The year was 2010. Shuffling was in vogue, LMFAO was still on the radio, and Kia had decided to completely usurp the momentum that Scion brought with the xB by introducing its own boxy trendy hatchback, the Soul. Together with some animated hamsters, the Kia Soul coalesced with the nephew-uncle electronic music duo to create one of the most memorable and successful car advertisement campaigns. And yet, more than ten years later, LMFAO split up, TikTokers hate the Kia Soul for some reason, and shuffling is considered whack as heck.
Hold up. That’s not fair. Not gonna let y’all be revisionists here. Shuffling never died and is fun as hell, and the Kia Soul has always been good. Facelifted and simplified for 2023, the Kia Soul remains as relevant and well-made as when Sky Blu and Redfoo shuffled into our hearts.
Full Disclosure: Kia wanted me to drive the 2023 Soul GT-Line so badly, the company dropped one off at my house with a full tank of gas for me to use as I pleased for a week.
When the Kia Soul was introduced in 2010, we arguably didn’t have the well-defined automotive micro-niches we do now. It was originally a boxy Rio-based car aimed directly at the Nissan Cube and Scion xB. But the market quickly moved on from those car-shaped things, carving out a niche that we’ve now identified as the “subcompact crossover.” Wheels got bigger, body lines got beefier, sightlines were raised, and suddenly the distinct car-shaped Cube and xB gave way to chunky raised blobs with cladding. The Kia Soul had to adapt.
The third-generation Kia Soul is distinctly a crossover. Kia markets it as such. It both looks big and feels tall, like an SUV. It’s even got a warning on the sun visor to beware of sudden movements because it’ll tip the fuck over. It doesn’t offer all-wheel drive, but who cares. Lots of cars are now crossovers, and plenty of folks don’t care about all-wheel-drive; die mad about it.
For 2023, the Kia Soul has been facelifted, but it’s a somewhat extensive facelift. On the outside, the grille and headlights may look the same, but the old car had the headlights set low on the bumper; they’ve now been moved to a more traditional place near the hood. The strip that used to house the turn signal lights and daytime running lamps has been enlarged to accommodate the new headlights. The lower grille insert is smoothed off and bigger, since there are no longer any headlights flanking it. The rear fascia has also been touched a bit; the bumper is slightly reshaped, and the tail light lenses look different, even if they are the same shape as the car before.
Inside, the car is mostly the same, aside from a new gauge cluster. Otherwise, it’s the same Kia Soul we’ve all come to know and love. That means comfortable seats, good legroom for both rows of passengers, and an overall focus on space and practicality. Those who aren’t huge crossover fans may lament how SUV-like the new Soul is, although the step-in height and square-shaped door openings could be a boon for someone with limited mobility. The upright rear seat and huge headroom definitely make it easy for young families to install baby seats, and there’s plenty of room for the potential rideshare driver. The trunk is a bit shallow, but it’s not like the Kia Soul is an excessively long car. Fit and finish are tight, and all the plastics feel high-quality, though there aren’t many soft-touch surfaces. But who cares? The Soul is the cheapest crossover Kia sells. Those who want a super-padded dash should look for a more expensive car.
The real story is the simplified 2023 Kia Soul lineup. There are now only four trims: LX, S, GT-line, and EX, all with automatic transmissions and at least cruise control. The manual transmission is dead, as are the spartan basic models with no cruise or Bluetooth. Gone from the lineup is the rugged X-line trim that gave more crossover credibility and exterior style to the high-riding box, as is the sprightly 1.6-liter turbocharged engine mated to the 7-speed DCT gearbox. The Kia Soul is now powered by a single powertrain; a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder mated to an IVT, or Infinitely Variable Transmission, Kia speak for a garden-variety CVT. No matter what trim you pick, the power is the same.
Yet again, who cares? The 2.0-liter generates 147 horsepower and 132 ft-lbs of torque and uses the Atkinson cycle, which should trade raw power for fuel efficiency. The torque comes a little late, not peaking until 4,500 rpm, but the Soul never feels out of its depth, or like the engine is too feeble for the car. In the grand scheme of things, the Soul isn’t particularly small or light, but the 2.0-liter scoots the car around just fine. The CVT is adept enough, even fake-shifting under hard acceleration to allay some of the droning sensation inherent to CVTs. At freeway speeds, the Soul is perfectly content to cruise above 70 mph, and return at least 33 mpg, a perfectly agreeable number, although I do admit that a hybrid or a sedan-shaped competitor would likely edge it out. A hybrid Soul would be the ideal entry-level runabout.
On the road, the Soul isn’t sporty, even in the GT-Line trim tested here. That’s fine, though. The Kia Soul rides well, and it feels stable and confident on both curvy roads and freeway driving. Despite being billed as a crossover, the Soul doesn’t feel exceptionally top-heavy, unstable, or clumsy to drive. It’s a refined, confident driving vehicle no matter the road type, offering SUV refinement in a not-that-expensive, not-too-big package. It’s easy to see why people like these so much. Notably, it doesn’t feel compromised or brittle, like the smaller and cheaper Hyundai Venue.
The Kia Soul’s ace-in-the-hole has always been its pricing, but things can get pretty spendy the further up the line you go. A base 2023 Kia Soul LX starts at $21,215, including a $1,325 destination fee. Our tester was a GT-Line with the “GT-Line technology package” adding heated seats, LED headlights and taillights, and Kia’s very good highway driving assist. That pricing isn’t quite as attractive, stickering at $27,215 including destination and that swanky blue paint. A loaded-out Nissan Kicks isn’t as expensive as the GT-Line Kia Soul, which isn’t even the topmost trim, but the Soul is faster and leagues more refined than the Kicks.
Maybe it’s because I’m now out of my twenties, but I simply don’t have the energy to denigrate something good because a handful of teens online don’t think it’s good anymore. That’s not fair. In some ways, LMFAO and the Kia Soul are one and the same; you can try and say that the songs always sucked and no one ever liked them, but that just ain’t true. Twelve years later, Party Rock Anthem has amassed 2.2 billion views on YouTube, and while it’s not an immortal classic, it’s still a song that can elevate the energy in a crowded room. Likewise, the Kia Soul might be cringe to a select few who feel they’re too cool for the hamster-marketed box, but real people love the thing because it’s damned pleasant and upbeat. It’s a charming little car, well-packaged and reasonably priced, and it hits hard on a lot of things that consumers find important. The 2023 Kia Soul is a good car.