Kia Soul gets serious — well, seriously fun
Everyone remembers the 2012 dancing hamsters commercial, which spotlighted the rollout of the Kia Soul to the world, who then drive an ultra-modern boxy compact SUV into a futuristic twilight zone.
Well, bye-bye, dancing hamsters, and hello personality with the third generation, 2020 Kia Soul.
Six variants are offered with the 2020 Soul, beginning with the LX model coming in at $18,485 offering a standard six-speed manual transmission all the way up to our GT-Line Turbo at $28,485 with an automatic dual clutch transmission.
The new Soul is similar to its predecessors, yet the body appears wider than normal and with slimmer lines. A larger grille adorns the GTLine Turbo, and taillights wrap around the entire rear glass, offering an even more modern look. Our GT-Line Turbo sported red-stitched accents, 18-inch wheels, red side trim and glossy black side mirror. Fog lamps are standard. Additionally, the Soul’s overall wheelbase is a bit longer than the previous two versions.
Storage space is unchanged at 24.2 cubic feet — 62.1 cubic feet with the seat backs folded. Those are pretty strong storage numbers since the Soul is now in a class by itself, with the recently eliminated Nissan Cube and previously discontinued Scion xB.
A heads-up display is an option; it’s similar to our recently tested Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. The clear pane heads-up display slides upwards in front of the driver, rather than a projection onto the front windshield like most other manufacturers. A glorious 10-inch infotainment system is standard in the Soul and is easy to use and very simple to navigate.
The ride has a newly designed sporty suspension that we really enjoyed; other manufacturers in the compact SUV lineup, take note.
Assisted by its 1.6-liter direct injection turbo engine and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the Soul GTLine took 7.0 seconds from 0-60 — not really fantastic and a little laggy, but fairly impressive for a sporty box on wheels.
The competition-less Kia
Soul is here to stay and the sporty GT-Line Turbo proves why. MSRP: $27,490 As tested: $28,710 MPG: 27 city; 32 highway; 29.2 as tested