Jun 2, 2009

New Kia Has Soul

Americans traditionally looked at five-door hatchbacks with the same disdain they have for curried mutton. But things have changed, and five-door vehicles like the Scion xB, which resembles a rolling breadbox, are regarded as cool. Now Korean automaker Kia has entered the fray with a new, inexpensive but highly styled five-door it calls the Soul, and it is depending upon its perky good looks to win fans. Funky exterior and interior styling is the Soul’s calling card. Its two-box exterior design is accented by a tapering greenhouse, a bold character line and a friendly face, and its versatile interior looks like it could have come from a much more expensive vehicle.

Like the xB and the new Nissan Cube, sporty driving is not high on the Soul’s list of attributes. All three vehicles are designed to carry things and people in a confined, urban environment. But of the three, the Soul is the most fun to drive. Its base engine is a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine that produces 122 horsepower, but we’d opt for the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that offers 142 horsepower. It can be matched to either a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic transmission, and either way, it offers a thrifty 24 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway.

The interior is well-finished, and it features straightforward controls that are highly legible and easy to use. The top-of-the-line Soul features a leather-wrapped steering wheel and unique “sand-black” cloth interior trim with houndstooth inserts. If that’s not cool enough for you, the audio upgrade package includes a center speaker, subwoofer, 315-watt external amplifier, and coolest of all, speaker lights that pulse to the beat of the music or simply add mood lighting.

The Kia Soul starts at about $14,000 and ranges up to about $19,000.

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