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2020 Kia Soul X-Line Review | At least it looks the part

The Kia Soul was always intended to be a city creature. When it was launched a decade ago, it was an answer to weird city cars like the Scion xB and Nissan Cube. It had funky styling, bright colors, and speakers with lights that pulsed to your music. The 2020 Kia Soul may be an evolution in terms style and size from that original version, but the market has changed to frame it in a different light. The JDM boxes are gone, succeeded by a variety of sub-compact SUVs like the Honda HR-V, Jeep Renegade and Hyundai Kona. The previous Soul competed very well with them, and the new version for 2020 does even better, offering a compelling recipe of value, space and style. It still doesn't offer all-wheel drive, but then, neither does the Nissan Kicks or Toyota C-HR. Nevertheless, all of these vehicles are supposed to be able to leave town once in a while, to perhaps get dirty (or carry things that might, like a mountain bike or kayak). That’s part of the appeal of the segment, to enable an Instagram-friendly lifestyle. ThatÂ’s why the 2020 Kia Soul X-Line was hatched. To find out how it does at satisfying its mission, I set out on a road trip from Portland into Central Oregon toward the towns of Redmond and Bend. ItÂ’s a trek made daily by countless Subaru Crosstreks, a vehicle Kia almost certainly hopes to poach some customers from. I even brought a current Crosstrek owner along for the ride. Outside, the Subaru playbook was consulted and the requisite black plastic body cladding applied to the fascias, rocker and doors. The grille has a more rugged mesh insert accented by foglights and tasteful alloy-look trim, which is also used on the rocker panels, mirror caps and roof rails that are only available from the factory on the X-Line. The halogen headlights are in the same place as they are on lower Soul trim levels, but the alloy-look trim draws more attention to them – they look a bit like big, old-school driving lights. In total, it does indeed make the Soul look like a little SUV – and an attractive one at that, especially when painted Undercover Green. Sadly, our test car was Gravity Gray. The interior, by contrast, isnÂ’t any more special than the base trim. There's handsome, textured silver plastic trim on the doors and it comes with "Black Woven Cloth" that's actually quite nice for a car that costs $21,000. There are no Jeep-like rugged details or decals.

A closer look at the Kia GT4 Stinger Concept

When we named the Kia GT4 Stinger Concept as our top debut at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, our comments section had, let's call it, a tantrum. People were not pleased. Debuting alongside hugely significant production cars like the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Ford Mustang, Ford F-150, Lexus RC F, BMW M3/M4 and Chrysler 200 (not to mention great concepts like the Toyota FT-1, Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge and Volvo Concept XC Coupe), what business did a tiny, turbocharged, rear-drive Kia concept car have winning the prize as the best of Detroit?
Well, as it turns out, it has every right to be there. Our own Michael Harley sat down with the head of US design for Kia, Tom Kearn, to discuss the GT4 Stinger and find out just what the brand was thinking when it decided to create such an enthusiast-oriented concept. The interview gives a great insight into the car and its design, while Harley goes into some detail at the end of the video about why the GT4 was the Autoblog Editors' Choice of the 2014 Detroit Auto Show.
Scroll down to watch the full interview.

2016 Kia Sorento now an IIHS Top Safety Pick

The new Kia Sorento has taken it up a notch, securing a Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety thanks to a major improvement in the small overlap crash test. When the Sorento was in 2014, the crash dummy didn't have an easy time of it, almost missing the front airbag and suffering nearly a foot of intrusion in the footwell. That earned it a "poor" mark. The 2016 model did much better, with the dummy properly restrained, proper airbag deployment, and just four inches of intrusion in the footwell, all of which was good enough for a "good" rating. Add that to the good ratings it's received for all the other tests, the Sorento's overall status is elevated to Top Safety Pick. You can check out video of the small overlap test above. News Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Kia Safety Crossover Videos crash test kia sorento