The Boar thing – snicker if you like – but what Mike Torpey and the team of designers in Korea have wrought is earning accolades the world over. That porcine inspiration delivered a Red Dot design award for Kia, the first for any Korean car and a punctuation mark on the widely held opinion that the Soul is one fine-looking automobile. The critical success of the Soul's design is directly attributable to a nature documentary that designer Torpey took in while working on the car in Korea. The show was about a wild boar that is apparently common to the region, and something about the animal spoke to designer Torpey. The Soul's cheeky, brash stance is great looking in a non-conformist way, regardless of what got the idea going.
Boxy yet not slabby, the Soul's exterior has been deftly drawn with careful detailing. Windows and taillight clusters are set off by bevels, and a continuous line is an Easter Egg for anyone who cares to trace it from its origin outlining the glass, around the roof, down the back and across the bottom, finishing off in front. The raked and tapered sideglass furthers the Soul's ready-for-action stance. Every vent, character line, bulge and curve has been placed cleanly and with purpose, and the end result is that the Soul's styling is clever without being cloying. Drawing an automotive extrovert with just the right touch of restraint is no mean feat, and the longer you gaze at the Soul, the better it gets as you discover all the fun that the design team molded into its flanks.
No shrinking violet in any shade, the radioactive green on our test car was dubbed "Alien." The verdant hue is just the thing for springtime, and the Soul may represent a shift as big as the change of seasons in Kia's fortunes. Young buyers ought to be attracted to the Soul for its ability to tackle every request, as well as its low price and standard equipment list that includes plenty of desirable features that are optional elsewhere. Starting under $14,000, the base Soul has the bases well covered.
Down in the shadows, the mechanical details add up to a car with unexpected verve. Standard four wheel disc brakes impart a sure feeling to the brake pedal and stability control is also fitted across the board. Basic Souls are motivated by a 1.6-liter four-cylinder sending 122 hp and 115 lb-ft of torque through a five-speed manual transaxle, but those are expected to represent but a sliver of the model's total volume. Opting for an automatic transmission, ($950 extra in all trims), yields an immediate upgrade to the 2.0-liter four and its 142 hp and 137 ft-lb capabilities. Both engines employ dual overhead camshafts with variable valve timing, and the 2.0-liter we sampled delivered 29.9 miles per gallon with the four-speed autobox and zero babying. The automatic is mostly unobtrusive, though it occasionally it dodders a bit before delivering a kickdown. Throaty, the engine can get harsh sounding when twisting the tachometer needle hard, but keep your inner Rat Fink at bay and the Soul's braying fades into the background.
The Soul's steering is sporty where others in this price range can be numb. There's a life to the rack-and-pinion setup that says the Soul has been tuned by folks who know what a proper front-wheel drive car should feel like. Despite any "box it came in" commentary from onlookers, the Soul is more than a mere wheeled appliance. A taut, nearly athletic feel has been part of Kia's brief across its entire vehicle range for at least a couple years and that philosophy benefits the Soul, too. A strut front end and torsion beam rear axle are certainly not revolutionary, and in the wrong hands such a suspension setup can feel woefully dated. Instead, the Soul feels great from behind the wheel. A front anti-roll bar and gas-charged dampers all around add up to a lively, well behaved experience. Simply put, the Soul is fun to drive with its standard setup, and the Sport trim level carries a retuned suspension and larger 18-inch alloy wheels, so it promises to be more entertaining still.
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