Oh well if you're buying that makes your decision alot different than mine. If I was buying I'd probably be picking up a new Ram 1500 Laramie Crew Cab 4x4
. But I have a functioning truck for snow days so I just want a city commuter for the 10 months out of the year it's fine. We're going to have a big move in the next 2 years, and I don't know if that will be to a location with more country (that I love), or deeper into an urban center (which I also love). So I don't want this car to be permanent, as a 4cyl low slung car is useless out on rural roads when it snows. I'm one of the few that can actually get out and about today because I'm not handing my underbelly on snow drifts.
I ended up purchasing the Soul today. Couldn't help myself :wub:
I'll do a more detailed review in a week or two, once I get it figured out. They were able to hit the number I wanted, so I got it at a fair price. Not a steal, unfortunately, but it was the base model - I didn't have much luck with wiggle room on the base models at other dealerships either (checked out a Versa sedan etc.). Plus it was the model I wanted (dark green stick-shift) and I've been lusting after them since last year, so I'm a pretty happy man today haha! Just a laundry list of thoughts....
I thought about leasing, but I want to do some mods and wanted something I could keep for awhile (planning on 5 years minimum right now), so I ended up buying it instead. First new car I've ever purchased in my life! Went really smoothly, was in & out really quickly. Piece of cake. Almost reminds me of the old Saturn dealerships - they just make it easy. Some of the other dealerships I went to were crazy high pressure and just really not a good experience.
It's a 6-speed. Takes some getting used to. Reverse is up on the collar and left-forward instead of traditional right-rear - I keep shifting into 6th gear to go into reverse lol. First gear is geared low, likes no more than 20 MPH, although you can do 30 if you push it up to 6 or 7k RPM, but it whines. I haven't found all the best shift points yet. It likes 3k RPM+ for power, so there's almost a turbo-like lag when starting each new gear before it zooms.
It's a somewhat wussy engine, but if you learn the tricks, then it's fine. First gear likes 20 MPH max. Second gear kind of has 3 power bands, so that's where you want to do all of your accelerating. Third gear has regular car power, if you're in the right speed zone. Fourth, fifth, and sixth are useless. Fourth is okay for passing someone on the highway, but it's only a slight step up from a Prius. Fifth is for when you have plenty of time to plan to pass someone, lol. Sixth is absolutely useless, I think it's just there for decoration haha. Zero power of any sort.
It starts getting some weird thrumming in the floor above 70 MPH or so. Has no guts as you get up near 80. My Volvo loved 60+ MPH because of the turbo, it could pass faster at that speed than it could starting from a stop! But I'm also getting +10 MPG on the Soul, so...tradeoffs. Car is super quiet. Engine noise is nice. Smooth at freeway speeds. Definitely need to learn what gears work best on the highway so you don't turn into mush; just drop it a gear lower than you think you will need to get the power you want.
Hill Start Assist is a wicked cool feature. It will hold you from a stop for 3 or 4 seconds on a hill, so you don't roll backwards. Almost like cheating when driving stick-shift! If you accelerate during that time, it will let you accelerate just enough and then release the brake so you can lurch up. My area is fairly hilly and I tested it on some extremely steep hills with amazing results. Technology is awesome!
As a base model, it has a weird combination of features. Like, there's no keyless entry, which is really annoying, but it has heated side mirrors. What the heck? lol. I'm not a huge bells & whistles guy, as long as I have a way to plug my iPhone in for audiobooks & podcasts, I'm a pretty happy camper. Stock speakers are right in the decent range, neither terrible nor awesome. Steering wheel controls are great. It downloaded all of my contacts into the car when I synced Bluetooth, very nice!
Feels enormous inside. I went out for a spin with my buddy and sat in the passenger side; I could lift my feet up straight out at an angle, that's how much room is in there! Nice tall ceiling too. The footwell works at a bit of a disadvantage for the driver, since you
really have to reach to depress the clutch all the way, but at least there's a dead pedal to relax your foot on. As a result, I have to sit closer to the steering wheel (slide my chair forward) to fully engage the clutch.
LOTS of lights inside. Two map lights, the middle light pod, and a vanity light on each front passenger visor mirror. Sunglasses flip-down storage compartment; clips on each visor, which is a nice touch for parking passes. HUGE lighted glovebox with a neat flush release button. Mine didn't come with a center console (although I think I could still easily shift with one), but there's a couple of roomy cupholders & a very large open junk storage bin behind that. A pair of 12V plugs up front, USB, etc. so you can charge stuff & run your GPS at the same time.
Defogging takes longer than I'd like (much longer), but once it clears it, it clears it. Also, the heater gets HOT! It was 30F today and I had it on vent for the windows and had to turn it down to 1 notch for heat because it was so toasty. I tried direct on full blast and it was like a hair dryer. Very surprised at the amount of heat output! Definitely winter-friendly. Speaking of winter-friendly, in addition to ABS & Traction Control, it also has Electronic Stability Control, which explains why I had such a great experience on the first test drive in the snow & ice. VERY cool feature that actually works! You can turn it off in case you get stuck in heavy snow or whatever.
Came with 16" steel wheels with hubcaps. The hubcaps are not horrifically bad, so that's a plus, and the larger-than-standard 16" wheels feel really good in-town & on the highway. Nothing on Tirerack or other sites for replacement rims yet; I really like the rims on the higher-end model, so I'll keep my eyes pealed in case someone upgrades their stock ones down the road.
The car is effortless to drive. You just stop thinking about it & it does exactly what you want it to do. It feels EXTREMELY roomy inside, not snug at all like the last model, but it's not big on the outside. Should have gotten a blue one and called it the TARDIS haha. You can also switch the steering modes (Comfort, Normal, Sport) on the electric steering, which actually does make a very noticeable difference, despite the reviewers saying it didn't. I live on the edge of some farms with windy, hilly roads - Sport mode steering was wicked fun whipping around curves in the 3-4k RPM range! Very very tight steering on that mode, and very nice & relaxing on the comfort mode (turns into into kind of big & wide turns like a towncar or something). I'll have to play with that some more too.
Overall, very pleased with the purchase. It's a lot of car for the money. I got the one I really wanted. 30 MPG is decent for a box on wheels, and it's got a 10-year, 100k warranty, which is nice. First modification will be adding a spare tire; they give you a tire patch kit in the base, which is super lame. Second modification will be looking into keyless entry; I'll have to find out the details on that, but I may go with a Digital Guard Dog system so I can add the pushbutton start as well. Third mod will probably be to wire in a subwoofer; I'll have to figure out how to replace the cone speakers at some point too. I have some speakers that look about the right size to go in there already (3" fullranges), so let the mods begin!
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