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DRIVEN: Kia Soul Puts Funky Style In A Box
Written by: Bob Golfen   
06/01/2009
Phoenix, AZ
 
Media events, such as the one I attended in March for the Kia Soul, are designed by automakers to show off a car or truck in the best possible light.

Kia hopes the funky boxiness of the 2010 Kia Soul will attract young drivers. (Photo: Kia) » More Photos
Besides the actual driving, these get-togethers usually involve four-star hotels, fabulous meals and other perks designed to make auto writers feel pretty darn positive about the entire experience.

And, the automaker hopes, positive about the vehicle at hand.

Getting to experience the vehicle in the real world is something else altogether. A week’s worth of driving on home turf tends to expose any warts as well as revealing the car’s true drivability, practicality, personality and image.

A roomy rear cargo area boosts Soul's practicality factor. (Photo: Kia) » More Photos
So it was with the Soul. The squared-off Kia compact came off pretty well in the pastel-colored, urban seaside of Miami, but how would it fare in the everyday world of running errands in my somewhat less-exotic Phoenix neighborhood or heading out on some hilly desert road?

The verdict: not bad, not bad at all.

Even the family, including two very critical sons in their early 20s and a wife who disdains any car she considers “boxy,” thought Soul was cool.

The Soul that I drove was the best of the bunch, a Soul Sport with 142-horsepower engine, firmer
suspension and stickshift. Souls are available in three other trim levels – the regular Soul, Soul+ (plus) and Soul! (exclaim) – the lesser ones with a base 122-horsepower engine.

Having also driven a regular Soul with automatic and the bigger engine in Miami, I already knew that the Sport was the one to have. The standard-duty Soul with slushbox is pretty dull, and the softer suspension does the handling no favors.

The Sport version is quite drivable, considering its tall profile and modest power. Handling is decent, and with the five speed, I could wring enough power out of the 2-liter four-banger for cutting through traffic, at least.

The real push with Soul, though, is not about performance but image, especially in the eyes of the younger drivers that Kia hopes to attract with its funky aura. Kia hopes Soul will strike the right chord among urban youth, as the original Scion xB did with its even-more boxy looks.

The bopping hamsters in Kia’s TV ad say it all, that driving a Soul is hipper than going nowhere in your hamster wheel.

Soul makes no pretense of aerodynamics or other such mainstream considerations, an offbeat appeal to the young alternative-rock, Converse-wearing hamsters among us.

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