I’m so sorry I hope you recover.
Ah, the “Why-didn’t-you-buy-a-truckamobile-they’re-only-$20,990-more” appears to be in attendance.
You should have gotten a loaded Yukon. They’re only 80 grand.
I bought a used Soul (base model, 1.6 liter, manual transmission) last year, after Harvey relieved me of my truck. Best compact car I’ve ever driven. Just about to hit 30k miles (bought with 23k), all I’ve had to do so far is an oil change and I replaced the stock tires with Pirelli P7s. It looked like the previous owner never had the tires rotated, as the fronts were nearly worn out. Getting around 30 mpg in town, not babying it one bit. The original warranty is 10 years/100k, but that’s only for the original purchaser, used ones get 5 years/60k coverage. I’m cool with that. Costs me around $350/month; that’s payments, insurance and gas. Not too shabby, imho.
Back in the 80’s there were recommendations not to rotate tires for the lighter weight FWD cars and adopt a strategy of either replacing the fronts and rear independently (which may be at 25k,30K mi front / 100k+mi rear), or when the fronts are worn out rotate the backs to the fronts and get new tires for the backs. Reason was it was a waste of time to rotate them and didn’t save anything significant, just due to the fronts doing almost all the wearing and any wear in the rear is usually very even (so would not balance out uneaven wear from the front). It has the added benefit of only having to replace 2 tires at a time so less to spend at once.
It would seem like this type of car could also use this.
My friend got a Soul (that sounds weird) and I like it. It’s alien green and very roomy inside. On the outside it’s not too big, not too small.
Thanks for bumping this thread. My Honda Element is chugging along at 220k miles, but I know the poor thing won’t last forever. I’ve started looking around, and I’ve been seeing the Kia Souls. They look like a good possibility.
Does anyone have an older one, like 7+ years, that can comment on how they hold up, long term?
From what I understand, Kia changed a lot on the Soul for the 2014 model year which made them better cars. One thing I didn’t realize until talking to the salesman last week was that they have more headroom due to the fact that they had to allow for the whole-roof skylight on the “!” body styles.
Respect
In my experience, the subcompacts are far roomier than the compact sedans (for the driver). I’m big and tall and I fit into a toyota Yaris or Honda Fit far better than a corolla or a civic.
I’ve heard Kia has improved their quality quite a bit in the last 20 years. Back in the 90s they were the kinds of cars that broke down constantly, supposedly they are better now. I am not sure though.
**I just bought a new Kia Soul **
when you’re finished with it and want to get a new car, be sure to sell it to someone named “Devil” or “Satan” or “Devlin” I’ll bet you can get a lot for it. Be sure to sign the title transfer in blood.