What we have here is the first Kia that people will buy for reasons other than price, although the price is mighty attractive, too. I liked this funky little box far more than I expected. First, as Ms. Misaros notes, the interior is really nicely done. I love the bright red materials. Why should a fun and funky young person's car be lined with drab black and gray?!? Bring on the color, I say.
Second, the exterior is also really, really good looking, especially for Kia. It would be easy to attribute the Soul's distinctive styling to Kia's design chief, Peter Schreyer, but the fact is that he has only been on the job for a couple of years, so he could have done nothing more than minor retouching to the Soul. But the Soul is a tribute to the fact that there clearly are some talented designers within Kia, aside from Schreyer. And since Schreyer is a veteran of the Volkswagen and Audi design studios, we can expect to see even more good stuff from him and his team.
What I'm getting at here is that the Soul doesn't look or feel cheap. It has substance and it has style, attributes sorely missing from most Kia vehicles in the past. It's a vehicle I was happy to be seen in.
It's true that the Soul is no sport wagon, but it will serve the needs of young urbanites and small families quite well for nightclubbing, shopping, and weekend jaunts. Yep, there was definitely a syncro problem in our test car's five-speed manual transmission; let's hope similar issues don't rear their heads in production cars.
As it is, the Soul doesn't feel anything remotely like a bargain basement ride. I was shocked as I slithered up my snowy driveway to feel stability control at work; I had never imagined that it would be available.
All in all, I come away very impressed.
Joe DeMatio, Executive Editor ...next page >>