Kia Soul: a buyer's guide

Black pudding is a foodstuff you’ll either love or hate, and pretty much the same sort of thing is going on with Kia’s Soul.

The looks are, well, different, but those right-angled body panels give it a useful advantage on practicality and space over more stylised rivals like the Mini Countryman and Nissan Juke. Back seat occupants will certainly enjoy their lot more than passengers in either of those two, and the Kia’s boot is handily boxlike.

If driving fun is important to you, the opposition makes a stronger case as the Soul’s ride is a bit jiggly and its steering is imprecise. You can get it with a 1.6-litre petrol or a diesel of the same capacity. The petrol engine is comparatively thin on urban performance, but neither unit is particularly refined when pressed.

There is a new Soul out now, but the old-generation model is surprisingly affordable as a used purchase, and makes a lot of sense.

Best versions

The first Soul arrived in 2009 and carried on to 2014, with a facelift in 2012. If you can run to one of the face-lifters that wouldn’t be a bad plan as some useful improvements were made to the engines. There was more power for the petrol unit, and the old diesel was binned in favour of a more refined and economical new one.

We’d always go for the new diesel engine if possible to take advantage of its much lower running costs. In terms of trim choices, special edition models like the Inferno are worth searching out as they provide a higher level of standard equipment.

Problems

Reliability is rarely a major problem with any Kia, and the Soul is no exception.

Kia has issued three Soul recalls, the most important one relating to the seatbelt pre-tensioners in 2011-2012 cars. Examine the paperwork to ensure that all the warranty fixes have been done.

The Soul’s popularity as a family car means that a used car’s cabin will have been tested to the limit, so keep your eyes out for splits, tears and blemishes on the seats and trim. As usual it’s always best to track down examples that have a full service history and a not too high mileage.

Prices

For an early petrol-engined Soul, as little as £3000 will do the trick, but if funds allow we’d recommend throwing another £1000 into the pot for a diesel. The facelifted car that came along in 2012 will be up in the £6000-plus bracket.

Running costs are relatively high than for the class on the pre-facelift cars as economy is not a strong point for either engine option.