2016 Kia Soul 6MT: Regular Car Reviews

oh good my uber is here uh hey what are we reviewing again i i don't remember what is this 2016 kia soul 6mt this is an enthusiast variant of a vehicle sold to people who hate driving the soul is one of the cheapest kia models and people buy them like i buy stale chocolate chip muffins from the discount rack the plastic interior feels like a toy from five below the seats feel like they came from a boneyard ryanair embryo 175 i hate this ecu i hate post poop ass itch mice in my rectum ass mice ass mice ass mice gotta oh i got a wallet no one can see i fake a phone call to walk around the corner and righteously scratch my where no one can see i'm stomping on the pedal and it responds with the indifference of a penndot license center clerk calling a 6mt soul an enthusiast car is like calling a 4995 amazon paintball gun a marker yeah it propels paintballs gently into the opposing force yeah the soul allows you to shift gears gently from one to another stray near the red line and mama hamster gently but firmly pulls at your toddler harness i'm on the floor and it's not giving me anything yep kia soul the official car of asking if you want kids on the first date kia soul brought to you by men under six feet need not apply kia's soul the official car of wearing fake gucci to a deposition preston put in a chip to change the clutch sensor so you can rev this and dump it and i drove it in its unnerfed mode and even at 100 throttle the chip had the effectiveness of a multivitamin is it working i don't know do you feel better i guess this base sole has bluetooth but no multi-function display no keyless entry no cruise control and one of the quietest four-cylinders you can command here's where a speaker would go if you had a nicer one here's where fog lights would go if you had a nicer one and this clutch uh there's nothing you can do it sucks and the throttle response sucks and this is a terrible car to learn to drive stick on because there's no way to feel the engagement you can't feel where the clutch material is making contact with the pressure plate you can't feel where the clutch is grabbing it's impossible to instruct somebody to learn how to drive stick when there's zero feedback the way you engage is to just listen to the engine and listen to when the revs slightly drop a little bit and then you know to feed in a little bit more gas if you already know how to drive stick you can drive this but if you're gonna buy a car to teach someone to drive stick or learn stick yourself don't get a soul this and the shifter you can't feel when it's really engaging the gears it feels like you're shifting a cruising usa arcade cabinet hyundai kia advertised first generation souls with urban hamsters second gens with multicultural hamsters and during the third era kia soul left the furry fandom and if you mention the hamsters they'll pretend to not know what you're talking about 2016 kia soul base this front engine front-wheel drive monstrosity features a 1.6 liter naturally aspirated 4-cylinder gasoline direct injected engine it's dual overhead cam with variable valve timing an aluminum block and head it makes 130 horsepower at 6 300 rpm and 118 pound-feet of torque at 4850 rpm and facts and figures don't really matter much in the grand scheme of things because this generation of the soul is fine but there are a thousand cars that just feel fine of all the cars to ever exist this is among them it's a decorative gift box that you hold on to for re-gifting purposes it's a gluten-free loaf of abject disappointment it's not entirely stock of course it has this aftermarket hood piece off of ebay that i guess cuts down on reflection and preston replaced the 16-inch alloy wheels with 15-inch steelies so he could have more tire it had a when he got it it had a stiff lower engine mount bushing that vibrated the car too much so preston changed it out as he tells it preston had been dailying a 2001 jeep cherokee since he got his license after pushing the mileage up to 235 000 miles he decided to look for a car that didn't require so much work to keep running so he got a kia soul it's like a friends with benefits arrangement good for now but you're eventually going to reach a point where you want more the soul has the most atrocious rev-hang preston has ever experienced when roman and i sat down to write this review we actually struggled we struggled to remember anything about the car itself to where we almost forgot we filmed this it's a car that tries to seem hip but only achieves a nondescript sentience of the word around it so it's so corny you can't digest it the styling feels dated the acceleration is whatever and the handling will get to it when it feels like it if this were soup it'd be just broth hot water the taste vaguely of protein but no matter how much you have you never feel full yeah comes with a six-speed manual and flex steer which will alter the heaviness of the steering between mid-grade normal and heavy sport and light comfort it gets decent fuel economy for a box 24 miles per gallon city and 30 highway and a combined 26 all for an msrp of around 16635 and who could possibly care i don't even care enough to be angry it's a conversation about the weather in the line that you get into to shake hands with the priest after church we could try to get deep about it do another pt cruiser postmodernism rant but why the kia soul feels like a great value scion xb the car you get when your cheat meal is a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch with whole milk this is the argument for cars as appliances you don't get a car like this to enjoy the experience of driving it it's entirely mercenary and subordinate to its own drab design it's as boring and economically sound as dollar general toothpaste 2016 kia soul for the man whose favorite dessert is a box of cream betweens and a leader of diet dr bob 2016 kia soul the official car of a soldier who runs out the clock on their military career as an e4 they'll just yes sir and yes ma'am all the way to their gi bill which they'll spend at shippensburg kia soul for the person who wants to yes and through a group project and not have to type up a single word owned by the way if someone is asking for a friend they're never asking for a friend is there anything memorable about a kia soul it's not a bad manual transmission it's just this is nanny state kid gloves nonsense it doesn't give throttle no matter how nicely you ask for it but people still treat it like a mother who takes her child bumper bowling and calls him a good athlete the design was inspired by a documentary on boars and their presence in korean culture as evidenced by a report from the national institute of biological resources which found that in south korea the wild boar density in urban population centers increased to 4.3 wild boars per 100 hectares in 2014 alone and so the designer sketched a boar wearing a backpack with the hope of convey with the hope of conveying the boers attitude of strength and capability with the goal of targeting hip urban youths because nothing gets the kids hyped like boars and yet despite the bore connection when kia needed a mascot they went with hamsters the kia hamsters were inducted into the madison avenue walk of fame in october 2011. just three years into the ad campaign which is significant less for the fact that they got in at all but more for how kia became the first car manufacturer to be inducted which is kind of miraculous for that advertising team considering their idea of advertising in the early 2010 was an april fool's press release about making the soul more environmentally friendly whatever all right closing thoughts here i'd have this over any modern nissan i'd rather have a yaris but the soul is bigger and cheaper i guess and it's okay all right here we go quality content the soul the kia soul fills the void left by the first generation scion xb can't find an x be in good condition just get a soul it's pretty much almost not quite good enough can't afford a patagonia jacket just get a marmot it's good enough can't get genuine hgh just take some dhea it's good enough can't get a blow job from your summit girl get a hand job from your health teacher oh man my jaw really hurts i couldn't sing right now even if i wanted to i think my gums are inflamed i should probably see like a dentist or an exorcist i'm pretty sure there's like a demon living in my mouth right now oh god that sounds too sexual just cut right

Channel: RegularCars

Views: 215,349

Rating: 4.9210205 out of 5

Keywords: Regular, Car, Reviews, Regular Car Reveiws, Car Review, Car Satire, Mr Regular, RCR, Soul, Kia soul, Kia soul review, 2016 Kia Soul, Manual kia soul

Id: rn1WUT593Q4

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/nlpnt]

This is a second-gen Soul, I test drove a 2020 MY thirdgen brand new a year ago. Same weirdly high clutch engagement as the Impreza and Fit (which actually seemed to get a bit lower after the first few hundred miles in the last case - something to do with hydraulics breaking in? I digress...), still no remote lock on the base-base manual version and you can no longer get Alien Green or any other non-grayscales without optioning the CVT. Handling felt OK, was a contender despite the dealer experience and would've been even more of one if I could've gone one trim level up and still gotten the 6MT.

[u/e2hawkeye]

The great thing about this review is that anyone inclined to purchase a Soul will watch this and buy one anyway.

The best reason to buy a Soul is to satisfy the supernatural legal contract when you bargain with Lucifer to trade your soul to play guitar as good as that guy from Sugar Ray.

[u/jroddie4]

did you check the oil level? Every single time I work on a soul it's always multiple quarts low. Kia/hyundai really fucked the engine on this one

[u/ArcturusFlyer]

This being an off-brand replacement for the Scion xB explains why they seem to be more common in the past few years.

I'd also argue a Hyundai Accent hatchback is also just as good; same engine, same spacious cargo area, but none of the pretentious marketing.

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Now that I think about it, RCR had a line in their Honda Fit review (way back in 2014) about Honda opening up the cheap car niche to Hyundai. Now it's 2021, the Fit is on its way out the door, most of the Fit's competitors (including the Yaris) are already gone, and it's just the Chevrolet Spark, Mitsubishi Mirage, Hyundai Veloster, Kia Rio, and Kia Soul in the subcompact hatchback segment.

[u/RacerX3888]

My friend had the first gen! It was just a car and it was fine for her. But it had all the light up speakers and such so it was fun in that way. As for the Hamsters we would go to the NY car show every year and they'd be there! Always got a pic with them. Even as late as 2019 they were there even though they weren't used in any marketing that year.

[u/theirvman]

My ex gf had an even more basic one, no AC. The description of the shifter and clutch was giving me ptsd from driving that uninspiring box.

My ex had a real knack for buying cars with crappy transmissions. Because the car it replaced was a manual 2016 Mitsubishi Mirage that was hot pink.

I guess if it wasn’t such a base model I’d have better things to say about it.

[u/AlecW81]

I drove a base Soul for work for a year or so, and actually really liked it.

Fuel mileage could have been better, but I had no complaints, and I’d use it for a grocery-getter for as cheap as they are 2nd-hand.

[u/_OUCHMYPENIS_]

I've been in a soul+ and enjoyed it. It's not a car for a car enthusiast but it has a nice amount of space, is a reasonable size, gets good mileage, is cheap, parts are plentiful. The interior is pretty nice and you get a decent amount of options too. I don't get the hate with these cars. For a single person in their 20s who wants a comfy car with adequate features and the occasional road trip, it's perfect.

[u/CWRules]

Anyone else remember those "Peer into a Soul" ads Kia ran years ago? I would never buy one of these, but I can't deny it was a memorable marketing campaign.