2014 Kia Soul

[basti08]

Kia’s Soul has been an undeniable success, thanks to clever packaging, unique styling, and a funky-fresh marketing campaign stuffed with, of all things, breakdancing people-sized hamsters. Now, just four years after the Soul was introduced in the U.S., Kia has totally redesigned the five-door hatchback with a larger footprint, a nicer interior, and carefully updated sheetmetal. Believe it or not, Kia thinks the Soul’s design has become iconic, and thus faced a problem familiar to Porsche’s 911 stylists when it came to updating the car’s look without messing with its basic essence.

Soul Long, Unrefined Smallness

When it designed the new Soul, Kia says it looked to last year’s butch, apostrophe-philic Track’ster concept for inspiration. We say that emulating to the Track’ster was a solid start—the concept featured a bulldog-like stance and a somewhat smoother look than the outgoing Soul. While the new Soul isn’t exactly a carbon copy of the Track’ster—it’s a five-door, not a three-door, and has normal-sized wheels—the show car’s squinty headlights, gaping lower intake, and wide-set fog lights made the leap to production. In profile, the Soul maintains its signature sloping roof and wraparound-look windshield, and the fender vents are more cleanly integrated than before.

The Soul’s butt benefits from the addition of a “floating” body-color panel that appears to be embedded in the rear hatch glass. It’s a neat feature, and it really works paired with the tall, high-mounted taillights that flank the hatch opening. As a bonus, the opening itself is 2.4 inches wider than before, meaning the added flair doesn’t come at the expense of functionality. The rear bumper has a raised section that mirrors the front intake, as well as a pair of fog light–emulating circular cutouts that house reflectors. As before, the fender openings are outlined by punched-out flares, but these are 0.6-inch wider than before. The wheelbase is stretched by 0.8 inch to 101.2 inches, while the Soul’s height is unchanged at 63.4 inches. The result is an improved stance and a more upscale look, although it’s not nearly as aggressive as its Track’ster inspiration.

Souldiering Forth

The company went a little crazier inside—in a good way. Cosmetically, the designers employed a circle-heavy theme, utilizing the shape to define the three-zone gauge cluster, the door panel scallops, shifter base, dash-top audio speakers, and the steering-wheel audio and trip-computer buttons. It’s not nearly as overwhelming as it sounds, and the round elements mix nicely with slightly rounded rectilinear elements. Kia’s latest UVO infotainment system is available, here paired with a huge, eight-inch central touch screen and a larger, color TFT LCD screen in the gauge cluster which can display turn-by-turn navigation instructions.

Besides looking more expensive, the cabin should feel that way, too, thanks to the expanded use of soft-touch materials on the center stack, console, and door panels. Kia switched to using expanding foam to fill body cavities, instead of block foam, and polyurethane-backed carpeting and a new cargo-area liner contribute to a claimed reduction in interior noise. There are now piano-black plastic trim inserts, the seats have improved bolstering and thigh support, and the starter button has been moved down next to the shifter. As a result of the marginally extended exterior dimensions, the Soul’s interior boasts 0.8 inch more legroom up front and 0.2 inch more in the rear; front headroom (not really an issue in the current Soul) is up by 0.2 inch, and front shoulder room increases by 0.3 inch.

Sportier, Stiffer, Steering-Setting-er Soul

The outgoing Soul was no road-burner, but it was reasonably fun-to-drive thanks to its small size and light curb weight. To improve things, Kia stiffened the body by a claimed 29 percent, which should allow the suspension to focus more on body control. The front subframe is now mounted using four bushings—it previously had none—to reduce impact harshness, and steering-gear housing is now one piece for improved response. The multi-mode FlexSteer electric power-steering setup that debuted on the 2014 Forte sedan is present in the new Soul, and offers Comfort, Normal, and Sport settings. Out back, the Soul’s shock absorbers are longer and now mounted vertically to increase suspension travel and improve ride quality.

The 2014 Soul offers two largely carry-over gasoline four-cylinder engines, a 1.6-liter and a 2.0-liter. The base, direct-injection 1.6—first introduced for 2012—curiously makes 8 fewer horsepower and 5 fewer lb-ft of torque, for totals of 130 and 118. Kia has added direct injection to the uplevel 2.0-liter, which again produces 164 horsepower, but 3 additional lb-ft of torque (for a total of 151). Both output peaks occur at lower engine speeds than before. Once again, a six-speed manual is standard with both engines, with a six-speed automatic being optional. Fuel-economy data has not been released, but the figures shouldn’t differ greatly from the current 1.6-liter model’s 25 mpg in the city and 30 on the highway or the 2.0-liter’s 23/28 mpg (manual) and 24/29 mpg (automatic).

Once again, buyers will be able to choose from among three trim levels—Base, Plus, and Exclaim—and even the entry-level Base is supremely well equipped. The 1.6-liter engine, power windows and locks, heated exterior mirrors, a telescoping wheel, Bluetooth, and a six-speaker audio system are standard. The mid-level Plus adds the more-powerful 2.0-liter engine, 17-inch aluminum wheels, turn indicators for the side mirrors, automatic headlights, UVO, a backup camera, and a rear-seat center armrest. Finally, the Exclaim adds a standard six-speed automatic transmission, 18-inch wheels, fog lights, body color bumper accents, projector-beam headlights, LED running lights and taillights, piano-black center console trim, a cooled glove box, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, and a 10-way power driver’s seat.

Exclaim-specific optional extras include automatic climate control, HID headlights, pushbutton starting, and a color gauge-cluster display, while both the Exclaim and Plus offer a panoramic sunroof, navigation, an Infinity audio system, leather seating, heated front and rear seats, and a cooled driver’s seat. Base customers can step up to 16-inch aluminum wheels, cruise control, and remote keyless entry. Base and Plus models can both be fitted with the automatic.

Based on the 2014 Soul’s features list, improved styling, and refinement tweaks, we have no doubt that it will continue to be a moneymaker and brand-builder for Kia. Our only outstanding question is whether a couple of giant hamsters will look good driving it—we’ll likely have to wait for the first 2014 Soul commercial to have an answer.

c/o c/d.com

[spiff41398]

Personally, I like the front, hate the back and I still prefer the simpler interior of the 2013-below model. I wonder what the local variant will look like if Kia Philippines sticks to bringing in just the base 1.6 model.

[basti08]

A small engine feature packed model is fine with me. Diesel would be a great consolation though.