Review & Drive: 2020 Kia Soul X-Line | Ultra Practical Subcompact CUV!

This is the 2020 Kia Soul X-Line. Redesigned for 2020, the Kia Soul still keeps its same shape, its unique character, and it is ultra practical for the price. We're going to take a full review and a test drive coming right up. Before we start, I want you to know I have a review of the 2020 Kia Soul GT Turbo if you want to check that out as well. It is longer, more detailed, so be sure to check that out in the description. And also, if you have not subscribed to this channel, please go watch some other videos. Let me know what you think. Subscribe, hit the bell, leave some feedback. We really appreciate it. Now let's start things off by taking a look at the exterior of this 2020 Kia Soul X-Line model. And the biggest difference with this one versus that GT that I reviewed is that we have the daytime running lights right up above as well as the blinker. The actual headlight is in that housing right there. So it's a huge reflector housing and they're all halogen and then halogen fog lights down there. The GT model had a completely different setup with LED headlights. You can also get LEDs on the EX model and those look much better than these, especially if you have your fog lights on. There's just a whole lot going on right here, but this is a really aggressive design, a really unique looking front end. And I'd love to know what you think of that as well. The GT model had a glossier, sportier black look, but this X-Line is really pretty much just an appearance package. So what do y'all think of the looks here? You still have that same boxy shape with the Kia Soul. I think it's pretty sharp. You know, for a boxy vehicle, I think it looks pretty good. The biggest downfall with these headlights at night is that these halogen bulbs just do not do a very good job, especially compared to those LED headlights that we had. And the fact that they sit pretty low on the front of the vehicle probably makes a difference with that as well. Now this paint color right here is called Gravity Gray. It does have a metallic-y flake in it and it looks pretty nice on this vehicle. It's kind of a darker gray. Another thing with this X-Line model is you've got this rugged, kind of a rugged look to it. So you've got the molding around the wheels down there on the bottom as well. You can see that mirror even has that plastic piece on it that instead of like a glossy black that we saw on the other model. And then we have these unique to the X-Line, 18-inch wheels right here. We had 18s on the GT as well. And the GT actually gives you, or the GT with the turbo actually gives you bigger brakes. And I would rather not see 18-inch wheels on this vehicle because it does affect the ride comfort that we'll talk about later. Now, when we look at the length of the Kia Soul, it is a couple inches longer than the previous model. And it has a ton and ton of cargo space that we'll talk about. And one thing with the paint is that you can get a two-tone paint option with the X-Line, but we still have the same kind of paint here with the roof. And it's almost like a floating design. You've got Soul right there, and it kind of separates the roof and the rest of the body. The Hyundai Kona is slightly shorter than this, and this will give us 6.7 inches of ground clearance. As we head to the back, you can see there's more of those moldings on that back wheel, the whole back bumper, even that trim piece running right there. And one thing that really surprised me is right above that trim piece is actually kind of like a unique pattern. So there's some detail that Kia gave us back here. And I'll show you the cargo area in just a second. We don't have LED brake lights. The GT model that I had, I have a night video if you want to see that, but there were some nice looking LED light strips running right there. And then you can see the incandescent turn signal as well. Another thing missing is we don't have an exhaust outlet that is visible like that GT model. So the GT definitely separates itself from this X-Line. The X-Line is definitely an appearance package, and I'd love to know what you think. Another thing is we have a torsion beam suspension, just a regular suspension. The GT Turbo had that sport tuned suspension. So there's definitely a difference with the driving dynamics with that. Now the cargo area for the Kia Soul is where it really shines. So we've got our backup camera right up under there. And it's kind of weird that the lift gate is down here. It's nice and not nice at the same time. It's a low entry point. And once we get back here, I'll show you in the, I showed you in the night video for the GT, if you want to see that, but we have lights right here, which are actually really nice because they light up the area back here where you're going to be loading, especially if you're loading in the dark. So behind the second row, you get about 24 cubic feet, which is a pretty good amount of space, especially for this size of vehicle. And you can see my backpack is in here. A carry-on suitcase fits in here. Well, bigger stuff fits in here as well. I had a baby swing thing that we put back here and it had no trouble. We've got a nice light over there. And one feature that is optional on every trim is you can see that frame right there. You can have an extra board that can slide in right there and be kind of a higher setting cargo floor, or you can have the lower floor just like that as well. You can move it down and there is a spare tire underneath of here, which is nice. And that cargo floor is optional on every model to have that dual level cargo floor and standard on the top couple trims. Another nice little feature is a hook over there for some grocery bags. Maybe the only negative on these lower trims is that these headrests aren't removable. So if you have that front seat back far enough, you might have to take the headrest off or scoot that seat forward in order to get it down, but you've got a split folding seat. And then once you fold it down, you've got over 60 cubic feet of space, which is just phenomenal for this size of a vehicle. There's nothing too exciting with these seats in this model. Everything except the GT turbo and the EX gets six way cloth, manual seats. You do have height adjustability, which is good and you can pump it up quite a ways. Holy crap. I can't believe it. Pumped myself way up and I'm still actually not touching. I'm pretty darn close, but let's go back down. Wow. So I'm all the way back down now, which is where I like to sit. You do actually kind of sit higher in this vehicle and at five foot nine, I've still got a lot of room right here. This boxy shape really gives us a ton of headspace. My only complaint with these seats is that the lumbar support is just non-existent. I mean, usually there's some built in if you don't have it adjustable, but there's no adjustable lumbar support and it's kind of a slouched position. I was comfortable in the GT turbo seats, but those were power adjustable with extra tilt adjustment and lumbar support. So I'm disappointed in these seats, but the material in the actual cushion of the seat is good. The seats look okay. They're soft enough. It's just, I wish there was lumbar support. The steering wheel, leather wrapped for this X line model and tilt and telescoping with a pretty good range of motion. Now taking a look inside the Kia Soul, you've got a nice soft armrest right here. The one thing is if you sit further back in your seat, it does get kind of small back here to where your arm might fall off, but otherwise it is nice and soft. The rest of the door is hard so that you're, you don't really have any soft spots for your elbow up there. We've got a nice, large grab handle. You could even stash something in here, put your phone in there. Only the driver window is automatic down. Kia gives you a unique pattern right here. And on that GT model I was in, this area would light up, which is pretty cool. And the speaker grill, we even have a tweeter right there, but then it doesn't do that in here. Check out the night video to see that. Got decent storage down below. My large bottle also fits in there, which is great. Now the smart key system is available on the EX and the GT Turbo, optional on the regular GT. We get the regular key fob right here. We've got lock, unlock, and then you can unlock your tailgate. It doesn't actually open in your alarm. The key fob is similar to other Kias. Flip out key. This Kia Soul X line gives us this leather steering wheel with some nice bulky grips. You've got your radio controls and your voice Bluetooth controls over here. On this side, you've got cruise control. You can scroll through your menu on your information display up there as well, but there's no radar cruise on this model. We do, however, have blind spot monitoring, which you can see with that light. We also have the auto stop start, and I always like to turn that off because it does get kind of annoying. The display up here, these gauges are nice and clear, easy to read. And then this model gives us a small information display. It's really small, but it's got good information. And this is a pretty accurate fuel economy. It was probably closer to 30. I know it was closer to 30 before I started filming, so not too bad for this vehicle. Otherwise, it's pretty basic. You can scroll through some other information here. You do have your driver assistance features. You can adjust your blind spot with that, and you can adjust customized things like your doors, your locks, any sound. So that is pretty nice. Some good information, even though it is a small screen. And the rest of the Kia interior, all this up here on the dash is pretty good material, except right up on here. But going up on here, it is soft touch. It's kind of a unique design. It is integrated into the cabin here and into the dash, unlike the tablet style screen. So leave your thoughts below on if you prefer something like this or a tablet style. Now, this Kia Soul is going to give us the seven inch screen. The LXS X line and regular GT will give us this. The others will give us the 10 and a quarter inch screen, which is quite impressive. And as you can see, you have physical buttons on the left, the right, a volume knob, a tuning knob, and the screen is decent size for this class. This one will give us Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as six speakers. The stereo system is lacking. It's not that great, but it is definitely better with the Harman Kardon system on the EX and GT Turbo. Apple CarPlay works just as expected. It's really easy to live with. I can't really complain with the screen. We have just regular manual controls down here, dual zones available on the EX and GT Turbo. I've had no troubles with this as well. Everything seems to work just fine. And those vents do blow back to the backseat fairly well. Just below that, we have a nice little storage bin for my phone. It fits up there pretty good. We've got two 12 volt power outlets, a USB port for your Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and just to charge. Nice little storage bin down here as well. The shifter does feel nice. You've got some leather up here. You can shift down into a manual mode, sport mode, technically, where you can shift manually, even though we don't have paddle shifters. You've got a drive mode button where you can toggle between sport and normal. Interesting to see an actual physical parking brake here. You don't always see that anymore. And when I put this in reverse, here's our backup camera. It is fairly clear. It does illuminate pretty well at night as well. And you have dynamic lines. My bottle fits in here just fine in both of these. No troubles with that. And they can accommodate some smaller drinks as well. You've got a decent feeling armrest. It's not the most padded, but we've got some decent space inside of here as well. Just no lights or no extra charging ports in there. It would be nice to see an extra USB or something in here or the backseat. Then everything's pretty basic up here. We've just got regular incandescent bulbs. You've got a decent-sized sunglass holder. Everything fits in there okay. Then we have our mirror. No vanity light on this trim, and the entire visor will slide out to the side. Now one thing with the Kia Soul, because it is boxy, you've got some better visibility. You've got boxier windows. Not quite as nasty of a pillar. You've got a little space right there, but the pillar does get kind of large back there. You can see out that window fairly well. Now the backseat of the Kia Soul, the best part about it is the headroom. So I can sit up here no trouble at all. You can fit some taller passengers back here. Sitting behind myself, I've got decent knee space and decent foot space as well. So for a vehicle of this length, the exterior dimensions, this is fantastic. However, with this rear-facing car seat, I do have to push my seat forward just a little bit. I have it back to normal now, and I didn't have this with the GT model, so I wasn't sure how this worked. And having this here, I am cramped width-wise. So anybody with some big butt or thighs is not going to fit next to a car seat. So something to keep in mind. Another thing is we won't get a center folding armrest. There's no AC vents or USB port on any model. On the door though, we got a nice soft armrest for our elbow and a little bottle holder. All right. Thank you so much for sticking around for the test drive. Now I'm not going to be quite as detailed with this because I already drove a GT that I was telling you about. So I'm going to talk about some of the differences between this and that GT model, and they're pretty vast in terms of how they drive. So this does not have a sport-tuned suspension. The GT model did. This does not have a turbo engine. The GT model did. The powertrain on this one is Kia's two liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine with 147 horsepower, 132 pound feet of torque. The base model can get a six-speed manual. Otherwise you'll get an intelligent variable transmission. So a CVT transmission. With this transmission, you'll get 27 miles per gallon in the city, 33 on the highway. And I've averaged right about 30 miles per gallon total. For this small of a vehicle and that low of a power, it's not that great, but it's about on par with class. That turbo model had much more power, much more torque. And that's the biggest thing. This does not have a whole lot of torque. So if you want to get on it, it takes a little bit to get going. And to my surprise, this suspension is actually fairly responsive for being a variable transmission. And it does have some mimicked shift points. So honestly, for being a variable transmission, this feels and performs a lot closer to an automatic transmission with regular gears than you would expect. It does kind of make a ruckus sometimes when you do get on it though. But really, this Kia Soul, this transmission fits it just fine. It's a super practical vehicle. It's very easy to drive. I really don't have any complaints about driving it, except it can be a little bit harsh. The GT model, I complained a little bit about how it wasn't handling quite as well as I wanted it to with the sport suspension. But this one, that's not the objective with this one. This one is just supposed to be a practical, inexpensive vehicle that gets you by and is easy to live with, easy to drive. And it does exactly that. The 18-inch wheels on this model, on this X-Line, are totally not necessary. Sure, they look nice. It's kind of a nice look having bigger wheels. But I feel every bump in here. I really do. It's just not the softest ride. I wish it was a little bit of a softer ride. But in this class, with these short wheelbases, you're just not going to find a squishy ride. So it's not harsh. It's not bad. But I can see some of you getting kind of annoyed with the harsh ride in this vehicle. The handling and steering in here is great. Of course, it's not sporty. But the steering is really easy. It's really light. This thing is so easy to park. It's so small. You can see out of it just fine. It's just a, it's a simple vehicle to live with. Great city car. Another plus with the Kia Soul is that I took decibel ratings in these Kia Souls. And they've got great, well not great, but good noise, vibration, and harshness levels. Good sound control. It's not loud like the CH-R was when I had it. It's quieter than I expected it to be, especially on some louder, rougher textured roads. The braking in here does just fine. I haven't ever really felt like it was underperforming or anything. The GT model is going to give you bigger brakes because you're probably going to be driving that a little bit faster. But this does the job. It really does. And honestly, with the Kia Soul, I think it meets its market and does a great job. It's kind of a unique market. It's going to go for a certain individual. And if you want space, if you want headroom, if you still want a smaller compact size, subcompact technically with this, but you want to be able to carry people and cargo, this is a great option. Now, I've got to say, which trim level would you pick out of all of the trim levels, the LX, the S, EX, GTX line, GT Turbo, not in any particular order, but which one would you go with? I liked that GT Turbo. It had a lot of features, a lot of goodies in it. It was fun to drive compared to the rest of these. But if I was really going to put my money on something, I would go for the EX because you've got a lot of features and you can upgrade some things. And that's going to come in at least starting just about a grand more than this. And this is pretty bare bones. This X line is more of an appearance package. And I'm not really a big fan of the look of the extra body cladding and things like that, but that's just my opinion. The EX can be had for about a grand more and you get quite a bit of stuff on there. Anyways, that is going to wrap things up with this Kia Soul X line. Thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. Go down below, subscribe and click the bell if you want to see weekly videos. Thank you so much and have a great rest of your day.