Kia Soul

Another small car that’s trying to make it big on personality and style is the Soul from Kia who is shedding its budget brand skin quicker than a quick thing!

With a reputation for reliability now starting to get recognised (the Pro_Ceed did wonders for them) the Soul has been launched to demonstrate the brand’s design flair and its chunky yet hunky hard edges, obtuse angles and cartoon character detailing mean you’ll get plenty of admiring looks on the road, plus the oversized nature of the Soul makes sure you’ll always find it in the car park!

Inside the funky theme continues with a well-styled dash, easy to use stereo as well as plenty of options to customise; want a red dashboard? No problems, you got it. What is slightly disappointing, though, is the quality of the plastics used inside: everything is heavily textured to look more expensive than it actually feels.

After test-driving for the weekend, we think Kia should get rid of the carpets and fit the Soul with a rubber floor, so you can hose it out after a weekend of dog walking, snow boarding or camping – much more practical and it would suit the robust nature and design of the car much more.

Practical the Soul definitely is, too, with its high roof accommodating 4 x 6ft+ adults with ease. The boot’s a reasonable size and should easily accommodate most things needed for an active weekend away.

Saying that, you wouldn’t want to go to far on the motorway in the Soul due to the huge amount of tyre roar and weedy and distracting petrol 1.6 engine.  The 1.6 diesel option may prove more refined!

The ride is also quite harsh and the steering is not as sharp as you’d hope with the Soul leaning heavily in the bends and losing grip earlier than we’d want. There’s also a real kick back from the steering, which can be disconcerting. Saying that, the Kia performs adequately for a second car, but in our opinion would be tiring as your main driver.

With a starting price of £10,495 the Soul is good value however, especially when you take into account the high levels of equipment such as alloys, air con and a decent stereo with Mp3 connection and there’s a host of options available to make your Soul a true individual.

www.kia-soul.com