Chocolate Covered Kia

Before the Kia Soul was delivered right before Valentines Day, I will admit I was pretty sure it wouldn’t go down in my list of favorites. If you’ve seen the commercials, you most likely associate the Soul with lime green, hamsters, and Lady Gaga. All of those things are awesome, but didn’t do much to entice me to want to get into this car. Fast forward a week later, and I was in love.

You see, the Kia Soul turns out to be the best of both worlds. It’s a car, but with some qualities that you’d expect from a 4×4. It isn’t as low to the ground as most cars, so anyone with a child in a car seat knows this is a back saver. Inside, the box shape of the car makes it feel roomy, even though it’s actually small enough to fit into those NYC parking spaces that others have to drive past.

The dual moon roof makes the interior feel super modern, and you almost forget you’re not in a gas guzzling 4×4. Yes, that’s the perk of it still being a car- 31 highway mpg. At night it was great to have the moon roof open and let the girls count the stars from the back seat- yeah maybe NYC isn’t the best place to star gaze, but this only gives an excuse for a road trip to family down south. When our one year old was napping during the day, we’d slide the sunroof halfway closed so the sun wasn’t shining right on her, but we could still enjoy the sunshine up front.

The Technology

The good thing about Lady Gaga and dancing hamsters is that this car is made for a family who can appreciate music and technology. The touch screen LCD display is amazing- scroll radio stations with your finger. The navigation is great, and there are even lights on the doors that you can program to go along with the music. Bluetooth allows you to sync your phone and Pandora-which we do often to avoid meltdowns using lullaby and Kidz Bop stations.

Heated seats-cool. A heated steering wheel? Awesome. The back up camera is always great for parallel parking in NYC.

The Look

The Kia Soul we reviewed came in Latte Brown. Since it was Valentine’s Day week, I called it my chocolate covered Soul, but this color was truly nice. It’s also a very unique color and enabled us to find it super easy in the parking lot at Stew Leonard’s. Again, I was surprised how much I loved the exterior of this car. It’s just as modern on the outside as it inside. The grill was one of my hubby’s favorite parts.

The Inside

As I said, the inside was roomy and comfortable. One very mommy thing of me to notice was the additional drink holders on the door of the car- since we often travel prepared with sippy cups, bottles, and other beverages. In the back, the girls were able to pull down the armrest which also contained cup holders.

The only thing that brings you back to reality that this isn’t a 4×4 is the size of the trunk space. As you can see, since we have a larger

stroller still, we coudn’t lay it flat. However, there was still room on the side for a few grocery bags. For us, it wasn’t much of an issue since we don’t travel with everything but the kitchen sink, and it’s a good way to avoid letting the trunk become a bottomless pit of beach gear, sports equipment, and whatever else ends up back there. And, if you have to- the back seats can be pushed down to pick up those larger items when the kids aren’t in the car.

The Verdict

I really loved this car. Hubby preferred some of the other faster cars we’ve reviewed (he’s a man!)- but he was equally impressed and happy with the Kia Soul. It totally wasn’t at all what I expected and has become my favorite car so far. It’s a good combination of a lot of the qualities people look for in different types of cars. In fact, I’m currently thinking of an excuse to review another one- I’m thinking that we need to try out the New Vanilla Shake color-yes!

For more information about the Kia Soul, check out kia.com to check out all of the car expert lingo I left out.

–Nicole Perrino