Comments on: 2009 Kia Soul Review & Road Test

By: Ken D

Ken D — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:23:58 +0000

This car should be priced between the RIO and the Cerato as a starting price. I would buy one for around $17,500 drive away for a manual. It is basically a RIO engine and gearbox in a car the size of the old Cerato Hatch. The Cerato hatch was selling for $18,000 drive away with the 2.0 litre engine as a manual.

KIA head office should take note that very little are selling. Selling more at a reduced profit is better than selling very few at a huge mark up. The more you sell, the faster the KIA name in Australia get’s recognised as a good brand. For $25,000 drive away in a car this size, i’d expect sunroof, leather, 2.0 litre, 6 speed Manual or 6 Speed Auto, alloys, and a really good stereo system with sub, amp etc. Wake up KIA, reduce the price and move the stock.

By: FrugalOne

FrugalOne — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:34:32 +0000

Tony^^^^^

The reason is the price.

A baseline in auto, no options is $25k driveaway, they are dreaming at that coin.

Nice car though!

Cheers

F-0

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:29:45 +0000

Salesman, have not seen one on the road? what’s going on?

By: Hanna-key

Hanna-key — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:05:42 +0000

I hope the price comes down,I hope the engines get bigger and I hope they are extremely successful therefore livening up the Aussie streetscape that seems a tad boring at times.
Go the designers at Kia !

By: Byron

Byron — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:56:42 +0000

An interesting car from KIA. Didn’t expect this form KIA at all. It’s a very cool car. Exterior looks great except has to many line around the back end. Interior is a big improvement over the current KIA interiors. I agree, it is a tad expensive. Should be like 17-18K driveaway. I do like how you can customise it. See what happens :)

By: niski

niski — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:16:30 +0000

my wife likes it, still got my dodge caliber though, nearly 3 years now no issues, still happy with it except for the plastics, when i drive it i can get the consumption down to 7.2 l/100, 20k freeway and up to 8 city, but when my wife is driving, it can get up to 9.2/100, with the mid-spec soul’s price ill just probably go with mazda3

By: Mumble Duck

Mumble Duck — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:47:18 +0000

I guess you either love it or hate it!

By: eh179driver

eh179driver — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:35:41 +0000

George I have driven a Caliber many times, owned by a mate that likes a drink when we go out. I drive home! This is only my opinion so you need to compare them yourselves. The Caliber is so disapointing to drive and is not that well screwed together. I like the style, but like so many American cars, it is all style and no substance. The inside is very plasticky and they are a bit of a slug in the “go” department. I haven’t driven a Soul yet, but I have had a good look at cars in Melbourne dealerships and here in the USA. They appear to be well built and well thought out cars. From the road tests I have read they are not that quick (in petrol form) but the diesel specs look good.

By: George

George — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:17:34 +0000

I am looking at buying a Soul…. i currently have a Dodge Caliber, which i think is excellent to compare it to, on everything except for engine size. The Caliber has the same flexibility, the same space, similar features, and a similar unique look, however, the dodge has a 2.0L…. They are both priced similarly as well… so im going to look at the soul next… in the diesel should be good.

By: eh179driver

eh179driver — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:54:25 +0000

I am in the USA right now and went into a KIA dealer here to look at the US Soul. It comes with a 2 litre (thats liter here!) engine, not the 1.6 we have in Australia. The dealer told me its the Cerato engine. As I don’t know any different, I can’t say either way. The question is, why did we get the 1.6 and not the 2.0 litre engine? Maybe The Salesman can find out???

By: darkoslordus

darkoslordus — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:37:05 +0000

All sounds good and I like the look. I still have one major problem – no cruise control. I heard somewhere that cruise control will be an option from August on – is this correct?

If it had that it would be our first choice for a new car for a young family (although I’d like to know the driveaway price for each version) – instead we are considering a i30cw or a cerato

By: Confused

Confused — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:00:56 +0000

US sale is because the price is less in US. But why is it so high here?

I think Kia is not wanting to sell Soul here. If they want, the price should be right, at 14000 for base model.

By: Danman2

Danman2 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:00:45 +0000

This thread wa going downhill until Salesmane brought some logic to it..

Whilst a nice halo car for Kia the problem seems to be a disconnect between the publics expectation of a Kia’s pricepoint perception and the price of the Soul. Trust me the Soul is worth every single cent of it’s price. It’s the most characterful and personal car you can buy probably bar the Mini.It’s Kia’s ‘breakout’ car and good on them. This is history here. A desirable Kia (better than the cerato). 260Nm?? awesome.

Cheap for a Soul, expensive for a Kia is what i think people mean.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:16:16 +0000

Ah Salesman, what is with the use of the decimal point? I assume that is supposed to be a comma?

By: The Salesman

The Salesman — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:45:46 +0000

Tony,
Soul has had it’s best sales month since it’s February arrival. The model has seen it’s sales topping 3.855 units, up 19.4 percent over the month earlier when 3.228 Souls were sold.

Impressive initial Soul sales is good news, but what’s even more exciting is the fact that Kia Soul outperformed both of it’s main rivals in the US market. As of the end of April, Kia Soul has been competing to win over the customers only against Scion xB, but last month, the competition has been intensified with Japanese Nissan putting it’s all new, 2010 Cube crossover to the battle.

With sales of 3.855 units last month, the Soul has conquered the No. 1 spot in the econo “box-car” category beating the Scion xB in the second place and Nissan’s Cube in third by more than 1.500 units. Scion has sold 2.216 units of it’s boxy xB while Nissan sold 1.745 units of Cube.

When we look at the year-to-date sales numbers, the xB remains to be the best selling “boxy car” in the US market, but it’s sales in the first five months of fiscal year have fallen from 21.241 units to 9.697 units. In contrary, the sales of Soul crossover has been on increase (8.363 Souls sold to date) and with such performance, the Soul is expected to top the econo “box car” year-to-date sales charts already at the end of June.

By: eh179driver

eh179driver — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:35:38 +0000

I like the looks and the space the Soul offers, but agree, its too expensive. I look at it from the point of view that its roughly the same size and the same standard features as a Tucson/Sportage. So why is it so much more expensive. You can buy a Tucson City for $23′000 drive away. My guess is that we will see a price cut in a few months.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:09:24 +0000

What a cute little car, glad Kia has included diesel models. Might create some more needed interest in diesel motors…

By: KM

KM — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:00:07 +0000

Phillip,

Not sure if you realize but some people cannot afford to drive flash hot expensive cars with a “good” badge. This is why the Koreans give consumers a cheaper alternative at affordable prices (bar the Soul). Brand new car with 5 year warranty, what more can you want?

By: phillip

phillip — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:19:49 +0000

Nice or not, that is way too much dosh for a car with a badge that roughly translates from Korean to English as “I am a massive tight-ar$e”.

By: Hjalle

Hjalle — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:36:28 +0000

This car is so over priced. I saw it one day in a magazine or new papaer (i dont remember) and thought to myself, here is a nice new funky looking hatch for about 15 000.
Then i read the price and was schocked
Personally i think that they are charging atleast 5 grand to much for it.