Mami Drives: 2014 Kia Soul
I was provided with this vehicle in order to review it cuz, hello? How else would I experience this little bit of awesome? A few weeks back I got a chance to ride this cool whip:
First of all, can we talk about the color? Yes, it reminds me of my coffee cup. Probably because this is called Latte, people. I have been curious as to what the Kia Soul would be like after seeing one in my neighborhood and seeing the commercials. I mean why are the hamsters so cool and having so much fun? After driving the Soul for a few days, I think I know why.
The car felt new and fun the moment I sat down. It didn't feel cramped (which somehow, I thought it might). I think at first, I thought the gas pedal felt hard to me but it's what you would find in sportier cars (as opposed to what I normally drive). Once I took it for a couple of spins my foot got used to it.
A cool new feature I hadn't seen before? Heated steering wheel. Yes, I know that this is something I will use 3 times a year but it's nice if you're in colder climates. I'm also hopeful that since the car also has heated AND cooling seats, perhaps I will see a cooling steering wheel for those days when I give myself 2nd degree burns in August. What can I say? It's the price I pay for not freezing in the winter.
I also really fell in love with the panoramic sunroof.
I felt way happy driving around with this above me. The frog princess is always impressed by panoramic sunroofs and she readily approved of this one. She also liked the fact that she had room in the back for her legs to swing without having to rest them on my arm rest (which is what happens in my current vehicle).
Testing out the higher end model meant that I got speaker lights among other things. Yes the 8" nav screen was awesome as was the Sirius/XM situation but, the lights! The lights! My only complaint might be that it wasn't in the back seat for the frog princess to be entertained by. The speakers have 2 settings: music and mood. I had them in mood when I caught these:
Pretty cool, eh?
Trunk space was a little limiting. In my usual "how many dead bodies could I fit back here" test, I would say one small female only and she'd have to be in fetal position. I had to go to the airport to be dropped off and could fit my one big luggage along with my backpack. I believe the measurement is 18 cubic feet but I can't picture that so, hope the bag/dead body visualization does the trick because it was like 3 am when I went to the airport and I could barely remember my name let alone to take a pic of the happenings in the back (sorry guys).
I was really pleasantly surprised by this guy. I liked how it handled, I liked how it looked and I loved all the little extras in the higher end model. It's definitely worth going with the plus model. Packed with all of the goodies that I had, the 2014 Kia Soul will run you $24,010.00. Which means it should be a serious consideration if you're looking at a sexy, techy thang to ride around in.