I am standing in an underground car park, contemplating the Kia Soul. I pace about and size it up, view it from every angle, and still I cannot shake the thought of how unbefittingly it is named. One thing it doesn’t have is soul.
The story runs that the Soul began when a member of Kia’s design team in California was sent to Korea to help conjure up a new vehicle. Riveted by a TV programme about wild boar, he duly drew a sketch of a boar wearing a backpack, which in turn led to the idea of a rectangular car with a sloping roof. It would be the perfect marriage of “strength and capability” that would appeal to “hip urban youths”.
What stands before me in the car park, in a blistering shade of Heinz tomato soup, looks more like a hybrid of a Playmobil fire truck and a Royal Mail van. It’s very tall and boxy and basic-looking, and there isn’t a hint of swine about it.
The original Kia, launched in 2008, sold well in the US, but miserably in Europe. This new version looks to address this discrepancy. It has better suspension and improved steering, and its famously noisy cabin has been hushed by greater sound insulation. It’s also a little longer, wider, sturdier in the frame. More unwisely, it has acquired an outlandish number of black trims – all over the back, around the wheel arches and the sills, like the contrast piping on a cheap sofa.
Inside, it’s a little less abrasive to the eye and comfortably furnished, with a large amount of headroom and upper body space – so much that it feels oddly airy at first. But it’s heavy – 1.5 tonnes, it was never going to tread lightly. That extra chunkiness makes it less economical, too: with the top-end petrol version, running costs can be comparable to a full-sized SUV, and then there’s the added tax brought by its startlingly hefty CO2 emissions. As we scuttle around in it later, I’m surprised by how little it leans for such a lofty car, but also how jumpy it feels over potholes and, despite its improvements in sound insulation, how noisy it remains. Truthfully, I’m a little embarrassed by its lumbering hulk. At traffic lights, I want to mouth through the window to anyone alongside me: “I did not buy this car.”
Who would buy this car? Maybe someone very tall and broad-shouldered who needs a lot of boot space and has a thing for wild boar. It might appeal to the older or more cautious driver – reassured by its heaviness and perfectly content with its pootling demeanour. But certainly no hip urban youth, and no one with even a hint of soul.
Kia Soul
Price From £17,500
Top speed 112mph
Acceleration 0-62mph in 10.8 seconds
Combined fuel consumption 56.5mpg
CO2 emissions 132g/km
Eco rating 3/10
Cool rating 4/10
On the stereo Sex Machine by James Brown – proper soul
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