The Kia Soul: A Good Car for a Road Trip?

I was visiting the state of Missouri, but in need of some wheels to get back home to California, thus I went to an Avis car rental establishment and asked for a compact vehicle. I chose the compact style of car because I assumed I would get the best gas mileage without having to be in a golf cart sized vehicle. The rental car I was given was a Kia Soul.

I am not sure what year the Kia Soul I was set up with was, but I can tell you it only had 26,000 miles on it and featured Virginia license plates. I assume it was a newer 2011 model. Visually I did not feel cool sitting in the Kia Soul, as it looks kind of like a box on wheels, however, the interior was satisfactory in design. The real test for this machine would be how it would handle going from Missouri to California.

When I mashed the gas pedal down on the Kia Soul I was not blown away by the acceleration speed, however, I did find I was able to at least pass a few more sluggish cars when climbing a hill. There is a green light that flashes on the Soul's panel that says "ECO." This light baffled me for quite a long time before some wifi google work revealed it is a feature meant to train drivers to be better at gas management. When the green "ECO" light is on it means you are driving at a proper, steady pace that is good for gas management. I found this 'ECO" feature to be worthless and the Kia Soul and its gas management to be a big issue. First of all I was not impressed with the MPG rating for the vehicle and then was horrified to discover that the vehicle only as a 12 gallon gas tank! A car with such a small gas tank adds time to a cross country trip and had me worried about the long stretches of desert and no services I would encounter. I made sure to carry a gas can filled with gas along with me in the vehicle. I did not end up having to use the spare gas and used the extra stops for tank filling as a means to keep myself from getting too drowsy during the trip.

Turned off by the gas tank capacity, I was turned on by the interior of the Kia Soul, for it looked plenty spacious. If one lays the backs seats down it creates a nice wide storage space, or as I viewed it: a sleeping area! To save money on a hotel I planned to use the rear of the Kia to sleep in at a rest area, figuring it would be way more comfortable compared to a regular compact vehicle and its rear seat. If I had been better prepared with blankets and pillows I think the rear of the Kia Soul could have made a nice enough sleeping area, however, I was not. The section where the seats bend to lay down created an uncomfortable rift in the area and when I did lightly doze sprawled across it I awoke with ample pain in my ribs and back.

When I crossed the state of Kansas there were severe winds and the Kia Soul rocked back and forth just as any other puny car would, but I did not have any problems when the rain began. It was very serendipitous that I ended up with the Kia Soul instead of some other compact car, because the Kia Soul I got had four-wheel drive. Once I left Kansas, I entered Colorado, and in the Rocky Mountains rain turned into a snowstorm! The road was gone and I was griping the steering wheel tight, trying to navigate through the dark. I did not slide or lose control even once. So, the Kia Soul is a weaving and wobbly automobile in strong winds, but kept me nice and safe through the snow.

Would I ever buy a Kia Soul? No. The tiny gas tank coupled with non-impressive MPG statistics in comparison to other compacts made the vehicle seem silly to me, though I won't knock it for interior design: it was a fairly comfortable ride. The exterior, however, is more silliness in my opinion and I did find it was not as easy to swoop in and out of tight parking spots with the design. My trip took me from rainy Missouri, to windy and rainy Kansas, to snowy Colorado, to triple digits heat in Utah, to dust blowing bits of Arizona into Nevada, and then into California. The vehicle felt a bit rickety by the trip's end as I rode it hard, but I must say it held up for me regardless of how I ultimately look down on it.