2015 Kia Soul Reincarnated as Top Safety Pick

2014 Kia Soul ・ Photo by Benjamin Hunting

The 2015 Kia Soul remains funkier than ever, but now it's safer than ever, too: Following some key structural improvements for the new model year, the 2015 Kia Soul has been named a Top Safety Pick of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

To do so, the 2015 Kia Soul earned "good" grades, the highest presented, in all components of IIHS testing, including for occupant protection during small front-overlap impacts, medium front-overlap scenarios and side impacts, as well as for roof strength and the safety performance of its head restraints and seats.

But while that's certainly worth noting, so is the back-story here. Like a number of other vehicles—the 2015 Honda Fit is another recent example—the current-gen Soul missed out on a Top Safety Pick designation when first introduced. In fact, Kia was concerned enough about that small front-overlap test that it asked the IIHS not to evaluate the 2014 model. It was only through a running change that the 2015 Kia Soul was able to make the grade, although the result was, as mentioned, impressive enough to earn a "good" score; per the Institute, "All measurements recorded on the dummy indicated a low risk of any significant injuries in a crash of this severity."

For the curious, the 2015 Kia Soul wasn't eligible for a Top Safety Pick+ designation, since it doesn't offer front crash-prevention technologies.

On the other hand, the 2015 Kia Soul has received a 5-star overall safety score from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), earning five stars in frontal-crash and side-crash testing, along with four stars for rollover protection.

The 2015 Kia Soul is at dealerships now with MSRPs that begin at $15,100.