Love It or Leave It: 2014 KIA Soul

I remember when the Kia Soul was first introduced in 2010 and my first reaction was not a favorable one. I’ve never been into boxy cars and the Soul is definitely in that category. I was pleasantly surprised with the body of the redesigned 2014 Kia Soul that showed up in my driveway recently, courtesy of Drive STI. The body style is considerably more attractive and the features were amazing, but did I love it? Keep reading to find out. 😉

The Good:

This Kia wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but I loved almost every minute of driving it.

• UVO. I was surprised with how much I loved the 2014 Kia Forte EX, and a lot of that had to do with the technology. This Kia Soul is equipped with UVO technology. This thing is amazing. UVO will remind you of when your KIA is ready for scheduled maintenance AND runs its own vehicle diagnosis. Stop it. Who does that? That’s just cool. It has emergency assistance which is necessary for obvious reasons. One of my favorite parts is that it will monitor your vehicles driving behavior. If you
  have a teen driver, this is vital. Also, it will remember where you parked your car… I know a few people who could REALLY use something that feature.
• Sirius XM TravelLink. This is also part of the UVO technology and omg… I miss it. One of the first trips I took in the Soul was to pick my family up from the airport. I was driving to Chicago which meant tollways with lots of traffic. I was driving down Rt. 88 and suddenly I looked at the screen and saw the coolest thing ever…
  
  THIS! This may not mean a lot to those of you who don’t live in the super corrupt and money hungry state of Illinois, but having a navigation system that tells me which lanes are I-Pass and which are cash is like the coolest thing since sliced freaking bread. Those of you who have had to pay hundreds of dollars for missing $6.50 worth of tolls will appreciate this. Not to mention, it was actually incredibly accurate. Plus, it has real-time traffic and you can even check the weather.
• Pandora. I’m actually sitting at my desk right now listening to Pandora and remembering how easy it was to control my Pandora app in the Kia Soul. It was totally seamless, just like using the Bluetooth when connecting my phone for music or calls. 
• Cozy cheeks. The little extra features in this Soul really set it off. The heated (and cooled) seats were perfect for these below freezing temperatures. I’m also convinced that no car should ever be produced without a heated steering wheel.. ever again.
  
• Panoramic Sunroof. Who decided  that it was okay to make damn near the entire roof of a car into a sunroof? I’d like to shake that person’s hand. I only wish I test drove the Soul when it wasn’t below zero outside. Don’t think I let a little windchill stop me from opening that bad boy up and cruising around freezing my butt off, though.
  
• Extra features. The push button start, rear camera display, USB and auxiliary inputs, leather seats, heated rear outboard seats, and Infinity Audio System turned this boxy car into a pretty sweet ride.
  

The Bad:

The Kia Soul excelled in so many ways but fell flat when it was really important for me.

• My monsters. You know I couldn’t get through a car review without mentioning whether or not my kids’ car seats actually fit into the vehicle and guess what? They did! The kids had decent leg room and I liked the way the seats fit in the car overall. But… what it had in back seat space, it lacked in cargo area.
  
• Hatchback woes. I have two toddlers. That means double trouble of EVERYTHING. Double the gigantic car seats, double the stroller. Getting my double stroller to fit in the cargo space of the Soul was basically impossible. It would fit.. but that’s about all that would fit. And if you have three kids? Fuggedaboutit.
  
• I need all of my hands. Okay, call me spoiled, but I KNOW that there are vehicles that have a sweet little button to push to open and close the tailgate and I kind of love that. I have a lot of babies and bags and all kinds of stuff to carry, and having to close it on my own is kind of annoying. But seriously, when you’re basically going through life as a one woman show and living in Chiberia the easier and quicker you can make the unloading of a vehicle, the better.
• Putt, putt, putt. I’m not a speed demon. I even drove a cherry little Corvette an entire summer and have never been pulled over for speeding or gotten a ticket, that should tell you something. My regular day to day vehicle isn’t fast by any stretch of the imagination. But this Kia Soul was just so S L O W. It’s a 4-cyl (my car is a 6-cyl) and it was a huge transition for me. Of course, with a less powerful engine comes much better gas mileage. The Kia Soul gets 31 mpg highway. Not bad, but not worth feeling like you’re driving a golf cart, in my opinion.
• The body. Although this redesigned 2014 Kia Soul is lightyears ahead of it’s previous models, it’s still not my style. The Kale Green color was interesting and I can see the appeal but it’s just so opposite of the sleek sophistication I like to see in a vehicle.

The Verdict:

If I were a regular 20something year old who didn’t have kids, I would seriously consider the new 2014 Kia Soul. As a mother of young kids who are still in car seats and super high maintenance, I just can’t see the Kia Soul fitting into my lifestyle. When I picked up my brother, his girlfriend, and their daughter from the airport we had a hard time getting his one large suitcase and two bags to fit without blocking my rearview (we were unsuccessful).

It’s not big enough for a family of young kids. It is a very fun vehicle to be in, but not that fun to drive. I don’t have a need for speed… I just want to be able to burn a semi after a red-light, you know? Even though I just love that UVO technology, I have to give the Kia Soul a big ol’ “Leave It!“.

Disclaimer: I partnered with Drive STI to test drive the Kia Soul for 7 days in exchange for this honest review.