MotorMouths

The Kia Soul offers drive-it-and-forget it simplicity, hatchback versatility, it’s easy on gas and the wallet, and its styling still has personality. It is easy to drive and great fun in urban settings. If it has any vices we have been unable to find them.

The 2011 Kia Soul brings hipster styling and a fun-to-drive nature to the realm of the practical hatchback.

Kia’s done an outstanding job of improving the Soul where improvement was needed, while leaving the good stuff perfectly well alone. It’s still unique, it’s still useful, and it’s still a great value.

The 2012 Kia Soul has more power, better efficiency, and basically the same price, all in the same useful, packaging-focused little hatch. Planned obsolescence with no real downside.

The 2012 Kia Soul’s blend of style and practicality — not to mention its affordable price tag, long list of standard and available features and 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty — make it one of our top choices.

Kia’s Soul is clearly a niche vehicle made for people who are drawn to a car with a quirky, unexpected design. And they’ve added some great features, improved fuel economy, and actually made it more fun to drive.

Dynamically, the Soul is a real pleasure. It’s swift and sure to operate. If you can live without cruise control, the manual-transmission Soul is an entertaining, useful vehicle.

The Kia Soul might not be the most comfortable, or have the most commodious trunk, or be the quietest commuter, but it is entertaining to drive, it looks even funkier and gets both improved power and fuel economy.

The Soul is a fun and affordable five-door hatchback that feels anything but base. Kia has correctly targeted for improvement the precise areas of the Soul that were our primary causes for complaint, and in doing so, it may have turned one of its hot sellers into its new best seller.

More power is always a welcomed addition to the 2012 Kia Soul, especially since it’s joined by better fuel economy. We think Kia has done a fine job of making a good vehicle better without messing anything up in the process.

The Kia Soul gets drivetrain updates for 2012 and a few filigrees that make it more desirable without compromising its funky appeal or the plain, old usefulness of a car shaped like a box.

The Soul isn’t for everybody. It’s for buyers who don’t mind its square look and stance. In fact, said buyers might actually crave the boxy dimensions and its associated perks.