2020 Kia Soul Review - Range Rover Style on a Budget

I'm Yuri. I'm Jacob. And we're going for a drive. 2020 Kia Soul. EX, not the GT line unfortunately, so it doesn't look as cool. We have some more unfortunates. Let's start with them. There are no more hamsters in the Kia Soul campaign. There are no more turbos for Canada. But you still get the turbo in the United States of America. And there are no more manuals for Canada. Do they still have a manual in the States? Yes, they do apparently. No. Yep. Okay, horsepower and torque of what we have right now in Canada. 147 horsepower and 132 pound feet of torque from a two liter four-cylinder non-turbo. I'm going to send it. Go for it. Why does that transmission feel that way? Yeah, so this is a IVT, which is a new name for a CVT. And I think the difference is that they put a chain instead of a rubber band. So it feels slightly less CVTE. It's not that great. It's not that great, but it's better than most CVTs. I will give them that. And for normal putt-putting around town, you know, if you're not going to get a turbo, you're not planning to go fast. Power is adequate. No more beyond adequate though. And before we keep going, we know a lot of you guys watch without subscribing. So make sure you subscribe, hit the notification bell. We're at 500,000 subscribers. We did it today. Yeah. So if you share this with one friend, we're at a million in a day. We'll talk more about the drivetrain and all that stuff later when you're driving, but let's address the most important part. The looks. Okay. In the presentation today, because we are on an event in Toronto. Yes, we are, but we did not bring our boxes because it's an hour away and I didn't feel like it. I'm sorry. So the guy doing the presentation said it's unmistakable for anything else on the road, but I beg to differ. Okay. What do you say it looks like? Range Rover. Yeah, it does have Range Rover-esque in the front end. But it looks like a Kia Soul as well. Yeah. It's only the front end, the headlights that look like a Range Rover Evoque and a Velar and whatever, all those new shapely ones. But what do you think of the looks? What do you think of the change? I think it looks fantastic. I mean, if we're even remotely comparing it to a Range Rover, which already looks stunning, like they nailed it. Yeah. They knocked it out of the park. And maybe that's why they're not using hamsters for the campaign anymore. Because if you look at the first one, it actually kind of looked like a rodent. Yeah. When you brought that up, I'm like, yeah, I could see that. Now I guess you need to make a new Kia Soul headlight style sunglasses for a hamster to wear so it's passable. But it wouldn't be a hamster anymore. It'd have to be like some kind of... It'd be a hamster wearing sunglasses that looked like the Kia Soul headlights. Okay. Maybe. By the way... Like Bret Hart type glasses. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or Macho Man Randy Savage. By the way, did I tell you that I filmed the Kia Soul turbo commercial with the hamsters? Yes. Is this your Nürburgring thing? On my Segway. Yeah. Anytime we do a Kia Soul, I'll let you know. All right. Fair enough. So back to the looks. We've got a bigger grille at the front. Yeah, we do. It's even bigger on the GT line. And on the GT line, you get a couple like vents right below the tiger nose grille that we don't get on this. Yeah. I think that one looks so much better. And a red line at the bottom. But I don't think they should include the red line at the bottom. I agree. It's not like sporty enough. Yeah. Like the Elantra GTN line deserves red lines. This I don't think, even with a 1.6T. I agree. One red line delete would be fine. So let's talk body lines now. They're pretty different than the last generation in a good way. In the right light, it's very crisp. And we were driving the green one, but now we're in the red one because we got to share cars with the other journalism's out here today. Yeah. So in case you're wondering why there's red things out here, but the car is green, we're in a red one now. Now let's talk about the fender flare things. Okay. So I didn't notice how they did it until you pointed it out. So they indented them to make it look like fender flares, and they completely tricked me until I looked close. And the Veloster did that too. From last gen to this gen, they kind of got rid of the flariness and just indented it so it looked like there's still a flare, even though it doesn't stick out as much. That's the trickiest thing I've ever seen. And I really like being tricked like that. I don't mind that at all. The trick is to have real fender flares like on my Honda Element. Speaking of Honda Element... And my Ford Raptor. This is technically the last of the boxcars. Yeah, this is the last surviving boxcar, and they're all Japanese, and this is the last Korean one, which is kind of funny. Now hit me with the taillights. I didn't notice how cool they looked until I looked even closer. There's like a double outline on the outside edge. It's really nice. The evolution from the first Soul to this Soul for the taillights was a very good job. Yeah, and it's like one entire taillight. There's no taillights. There's one taillight. Yeah, but it doesn't light up at the very top. Yeah, okay. That's where your third brake light is. To be brutally honest, I don't like it as much as the last gen Kia Soul Turbo. I like that one the most, but I think this one looks really good, and especially for a compact car like this, taillights like that are incredible. Yeah, this doesn't really have any competition anymore versus like boxcars. Obviously, you can cross shop this with pretty much any other SUV in this class, but nothing looks like this. And since this isn't the GT line, our bottom rear bumper isn't color matched. Yeah, all around, which also sucks. But again, I really like the GT line, but if you don't want it, don't care for the big grills and all that stuff, I guess it's fine. And since it's not faster in Canada, I don't see the need to get it. In the States, yeah, I understand, but I think they should make a launcher GTN line and transfer that right to the Kia Soul N line. Which would be the GT line, but they just need to make another letter or something. I think they need to bring N right to Kia because it's still Namiang and Nürburgring. I think people would be very confused. Yeah, but it'd be sick. Well, it's whatever they do on the Stinger, which already has a GTS, so maybe a GTS would be the N line. Okay, Kia Soul GTS. Yeah. GTS Soul. All right, well, if you're confused, so are we. And we also have a floating roof design aspect to this. Of course we do, and we have a nice little Soul logo right in there. It's not just like a sticker. And how about the wheels? The wheels look good for this one. I do, again, prefer the ones on the GT line, but that's fine. How about the Continental recommended tire? The Continental Pure Contact LS. So that pretty much sums it up for looks. Yeah, I think overall it looks really, really good, and I like what they did with everything. I think it almost looks too good for the performance. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean. I think a lot of people are going to have a really cool looking car who probably wouldn't be able to afford a higher end, good looking car. Yeah, but it hasn't quite crossed into like DeLorean territory, where it's like way too good and no performance. Yeah, but if doors go up, you know, you can make it look like whatever you want it to with no performance. That's true. That's the rule. Yeah, that's true. Okay, your turn to drive. Handling, power, interior, infotainment, we got a lot more stuff to talk about. Power. Here we go. Still waiting for it to kick down, and the fake simulated gears. I don't mind the fake simulated gears. They're actually good at fake simulating, but what I do mind is the extra throttle being applied when I let off the throttle. That does bother me as well. I had that same problem in all of the Subarus, which coincidentally all have CVTs as well. Do you think it'll really matter though if you drive slow through town all the time? Maybe not. It's probably something you can get used to. As I said in the Subarus, I just don't like it. We also do have drive mode, so if you hit the simple drive mode button, you get sport and sport kicks it up a little bit. It's a little bit better to drive in sport. And then if you have the shifter over to the left, you can do fake gears again and downshift and downshift. And it's remotely quick at that. Yeah, but I would like to drive a DCT turbo. I would too. Or a manual. But apparently people aren't buying them. Or in a larger GTN line with the body of a Kia Soul on top. That would be interesting. It'd be like the Juke Nismo RS or whatever. Yeah? That would be cool. Speaking of which, we need to review one of those. Let us know if you'd like us to review a Juke Nismo. I don't think that exists anymore. Yeah, I know. How about handling? There's obviously tons of body roll, as you'd expect in a vehicle of this shape. But it handles completely fine for what you need it. You'd be driving this in traffic every day. You'd be driving this not really on back roads. And we're not at Cliché Corner, so we can't send it through. Yeah, sorry guys. And we don't have our boxes, so we can't do the boxes. But we can do the visor test. Yes, we can. Three, two, one. Yes. Ah, just as expected. Obviously. And we were provided with extra small cups of Starbucks. And they fit in the cup holders. Yeah, without a lid. And it hasn't spilled. Because I drank it all already. Yes, you did. Okay, so back to suspension. It's compliant over bumps. It's actually relatively smooth. Until you get into like really hard stuff, which you probably won't, it'll be completely fine. And steering is extremely light, which I'm sure everybody's going to like when they drive this thing. I appreciate that. So let's end off our driving impressions with how the lane keep works. Yeah, so in the city, it's been working extremely well. It holds the lanes just as all previous Kias did. I'm not sure if they changed it or if it's slightly better, but I have no issue with it. As long as you're going over like 60 kilometers an hour-ish. Yeah, and it automatically kicks on and then you can turn it off down here. And you don't need to be in cruise control to use it. Exactly. The only complaint I have about all these safety systems is that it's a little bit more difficult to turn off. I want like an everything off switch on the left side. So now let's move into the interior, but let's start with the fun stuff. Okay. Screen or cool lights? Screen. So we have a 10 and a half inch screen. 10.25, Yuri. Okay, my bad. It's so- 10 and a quarter. It's so wide. It's pretty much the same Kia infotainment, but on the home screen, we've got like three little tabs and a little side thing that pops out. This is my favorite Kia Hyundai infotainment that I've used to date. So just like the rest of them, we've got 10 rewinding satellite radio stations, but now the rewinding button is a lot lower, so it's easier to hit while driving. And then we also have the center screen that you can have three different things displayed on your screen, like widgets almost. Yeah. And then back to satellite radio, we cannot use tune mix because this does not have that yet. Very disappointed Kia Hyundai Genesis. Maybe next refresh. Yeah. Oh, that's going to be a while. It will be. And now Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. It has both. However, Android Auto does not take up the full screen yet. Hopefully by the summer when they release their new update, it will take up the full screen. Anyways, moving on, it all works. The new update that looks exactly like Apple CarPlay. Similar. There are similarities. Listen, you guys didn't invent icons. So Apple CarPlay goes all the way across. It's very nice. And then we've got hard buttons for all our shortcut stuff like map, radio, and the one to go right back to whatever your projection was from your screen. Yeah. And the map is really nice. It's full widescreen. And it even shows you the traffic, which nobody trusts because only Google Maps is accurate. Exactly. And Waze, which runs off Google Maps. And then below that, we've got wireless charging. Yeah, we do. And I really love that with my Android phone rests right here on the shelf. Love it. And my old iPhone from like four years ago, which still hasn't broken, so I have no reason to buy a new one, does not have wireless charging. And then right above that, we've got our climate controls, which are all hard buttons. Very easy to use. Not confusing at all. And it's auto climate, which is nice. And then on the steering wheel, we've got a lot of different style buttons that control pretty much everything. Yeah. I'm not sure if I like them yet, but I like how big they are. They made it quirky. They did because the shapes match the climate control knobs. Oh, I forgot to mention we have volume knob and tuning knob. Yes, we do. Which is a big deal these days. Yeah. 2020, 2019. And back to the steering wheel, lots of piano black, and we've got a ton of piano black in the middle. Yeah. It's honestly gross. But it's the acceptable amount of piano black, I think. I don't think so because they put it down here. If it was all up here, I'd be more okay with it. But in all the dust resting spots, that's what I don't like. Even right here on the steering wheel, I can already see dust. What else can you see in front of the steering wheel? My gigantic head-up display, which I have to look down at onto the hood to see, which is useless for someone of my height. Yeah. It's one of those flip-out screens. It's not projected onto the windshield. I don't like this style either. Yeah. And it looks hilarious from the outside. It's a reflective mirror. Pretty much just reflect it onto the windshield, please. Yes. And then if we move down to our gauges, very, very basic, crystal clear though. Now let's talk about the funkiest part of this Kia Soul. The lighting system for ambient lights. It's really good. It is. The old one had it. It had the speakers that lit up at the same time with your music, but now this has even more stuff. Yeah. And there's ones on the side, which look like the Porsche Panamera GTS Sport Turismo that we recently drove. And then we've got this weird pattern in front of our inner door handle, and it doesn't look like there's lights there, but it's like, I guess, thin material that light reflects from inside. Yeah. That straight up blows me away. However they did that, that's just magic. It looks so good, but you wouldn't know it had it unless you used it at night. And then we've got different options, so we can do different colors or solid colors that goes with the music. There's even a romance mode. It's very impressive for a Kia Soul. Yeah, it is. But I wouldn't expect any less because the old one had it. Exactly. This is a party bus. Bring back the hamsters. What do you think of the seats? The seats are really comfortable. No issues. And we've got heated and cooled. So now let's quickly touch on rear seat room. It's actually really good because of the shape of this vehicle. Yeah. You got a lot of headroom. I like how there's nothing in the bottom, in the middle. So there's a lot of room for someone to sit in the middle as well. Yeah. So we both fit behind ourselves. No problem. And then trunk room. It fits both of our carry-on bags perfectly. And we've got a compartment that can either go higher or lower, so you can change where all your stuff goes. Yeah. It's perfect for carry-ons, which is like shockingly good for our stuff. Yeah. And sorry about the box test again, but we should probably get to the price and end this. Yeah. So this EX Limited is $28,995. Canadian. And remember, we don't get a turbo model in Canada right now. Yeah. So the only trim above this is the GT line, which is mostly an appearance package plus a little bit of things here and there. So what do you think of the price? I think it's very reasonable. Do you think it's a good price for the way it drives? For the way it drives, if you're expecting performance, no. But for the looks and if you want to stand out, absolutely yes. Yeah. I think the looks carries this whole car. I agree. So let us know what you think of the new Kia Soul. Do you miss the hamsters? Do you like the looks? Does it look like a Range Rover? Do you guys cross-shop this with anything else? And do you think the looks carry it just enough that this is at the top of your list? Don't forget to subscribe. Hit the notification bell. Check out Patreon.com slash TheStraightPipes and don't forget to join our YouTube membership. We got cool t-shirts at Teesprings and thank you very much for helping us hit 500,000 subscribers today. Thank you guys so much. I'm Yuri. I'm Jacob. And we're going for a drive. Don't forget to subscribe. Subscribe right now. Subscribe. We didn't even... We didn't do that.