Kia Soul?

[surgtech1956]

Anyone own a Kia Soul? For my next vehicle I'm thinking about a Kia Soul, Toyota Matrix, Honda Fit, Nissan Cube or some type of Subaru. Any recommendations? I will put kayaks on the roof, and some type of bike rack either roof or rear.

[Zen]

Every time I see a Kia Soul I think of a hamster car.

[zoom-zoom]

Don't miss the Mazda 3. It's generally at the top of that small wagon/hatchback class. I LOVE mine. It's over 4 years old and has been trouble-free. Such a blast to drive, too.

[maillotpois]

I love my Fit, but my daughter thinks the Soul commercials are cool...

[GLC1968]

I was checking out those same cars too. We saw a Cube on the side of the road on one of our bike rides and stopped to investigate. Neat looking!

Unfortunately, according to their website, the rear seat does not fold flat. That was a deal breaker for us.

The Kia Soul seems like a good option, but I've not looked at one up close in person before.

We currently drive a Toyota Matrix. We bought it 5 years ago because it was practical (and frankly, liked that it was a Toyota) and we have not been disappointed. We are just shy of 100K miles on it (we are tough on our cars!) and it still drives wonderfully. Except for the fact that it's dirty and full of dog hair right now, it still looks pretty good, too. Honestly, we have NO complaints - it's done everything we've asked of it (including a drive across the country carrying two dogs, 2 bikes and baggage) without issue. I put chains on it for our first snowy winter here (roads get REALLY bad because we don't have many plows) and it handled beautifully. Much better than I expected it to, actually!

I recently had the opportunity to drive a new Matrix (2010) while waiting for ours to be serviced for a day and it was nice. It doesn't have a back glass hatch like ours does (which we love when there are bikes on the rear rack) and the visability isn't as good (they changed the rear windows somewhat), but the interior is nice and it drove well. Personally though, if I were looking at a Matrix, I'd get a used one to get the features that we have.

[malkin]

I had a Kia Sportage, and it really put me off all things Kia.

On the good side: I rolled one within the first month of having it, and we were all fine, so I replaced it with the same. (I actually made money on this, but I don't recommend it as a way to make a living.)

On the neg side:
Hub caps fell off repeatedly.
Developed oil leak in 1st year which dealer was unable to repair.
Latch to release spare tire hitch broke, and repair required major surgery.
Latch broke again shortly after paying for major surgical repair. Just removed the whole mess, and carried the spare in the back from then on.
AC barely cooled off the car.
Parts were always unavailable.
Stereo had some anti-theft thing that would make it inoperational at random times.
Worst dealer service in town, but your mileage may vary.

[Blue_Fedora]

I see you've got the Honda Fit on your "consideration" list. Please please please check out the Honda Insight. I just got one a couple of months ago and LOVE it. I wanted to get something that had excellent mpg (I'm averaging 50+ mpg!!) and I could easily load my bike into/out of by myself (didn't want to deal with roof/trunk mounted carrier).

Love it beyond measure!!!!!!!!!

[azfiddle]

We recently bought the Honda Fit- it has been great so far, lots of room, highly rated, gets great mileage. We're about to install a hitch & rack on the back.