Editor’s Note: the test-drive of this vehicle was conducted pre-pandemic.
$17,490. 27 city / 33 highway. Groovy AF (not Air Force).
I have a friend in San Diego who was looking for his ultimate SoCal bounce-around Hillcrest (Gay Town) car – and the 2020 Kia Soul was on his short list. He ultimately wasn’t crazy about the boxy look (to each his own, right?), but other than that, it was a big winner for him – and most of the blogger-sphere.
Boom Boom Boom, there is lotsa room inside the 2020 Kia Soul.
Open it from any door and you can load up all your baggage, professional and personal, and you don’t need to worry about ducking your head or ducking from low-flying theater props or whatever that may be clouding your day. I suspect camping out of or sleeping in the Kia Soul is a breeze and I will just leave it at that. Pack up the party and Pride and take it with you (as much as you can) because the Soul can handle it (up to 62 cubic feet of it).
No need to go on some sort of Weight Watchers / Jenny Craig starvation diet to look good in the Soul. There is plenty of room in the seats for all of your party, however it is packaged.
The technology is easy-breezy as well, so once you get it all set-up to your liking, it’s game on – for all the symphonies and classical jazz concerts that we know you like on your playlists.
The 2020 Kia Soul is truly a functional car. There are faster carnivores out there, to be sure. There are plenty of pretty show ponies out there too. And just like anything else that catches the eye initially, all those glamour pusses keep hitting the cash register button until you wonder what happen to your student loan that was supposed to go to those in-person one-on-one courses that have now moved online and onto Zoom.
For the price, the Kia Soul may be your best bet for accomplishing a number of goals. First and foremost, if staying and living within your means is important (without recycling buttons from costumes of Brigadoon or food off the plate from Table 16), the starting price of $17,490 is a great start. Mind you, you get a manual transmission, rear privacy glass, backup camera, hill-start assist, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. (The base trim is the LX.)
If you can, I would consider going up the food chain, which, of course, adds to the price, but you can get more advanced safety features, a turbocharged engine and some groovy convenience options. Again, what does your budget allow?
The 2020 Soul does seem to be getting longer and bigger every year. Seems like when it was first introduced back when my hair truly was onyx, it was a small, smart, practical car. But perhaps as American waistlines have expanded, they have expanded too. The car is now 13.8 feet long and the base trim weighs well over one ton US. Well, all that technology and precision auto-tuning for the masses does get costly – and heavy, I suppose.
The 2020 Soul is indeed a Pride winner – and relevant. So good luck finding one. It is all-new and redesigned for 2020, which means there should not be any significant changes once the 2021 models come to town…..
…..which may be when we see one again……
