There were no epic drives or road trips in store for the Soul today, just visiting friends and doing some last-minute Christmas shopping here in Mississauga, Ontario. Oh, and picking up the proper iPod cord from Kia (it's a BMW-style one that plugs into both the USB and aux ports, but more on that another day).
One of the first things I've noticed about the Soul is that it has a rather firm ride. There's quite a bit of impact harshness that comes through because of the big 18-inch wheels included with the 4U Retro trim. They look cool, but I'm not sure they're worth the resulting ride. Especially since the Soul is hardly the sort of car to go canyon carving in ... sorry, I'm in Ontario, cottage country carving in.
The 2.0-liter four-cylinder is punchy, but it's certainly got an agricultural sound to it. When approaching 120 km/h north of 3,000 rpm, the engine starts to assert itself over the otherwise manageable road noise. The four-speed auto is reasonably quick to downshift when needed and holds onto gears well when accelerating.
So, the Soul is hardly a finely crafted driving machine, but are you really surprised? What it did do successfully was fit my 6-foot-3 friend comfortably in its back seat, stuff a bunch of shopping bags in the trunk and draw compliments. I had the Soul for all of five minutes before a lady with a CR-V said she thought it looked neat and asked me what I thought of it.
"Yeah it's cool," I said. "You get an awful lot of character for not a lot of money."
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 5,753 kilometres
By auto_guy
on December 22, 2009
04:21 PM
I like the look of the Kia Soul but I could never imagine myself owning one. I prefer traditional sedans than boxy cars.
By orangutan
on December 22, 2009
07:59 PM
I really enjoyed my time driving around in a Soul and almost bought one. If they could give it a telescoping wheel and, at the very least, a five-speed automatic it'd be really competitive. The new 2.0T for the updated Sonata would be a nice choice.
By dougtheeng
on December 23, 2009
06:44 AM
I agree with the comments about the engine noise north of 3,000 RPM - it does concern me on the highway sometimes, lol. I have the 16" rims, which I believe ride better AND look better - the 18" rim design is lackluster, imo.
I'm looking forward to hearing about the iPod cord. Right now I just use the USB port for all my audio needs. My iPhone battery drains too quickly.
By misterfusion
on December 23, 2009
10:46 AM
Aargh, that's right -- in order to get the nice "Exclaim"-trim interior, I'd have to take the 18" wheels that come with it. I wonder how easy it would be to talk the dealer into exchanging them for the normal 16's -- along with a commensurate decrease in sticker price...