Kia Soul test drive since 2008 hatchback

All photos of Kia Soul since 2008

Just a darling!

They say that its creators were inspired by a boar. I don’t know, I don’t know, to be honest, seeing it for the first time alive, in the parking lot of the Kia dealership, I rather thought about Honda Element, only more compact. And friendly. Although the prototype, first shown in 2006, was, for my taste, more sympathetic. In the process of setting up on the conveyor, for example, for example, the Asian eyes with the cilia had to be abandoned. But what is preserved is impressive.

American Korean
In fact, such wheels on wheels until recently were popular in two countries. First in Japan, where the functionality of the car is valued above all. Then, similar designs liked the Americans: in the USA the same Scion XB is sold by a circulation of 50 thousand a year. Something similar in the Russian market was recently offered by Nissan: it is very popular with us, he even received an affectionate nickname Enot. And just recently, just the other day, a similar product brought to the Russian market and Citroen. The story of this is something in the same issue.

But back to our wild boar. The exterior of Kia Soul was developed in the Kia California design workshop, in Irvain. This is understandable, since the American market was not the last in line for the darling. But here the filling is from Korea, and its donors served both the Kia and Hyundai models. For example, the details of the front and the back from the Hyundai i20. The engines from Kia Ced but everything else is the only and unique.
The beveled dark racks in front and back, a roof pushed over the eyes, like a visor of caps full of wheel arches and stamping on the side of the body, giving it swiftness. Short hood and practical absence of a front overview. However, the rear is small. In appearance, a typical crossover, although there is neither a permanent or even connected, Soul has a full -wheel drive: Soulster is built for this. In general, this is both a hatchback and compactwane in one bottle, that is, a body. By the way, the KIA advertising booklets also repeat about this. And it also says that he calls towards adventures. Let's check?

Optical illusion
Soul sizes are small. The length is slightly more than four meters, and the width, due to the high body, seems small. And in general, did I expect something more or big? But sometimes the first impression is deceptive. I was convinced of this, opening the driver's door and sitting behind the wheel.
The cabin is surprisingly spacious! Although from Fun-Car, which Soul managed to be known, I wanted a greater riot of colors. Immediately solid dark plastic. Moreover, he is everywhere in the upholstery of the doors and in the front panel. And this despite the fact that this version is top. The seats are covered with a fabric pleasant to the touch. But their shape was not impressed: it seems that this is just the example when the seat pushes the rider. Let it be possible to get used to it over time. There is still not enough more clearly expressed lateral support. I’m generally silent about the lumbar roller. Manually adjustment. I rummage the elevator with the handle of the elevator for a long time, and, finally, I choose almost a bus landing. It is a pity that the steering wheel is regulated only in height.
It is quite convenient to sit on the passenger side. There are plenty of legs. And just a huge glove compartment in which the adapter for connecting iPod lies.
Now let's look at the dashboard. And she is completely from the round! Firstly, this is a three-spoke multiple with a circle of Chatson. Secondly, it is a large speedometer dial (two semicircles on the sides: a tachometer and a flowmeter at the same time with a coolant temperature sensor). Thirdly, a huge cup holder at the very top of the central console (it, by the way, is ellipsoid). I don’t know what glass is designed for this nest, maybe a bucket with popcorn? Fourth, well, and the fifth and sixth are shorter, there are also rounded werters of the media system and climate control, deflectors of blowing side windows in general, continuous friendliness.
And what do we have from behind?

And again the scope! My height is 180, so from my knees to the backs of the front seats (also, by the way, inconsistent moved back) there were still 10 centimeters! The rear seats, as usual, are laid out in a ratio of 40:60, and with the help of comfortable levers. But what is not is not a armrest under which a hatch for long -meters would hide. However, if he were, then there was little sense from him: the luggage compartment is so few 222 liters that, without folding the back of the rear seats, you can’t transport anything really long.

In search of adventures
That's why I do not like myself absolutely not interested in in advance by what configuration there will be a test car. So this time, only having heard a loud roar from under the hood and looking at the tachometer digitized only to 6,000 rpm, I realized that I got a diesel Soul. Is it bad or good? Good! I like diesel. Moreover, it is aggregated with an automatic gearbox. The machine, however, is only 4-speed, but, as the voyage showed, it provides comfortable movement completely.
That's just to transfer the selector to position D I am not in a hurry. First on L: Parking on the rawhouse embankment is so close that you have to crawl out of your pocket in several tricks back and forth, thanks to a short overhang! And the corridor, according to which you can get on the roadway, is also narrow. But Soul easily made his way through this maze and here we are on the road!
Friday, the evening of the Embankment Yauza is clogged with cars, but they are very willing to miss me: I see with lateral vision how drivers and passengers show us with Soul fingers, smile, gesticulate. Thank you, gentlemen, thank you!
So we are on the garden ring, you can push and then Soul surprised. Unpleasant. He so heal on the temperature seams of the Tagan overpass that I, holding the steering wheel with one hand, almost lost control of the car (and rightly: the steering wheel must be held with two hands of the editor). Hmm, the suspension is harsh, but the car does not roll in the turns. But the tires are not low: full-time 16-inch discs stood on a test car. But what will happen if you install optional cast 18-inch?
In general, on the road, Soul behaves beyond all praise. It holds the road perfectly, effective during overtaking, effectively slows down. But this is in the city. And outside him?
The reason appeared the next day. It was necessary to transport a large -sized cargo to the cottage a couple of barrels for rainwater. It was not difficult to arrange the load: with folded rear seats, two hefty cylinders took their places without problems. Now transport.
But this is more difficult. Saturday. Kiev highway. Where, as you know, for a year now construction work has been underway. And therefore, the cork here stretched from Krekshin and to Selyatino himself. In other words, 15 kilometers. Leave to the right, to a mine? But there are also repair work, and, unlike what is happening on the Kiev highway, they are already frozen. And therefore, in order to leave on the highway, you need to defend in a traffic jam starting from the railway crossing. Horror!
There is another option through the Kaluga highway.

In a detour.
But not everything is so simple. To leave the Kaluga highway to Kiev, we must overcome 21 kilometers along a small concrete ring. But even here the last few kilometers is a continuous campaign, in which you will be simple for at least an hour. And time is expensive.
It’s better to go than to stand. Therefore, I'll go through the Kaluga region! This is extra 40 kilometers, but with a breeze!
Through Chirikovo, Voronovo, Lviv to the Crosses. On a large concrete before turning to Roslavl, to the right to Balabanovo (the capital of the match industry of Russia). And from there through Naro-Fominsk and the village of Kyiv to Razidovo. For a long time I have not received such pleasure from driving!

From time to time you have to overtake the wagons and slow down in settlements. A perfectly listening steering wheel under me. Well, God with him, with plastic! He does not sing and this is the main thing. And if the car is positioned as youth, then it is precisely the plastic that is just enough that youth will shed on it on a picnic? I actually meant Coca-Cola. So whatever it may be, it will be washed off.
Only four speeds on the machine? And okay I had enough. Acceleration to hundreds a little less than 12 seconds. So what? This is not a sports car, in the end, my colleagues and really turtles have seen accelerations. The power of the diesel engine is small? Only 128 hp? But the boot of the flow rate showing the full tank remained almost without movement for two days, until the third hundred mileage began to scroll on the odometer: the consumption of less than six liters per hundred!
Of course, something can be attributed to the minuses. Soul has insufficient rotation in the turns, although, according to those who managed to skate versions with 18-inch low-profile tires, this drawback comes to them.
Another minus of a blind triple-computer in the daytime. When traveling outside the city, the rules require the inclusion of the nearby headlights, and in this mode the red backlight is practically not read. Maybe with a different inclination of the central console but what is not, that is not. But the backlighting devices, recessed into deep wells, is simply incomparable.
In other words, as mentioned above, Soul can forgive almost all the shortcomings or forget about them. About all but one.

Dear
This drawback is the cost. The diesel is the most expensive at the moment the version in the basic version costs 699,000 rubles. Is not it too much? Indeed, for the amount, a large only three thousand dollars, you can purchase a full -fledged European assembly crossover. In my opinion, at least 150 thousand rubles in this price tag are clearly superfluous, and I’m not sure that in a crisis there are so many representatives of the golden youth dare to change a tidy sum to the joy of possessing Kia Soul. Of course, a lot of things are attached to the car. As options. For example, the same cast discs with a very interesting design. The stickers for the body that allow you to change the image almost every month. Lays on wheeled arches, a stylish trunk for sports bicycles, a spoiler and much more. But from this the car will become even more expensive.
I really respect the Korean auto industry for the fact that in just 10 years he went a long path from obscurity to world recognition. But still, in pricing, I would dare to advise to show great modesty.
Now about competitors. In addition to the Nissan Note already mentioned, this is the Citroen C3 Picasso, Suzuki SX4 and still popular, but still popular Hyundai Matrix.
Will Soul find his place in this row? ..
And you know, it is possible! After all, he is such a darling!

Dmitry Semenov
Photo kia