2018 Kia Soul Road Test and Review

2018 Kia Soul driving1 ・ Photo by Kia

The Kia Soul is a great value and a sales hit, so it’s surprising that other car companies haven’t tried to knock it off with similar hatchbacks. But most car companies haven’t gone there. The Soul is one of just three vehicles J.D. Power identifies in the “compact multi-purpose vehicle segment,” and the other two, the Ford C-Max and Toyota Prius v, are slow sellers. On the other hand, Kia sold well over 100,000 of the boxy Soul hatchbacks in 2017. There are several reasons for that, and among the top reasons are the Soul’s versatility and its high product quality.

J.D. Power gave the 2017 Soul, the most recent version for which it has ratings, its highest marks for Overall Quality, Overall Performance, and Design, and Predicted Reliability. Changes for 2018 Soul are extremely minor.

Each trim has personality.

For a low-priced vehicle with utilitarian aspirations, the Kia Soul is more involving than you would think. Its base trim isn’t much more than a pleasant hauler of people and goods, but once you add 30 more horsepower in Plus (+) trim, the fun-to-drive quotient increases. And with the 201-horsepower turbo motor of the Exclaim (!) and its dual-clutch automatic transmission, you will (yes) exclaim how much enjoyment it delivers.

Don’t try to go hunting down Porsches, mind you, but its 6.5-second 0-to-60-mph time makes it the quickest of its ilk. It is definitely not, however, the antidote for the Volkswagen GTI. Most folks won’t choose the turbo anyway. The Soul Plus (+) will deliver exactly what they need — good acceleration, reasonable comfort, and bring-your-friends-and-stuff versatility.

Photo by Kia

Expansive Interior

The most notable thing about the Kia Soul’s interior is that it is so big. Without another vehicle as a reference, the Soul looks like a small car, but it is bigger than it looks, the interior space is also accentuated by its boxy shape. The Soul is an inexpensive vehicle, so its interior isn’t lush, but it is cleanly designed with a bit of cheekiness. The instrument cluster is clear and concise, and the sound system is exceptionally easy to operate. Hooray for separate knobs for volume and station/channel selection!

A tilt/telescoping steering wheel is standard across all three trim levels. Also standard is a six-way adjustable driver’s seat, while a 10-way power-adjusted seat and leather upholstery are optional. The rear seat accommodates three, and the 60/40 split seatback helps accept odd-sized cargo.

Photo by Kia

Boomin' Infotainment

One of the reasons Kia scores so well in quality surveys is its easy-to-understand and easy-to-use controls. That is epitomized in the 2018 Soul. Despite its low cost, a six-speaker AM/FM/MP3/Satellite radio audio system is standard, and UVO eServices with telematics and satellite radio is on the options list. So is Bluetooth and voice recognition.

On the mid-level Plus (+) and the top-level Exclaim (!) trim levels, navigation accompanied by an 8-inch display screen is optional. Also optional is a Harman Kardon audio system with a center speaker, subwoofer, and amplifier. And if you want speaker lights — and who doesn’t want speaker lights — the Soul offers them as well.

Photo by Kia

Spunky Exterior

In its exterior shape, the Kia Soul is an interesting mix of crossover suv and hot hatchback. It eschews all-wheel drive and any off-road pretension and sticks to its post as an urban assault vehicle. Riding on a 101.2-inch wheelbase, the Soul isn’t that long at 163.0 inches overall. But it is wide (70.9 inches) and tall (63.5 inches) for a hatchback, and that contributes to its roomy, versatile interior. In contrast, a MINI Cooper four-door is 157.4 inches long, 68 inches wide, and 56.1 inches tall.

From all angles, the Soul offers a youthful, frivolous countenance, and its easy-opening rear hatch helps it accept rafts of cargo. If you want to put a bike rack on the roof, you don’t need a stepladder either.

Photo by Kia

Trio of Powertrains

Three powertrains are available in the Soul, one for each trim level, and they define what each trim level delivers. The base Soul is equipped with a 130-horsepower 1.6-liter four-cylinder, and this engine can be accompanied by either a six-speed manual transmission or a six-speed automatic. As you might surmise, acceleration is nothing to tweet about.

One step up, the Plus (+) trim level is fitted with a 161-horsepower 2.0-liter four-cylinder with a six-speed automatic. Acceleration improves into the more-than-acceptable range, but don’t drag race for pinks. Finally, on the Exclaim (!) level, the Soul gets a 201-horsepower turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder, and it is accompanied by a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic that offers quick manual shifts.

Photo by Kia

Safety, Driver Aids, and Fuel Economy

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave the 2018 Soul the Top Safety Pick+ designation, its highest accolade. This implies the Soul is equipped with a robust array of active safety features, and that is certainly true for a well-optioned mid-level Plus (+) version. The list includes autonomous emergency braking, a forward-collision warning, a lane-departure warning, smart cruise control, and blind-spot monitoring. Blind-spot monitoring is also offered as an option on the Exclaim (!) trim level.

The Soul 1.6-liter manual gets 24 mpg in the city, 30 mpg on the highway, and 27 mpg overall in EPA testing. The automatic does 1 mpg better in the city, the same scores as the 2.0-liter Plus version. And the Exclaim turbo is rated at 26 mpg city, 31 mpg highway, and 28 mpg combined.

Photo by Kia

Cargo Carrying

One of the Soul’s virtues is its commodious size. Its interior space and cargo area rival several subcompact and compact crossover suvs. With the rear seat folded, it offers 61.3 cubic feet of cargo volume. And it delivers a still-robust 24.2 cubic feet with the second-row bench seat in use.

Cargo net hooks are standard on all 2018 Souls, and a cargo cover that shields your stuff from view is standard on both + and ! trim levels. The Soul can be equipped with roof rails that accept a variety of carriers. With front-wheel drive and small-displacement four-cylinder engines, however, it is not designed to tow.

Photo by Kia

Trim Levels

The 2018 Kia Soul is available in three trim levels — Soul, Soul Plus (+), and Soul Exclaim (!) — with three very different personalities. Yes, the family resemblance is there, but if you like one trim level you might not like another one at all. The base Soul is the not-as-much-nonsense version with a low-horsepower engine and a relatively modest list of stuff. Still six-speaker audio, air conditioning, power door locks, and a vast array of safety features are standard equipment.

Things get plusher in the Plus. If you’re not a boy racer or a girl racer, you will probably find the Plus your cup of chai latte, because it has a lot of comfort and convenience stuff. And the turbocharged Exclaim enables you to make a performance statement.

Photo by Kia

Pricing and Value

The Kia Soul has planted itself at the low-price/high-value end of the market, and its pricing reflects that. The base Soul with manual transmission has an MSRP of $16,200 plus an $895 destination charge. Add an automatic transmission to the base Soul and the MSRP climbs to $17,800 plus the $895 destination.

The middle-of-the-road Soul Plus (+) has a $20,400 MSRP plus $895 destination. And the hot, turbocharged Soul Exclaim (!) lets you pretend to be Lewis Hamilton for just $22,900 plus that pesky $895 destination charge. Given the Soul’s exceptional versatility, high quality, and perky sense of style, each of the Soul variants is a very good value.

Photo by Kia