags, etc come into play.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
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I forgot to mention the 2004sedona van we traded the sephia on after it was towed 3 hrs to the nearest dealership for the sixth time in 50k. The Sedona was nice at first but 5 power steering hoses and 2 power steering pumps in 30k was enough for me. I remember we had it a total of 4 days one month. That's not combined either. And every time it had to be towed to the dealer 3 hrs away. So that meant us both taking a day off work and driving down to pick it up after each repair. We did 4 trips in one month to come get the stupid thing.

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EastTexFrank

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Yea, we all have war stories. Here's mine.

We had a Kia Sorento for 10 years and apart from new tires and oil and filters, it never needed anything. It just kept running. I wouldn't have any qualms about buying another. The only reason I didn't was that I needed something that I could tow behind the RV and the Kia wasn't it.

Enjoy BD. If she's happy you're a hero!!!
 

Big Dog

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I forgot to mention the 2004sedona van we traded the sephia on after it was towed 3 hrs to the nearest dealership for the sixth time in 50k. The Sedona was nice at first but 5 power steering hoses and 2 power steering pumps in 30k was enough for me. I remember we had it a total of 4 days one month. That's not combined either. And every time it had to be towed to the dealer 3 hrs away. So that meant us both taking a day off work and driving down to pick it up after each repair. We did 4 trips in one month to come get the stupid thing.

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I just take that as another older generation Kia issue which there were many, I experienced it with my brothers Sportage. They have obviously stepped up QC or I'd never consider one and it still took me awhile to buy into the idea.

Yea, we all have war stories. Here's mine.

We had a Kia Sorento for 10 years and apart from new tires and oil and filters, it never needed anything. It just kept running. I wouldn't have any qualms about buying another. The only reason I didn't was that I needed something that I could tow behind the RV and the Kia wasn't it.

Enjoy BD. If she's happy you're a hero!!!

So far so good with wifey ........... :thumb:
 

jwstewar

Active member
Mom bought a 2015 Soul last April. She got the + version with Nav. Not that she needed Nav, she wanted the bigger screen for the back up camera. She probably has somewhere around 10k miles on it. So far no issues. I think there may have been one recall on it, but that has been it. Only vehicle that I know to have better results was our 2008 Chevy Suburban. Hasn't been in the shop at all except when it was struck by lightening. I've driven it a couple times. I don't think the Soul drove bad, but not great either. Nice selection of "toys" in it - mood lighting around the speakers, auto climate, Bluetooth and syncing with the phone. You said you got the +, but I see it has fog lights. I wanted Mom's to have fog lights, but they said you could only get them on the ! model. Maybe they were just blowing smoke because this is the one they found and didn't want to look any farther.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Hyundai & Kia have a fair amount of recalls. The latest one I know of is for certain 2.4 GDi engines for the possibility of shavings not being removed properly from the oil ports in the crankshaft. This could result in premature failure of the engine, of course.

Maybe Hyundai/Kia remain proactive on recalls. Or, maybe they just have a lot of issues. Maybe both. Remember when Government Motors refused the recall on ignition switches? I have a friend who replaced three of them on his Tahoe within 5 years, yet Government Motors claimed right up until the end nothing was amiss and charged him full bore for every switch they replaced except for the one that was covered under the original 3yr/3600 warranty. The switches were defective from day one, they knew it and continued to order them from their supplier without even requesting they be modified to fix the issue. Assholes.

Bottom line, every vehicle is awesome when they run good and are a piece of shit when they do not.
 

NorthernRedneck

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That's true. There is no perfect manufacturer or vehicle. We had a 2007 Santa fe right off the lot. The only issue we had with it was around the 40km mark the pads on the rear brakes stuck and wore down to bare metal without warning. When I tore it apart the brake caliper slides were seized.

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Big Dog

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That's true. There is no perfect manufacturer or vehicle. We had a 2007 Santa fe right off the lot. The only issue we had with it was around the 40km mark the pads on the rear brakes stuck and wore down to bare metal without warning. When I tore it apart the brake caliper slides were seized.

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I'm beginning to think you ain't easy on vehicles .................. :biggrin:
 

squerly

Supported Ben Carson
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I bought a 2008 Hyundai Veracruz Limited off the showroom floor. It was all-wheel drive and had every option that was available. It was an awesome car and reasonably priced.

Only problem I had with it was the seat belt light kept going on/off but the dealer fixed it promptly. Put about 50K on it with no problems. Nice car. Unfortunately it drown in the flood waters after a hurricane.
 
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