saw these on autoweek.com

Kia has teased us with concepts of its Soul small car at the Detroit and Geneva auto shows, and plans to roll out the production version at the Paris motor show in early October. But the Korean automaker has also been busy testing final protoypes on the road, and our spy photographer friends give us this look.

The Soul has a box-like silhouette that brings to mind the Scion xB--part of a bid to appeal to younger buyers. We expect that there will be a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. That engine will be mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission.

We expect the Soul will go on sale in the United States early next year as a 2009 model.

 

One ugly car!...

 

^x2

 

pending on it's utility features and spacing I think it'll do good. Has a very utilitarian look. I can see weekend back packers and mountain bikers driving this.

 

looks tiny..... look at how big the driver looks in it

 

It's a misnomer. It has no soul, so it should be called Kia Soulless. At least the rear is different...as in ugly.

But the folks at Autoblog seem to like it.

I'm still on the fence about tossing Autoblog from the list of my RSS feeds.

 

F-U-G-L-Y

 

The front is okay but the rear is hideous.

 

Looks like a KIA to me!

 

that sums it up perfectly!! if its not scion, its crap! (insert sean connory's voice)

 

i think i'll do good if its priced right and well some people just cant afford more...but its still UGLY!!

 

The thing is...when Soul owners are driving in this vehicle and see people smiling, they're liable to believe that those smiles are smiles of approval. :D

Instead, those smiles are actually concerted effort to contain outright bursts of laughter that someone actually bought one of those things.

It really reminds me of the ill-fated Aztek and the Baja. Ironically, both scored highest in APEAL with JD Power. The problem with both vehicles (and the Kia Soul) is that from the front, the vehicle doesn't look so bad, but take one look at that rear and you've discovered the namesake for 'butt-ugly'.


Is it football season yet?

 

I think there's another thread on this car floating around somewhere, but my comment on that one still applies.

It looks like the love child between a Touareg and a Range Rover dropped down a flight of stairs.

 

They tried way way way too hard, and FAILED!

It seems to have every exterior design element that they could find: flared fenders, body side molding, SUV front bumper treatment (even though it's not an SUV), lowered body (competing with SUV motif), station wagon styled high mount tail lights, SUV roof rails (once again, NOT an SUV), way too many body lines on the side, fake air vents at the rear of the front fenders... blah, blah, blah.

The unfortunate reality is that plenty of parents will probably see this as the perfect small, affordable (CHEAP) vehicle for their college age children, and it will sell like hot cakes at a cub scout pancake breakfast..

 

It's hideous! I'd probably take one of those new ford limo looking boxes.

 

auto weak...

 

I actually like the front and side shots.......but the rear is HIDEOUS!!!