{"id":20543,"date":"2017-05-12T09:57:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T13:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=20543"},"modified":"2017-05-12T09:57:35","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T13:57:35","slug":"payne-kia-soul-turbo-thinks-outside-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/payne-kia-soul-turbo-thinks-outside-the-box","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Kia Soul Turbo thinks outside the box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"soul_fr3-4\"<\/p>\n<\/div>

What do I call the boxy Kia Soul? Toaster on wheels? Shoebox? Beach cooler? Fridge?<\/p>\n

Whatever. It never really interested me until now. Late to the toaster party that began early last decade, the Soul arrived in 2009 behind the Scion xB, Honda Element and Nissan Cube. How many beach coolers could you sell in the auto mall? Even Kia\u2019s irresistible ad campaign<\/a> \u2014 featuring hip hamsters \u2014 stereotyped Souls as an eccentric trend. Good luck selling that pet rock in five years.<\/p>\n

But slowly the market shifted to Soul. Its competitors fell by the roadside even as the market demanded everything ute. Suddenly the quirkbox was a subcompact crossover in the hottest new space in autodom. All the corporate bigs \u2014 Chevy Trax, Honda HR-V, Buick Encore \u2014 flooded the space with their familiar badges and grilles. But if you wanted wee utility that marched to a different drummer … well, how about a little Soul music?<\/p>\n

Saved from the trend-shredder by market demand, Kia also recognizes Soul sits at the intersection of hot hatch and utility. You had me at hot hatch.<\/p>\n

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Like the Mini Clubman, the Soul Turbo injects performance into the common box \u2014 a natural place to go given the proximity of compact utilities to sporty, five-door hatchbacks like the VW Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST. While those turbocharged animals are more playful and have a lower center of gravity than the hamster-mobile, the turbo brings plenty of pop. The Soul sports a racy flat-bottom steering wheel, and gets GTI-like red war-paint across the grille and rockers just to make the point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If a GTI sees a Soul Turbo roll up next to it at a stop light, he\u2019ll know it\u2019s game on.<\/p>\n

With 195 pound feet of torque \u2014 up from 118 and 150 in the Soul\u2019s normally aspirated (yawn) 1.6 and 2.0-liter offerings \u2014 my Soul tester popped off the line, its torque-steer nicely damped. This is the same turbo workhorse<\/a> found in the Hyundai Veloster and the Kia Forte5.<\/p>\n

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