2018 Kia Soul Plus 2.0 from North America
Summary:
Don't buy Kia or Hyundai, buy instead Toyota, Mazda, Subaru or Chevrolet
Faults:
At 69398 miles, the car would not start after being parked for a couple of hours at a shopping center. Tried to start the car using jumper cables with 2 different cars to no avail. The technician from the road assistance company started troubleshooting and attempting to start the car with a "Jumper Starter" with no success. He correctly concluded the car had a starter problem. The car was towed to the nearest Kia dealership where they confirmed that the starter indeed was at fault. The starter was replaced to the tune of $770 (dealership price, they charged $151/hour plus parts). Starters in general tend to last for over 100,000 miles and more, my other car (2008 Chevy Impala LT) has more than 176,000 miles and its starter still works just fine. So I believe this was an early failure, caused probably by poor Kia component quality.
General Comments:
Cars like this have been the target of the infamous "Kia Boys" car thefts because Kia did not provide an "immobilizer circuit" making the car an easy steal. My car is not compatible with a software update that Kia claims may alleviate the problem, but they did send me a steering lock. Recently I received another letter from Kia Corporate stating that this car's engine (2.0 NU engine) is prone to catastrophic failure. So at this point I do not have a lot of incentive to keep this car for the long term, either because it can get easily stolen or the engine will fail catastrophically without warning. It is a pity because overall the car rides well. But lesson learned, if I can, I will stay away from buying another Kia (or Hyundai).
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 13th October, 2023