Well, they ruined the Kia Soul

[Kaido]

Hearse back-end?

They took all of the nice front-end ideas from the Hyundai Kona & uglified the Soul:

That's, uh, a pretty vertical rear-end:

 

[_Rick_]

Are painted number plates a thing, or what's going on there?

 

[Hans Gruber]

I think it looks fine.

 

[sandorski]

It was always kinda ugly. I don't see much of a change with this design.

 

[Carson Dyle]

It was never an attractive vehicle. Pictured below is a 2015. But, yeah, it's even uglier with those tail lights and the treatment of that rear side body panel.

 

[soulcougher73]

I dont mind it. Maybe a slight upgrade to be honest.

 

[nakedfrog]

I'd put it in line with the standard ugliness the Soul has always possessed.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I like the taillights and I'm mostly fine with the rest, it has several of the things I don't like in modern car design (the creases to give it wheel arches and the lame blacked out C/D pillar, and the likely not functional rear vents). The overall design is eh, but I like that they're valuing practicality over style (a lot of crossovers have sloped rear ends that hurts their practicality, and its simply styling over all, the problem is, for compact vehicles its making them more compact for no real reason). I never liked that weird big plastic piece on the front rear of the older Soul (the one with the two foglights are hanging off of) so I'm happy to see that gone. Weird in that, I'm not wild about it, but its actually an appealing design (with some tweaks I think it'd be better still, I don't like the weird blacked out grille things surround the main big grille, the lights with mascara look). I liked the old one and I like this one. And is like a modern PT Cruiser (which I didn't hate either). They're cheap, somewhat practical econoboxes, so yes they're obviously not going to be spectacular, but what do people expect?

 

[FeuerFrei]

Looking awfully low to the ground. More like a Toyota Matrix. Maybe that's lack of black cladding on the bottom edges. Needs larger wheels - chunky body on tiny wheels. Maybe higher profile tires?

 

[Kaido]

Are painted number plates a thing, or what's going on there?

Advertisement, not real plates.

 

[Kaido]

It was never an attractive vehicle.

Shush, my old Ninja Turtle was beautiful

 

[Carson Dyle]

I hadn't noticed the wheel well treatment, but yes, that too is a change in the wrong direction. Sometimes simpler is just much better. I think the impression that the rear is more vertical may only be due to the new tail light shape and weird thing they did with those rear side windows.

 

[Demo24]

Looking awfully low to the ground. More like a Toyota Matrix. Maybe that's lack of black cladding on the bottom edges. Needs larger wheels - chunky body on tiny wheels. Maybe higher profile tires?

They always choose the fanciest model, so that's probably the turbo 'sport' and a bit lower due to that. The current equivalent model is similar, and if that's to go on I think those are 18" wheels.

Kind of interesting the interior doesn't appear much changed apart from the larger screen.


What's most interesting to me about this one is the EV model that has some solid power numbers and I saw somewhere estimating a 240 mile range. That would be a significant improvement over the last one.

 

[Kaido]

They always choose the fanciest model, so that's probably the turbo 'sport' and a bit lower due to that. The current equivalent model is similar, and if that's to go on I think those are 18" wheels.

Kind of interesting the interior doesn't appear much changed apart from the larger screen.


What's most interesting to me about this one is the EV model that has some solid power numbers and I saw somewhere estimating a 240 mile range. That would be a significant improvement over the last one.

It's pretty amazing that like a $15k-base car has a 10.25" touchscreen option.

I am curious to see what the EPA range is on the Soul EV. I'm guessing they'll swipe the battery setup from the Hyundai Kona, so 200 miles definitely isn't out of the question. Although I personally like the new Kona's design a lot better than Kia's at this point.

My only complaint about electrics is, why bother buying a longer-range electric when Tesla's are available? Self-driving + continuous updates seems like a much better investment for the price difference. Electric cars are still kind of a hassle to deal with due to the long charging times & limited range (even 200 miles is still fairly limited, especially when you can't refuel at a gas station in a few quick minutes), so it makes more sense (to me) to invest in a Tesla so that at least you get the benefit of enhanced autopilot now & full self-driving down the road.

Then again, it depends on the price...a barebones Model 3 is $35k before tax incentives, and that base-priced model isn't even available until next year (2019), so if they can come in at significantly cheaper, that could be a compelling reason to buy one...

 

[NutBucket]

Tesla is a nice car but too much hype IMHO.

Everyone is really stylizing cars these days so I'm not surprised Kia did this. The utility is still there so it's still a great package.

 

[tweakmonkey]

I never really noticed the design of the old car or thought it was special, but the front of this car does look nice. The rear is weird but not Toyota or Honda weird. I think this car looks pretty good, overall.

 

[Ichinisan]

I thought the back end always looked pretty bad.

 

[pcgeek11]

A Hearse for munchkins.

You are correct it is fugly.

 

[drnickriviera]

My only complaint about electrics is, why bother buying a longer-range electric when Tesla's are available? Self-driving + continuous updates seems like a much better investment for the price difference. Electric cars are still kind of a hassle to deal with due to the long charging times & limited range (even 200 miles is still fairly limited, especially when you can't refuel at a gas station in a few quick minutes), so it makes more sense (to me) to invest in a Tesla so that at least you get the benefit of enhanced autopilot now & full self-driving down the road.

Then again, it depends on the price...a barebones Model 3 is $35k before tax incentives, and that base-priced model isn't even available until next year (2019), so if they can come in at significantly cheaper, that could be a compelling reason to buy one...

Isn't that $35k model supposed to have a 50kwh battery and around 200mi range? I don't keep up with the autopilot tech, but isn't standard autopilot just acc and braking? What is the $5k enhanced autopilot? (adds steering?) So that would make a mid range one like $50k before tax incentives if you buy now and can use all of that on your taxes. A

Some may want to buy from a more established mfg. It was just a few months ago that people were still wondering if tesla was even going to survive. I can't imagine what would happen to those cars if they went under they way they have parts and service locked down.

As far as range. I think people need to own an EV to see what it can really do. My brother gets by with a Leaf 24 charging it to 80%. Which is around 50-60mi to the low batt light, 70-80 if you ran the batt all the way down. He's on track to do around 20k mi this year. It takes some planning, multiple charging points (i.e work) and a little brain power to make it work. I'd imagine a 60kwh pack and the ability to charge at work even with a granny charger at 1-2kw would fill the needs for a majority of people

 

[tweakmonkey]

Here's a video of the sister car, the Kona (I think its the same car mostly?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LATZ0g-Sz2s

If so, this sounds like a GREAT car. I never thought I'd consider a Kia or Hyundai but I'm tempted when this thing comes out.. 200+ (possibly 300!) mile EV range, adaptive cruise control, heated steering wheel.... $30kish

I'm currently driving a ~70 mile EV about 40-50 miles every day. I've put around 30,000 miles on it in 2 years. But the carpool stuff is expiring here and it saves me a ton of time commuting.

 

[RLGL]

How can you wreck a POS

 

[Kaido]

Here's a video of the sister car, the Kona (I think its the same car mostly?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LATZ0g-Sz2s

If so, this sounds like a GREAT car. I never thought I'd consider a Kia or Hyundai but I'm tempted when this thing comes out.. 200+ (possibly 300!) mile EV range, adaptive cruise control, heated steering wheel.... $30kish

I'm currently driving a ~70 mile EV about 40-50 miles every day. I've put around 30,000 miles on it in 2 years. But the carpool stuff is expiring here and it saves me a ton of time commuting.

Yeah, I really like it! If I hadn't just replaced my Jeep, the Kona EV would have been a strong contender!

 

[Pardus]

The Soul has a ton of legroom and can hold a lot of cargo.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

front looks too aggressive for the car

 

[VirtualLarry]

The Soul has a ton of legroom and can hold a lot of cargo.

Interesting. I just got a Honda Odyssey for Christmas. I needed the legroom, and the cargo space.