Growing up, I didn’t even know the Kia brand existed. I only learned about it through a series of now-iconic commercials involving anthropomorphised hamsters driving a car that looked sort of like a hatchback, and sort of like an SUV. That car was, of course, the Kia Soul.
The Soul is inarguably one of Kia’s most important vehicles. Introduced in 2009 for the 2010 model year, it became an immediate hit, appealing to people who wanted the space and shape of a crossover, but with the efficiency and price of a sedan or hatch. By 2015, it was the brand’s best-selling model worldwide, moving over 150,000 units that year in the United States alone.
A lot of the Soul’s success can be attributed to those hamster ads, which thrust the Kia name into the households of hundreds of millions of Americans. The first one, below, presented the car as a standout in a sea of sameness, showing the hamsters driving the Soul and rocking out as the “cool” hamsters, while every other hamster was stuck in place with the same plain hamster wheel. The ad also showed off the Soul’s neat features, like the iPod compatibility and the flashing speakers. It was cute, fun, and, most importantly, appealing to a wide audience.
Later hamster-themed ads got a whole lot weirder. There was this version, which showed hamsters arriving at the front lines of a Sci-Fi battlefield and dancing to LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem to save the day:
And then this one, which showed hamsters preparing for a big day on the red carpet while Lady GaGa’s Applause played in the background:
And who could forget this one, which had the hamsters crashing an opera with a Soul before breaking out in yet another dance to PSY’s Gangnam Style:
The Soul was an incredibly important vehicle for Kia’s growth in the U.S. Don’t take it from me, take it from the guy who runs sales for the brand:
“The Soul was one of the cornerstones in Kia gaining a foothold in the United States and this one-of-a-kind vehicle – and the marketing supporting it – helped Kia move to where it resides today,” said Eric Watson, Vice President, Sales, Kia America. “Kia is steadily progressing towards its third consecutive annual sales record and all-time high market share, and that is possible thanks to the early success carved out by the Soul.
The funky crossover-hatch, along with cars like the Forte and the Optima, revitalised what was, at the time, an aging and weak lineup. In 2009, Kia was selling 327,000 cars a year in the United States. Last year, it knocked on the door of 800,000 units.
Despite the average American buyer’s ever-evolving taste for bigger and heavier cars, the Soul managed to hold its popularity for a staggeringly long time, selling over 100,000 units per year between 2012 and 2018. It was only during and after the COVID-19 pandemic that sales began to fall off. Last year, Kia sold just 52,297 units. Still, Kia sold over 1.5 million units over 16 years and three generations. I’d call that a resounding success.
And now, the Soul is dying. Kia announced on Monday plans to end production of the quirky hatch in October, with 2025 being the car’s final model year. If you want one, there are “just a few thousand units” still sitting at dealer lots, according to the carmaker.
While it’s sad to see the Soul go, this news isn’t entirely surprising. The Soul is built in Korea and imported into the U.S., which means it’s subject to tariff duties. Keeping its base price of $21,935 (including destination) likely would’ve been tough going forward. The current generation car has also been around since 2019, and last received an update in 2023. With sales dwindling, Kia likely decided it was better off ending production than investing money into a new version. The majority of the company’s sales now come from real-deal SUVs and crossovers, anyhow. With the Soul out the door, that leaves the $23,185 K4 sedan (shown below) as Kia’s new cheapest car.
Rest in peace, Kia Soul. You and your dancing hamsters will never be forgotten.
Top graphic images: Kia
Well, at least we know when Kia replaced the original ad agency with a sentient pile of cocaine
Still thought the 1st gen boxy xB (of which I owned two) and Element were better square cars. The Cube barely gets a mention.
Hated the Cube’s appearance. One reviewer called it a ’50s refrigerator and now I can’t unsee that.
Oh, and relevant to you in particular: my white Soul with the black accents inspired me to install a Funko Bobblehead storm trooper on the dashboard. After 12 years of exposure to the sun, it looked like it had just barely survived a blaster fight.
The newest Souls in white look VERY storm trooper helmet.
Since when do Stormtroopers survive blaster/stick/rock fights?
In terms of design though I would say the Nissan Cube was spot on.
I drove and liked it as a city car. The wheels look/felt an inch too small, but not actually awful. I liked the asymmetry too.
RIP to a real one. The hamster ads were some of the best advertising of the 2010s. I still vividly remember them and the time and place 20 years later. I was a sophomore in college and the ads were everywhere and appeared out of no where. A lot of folks thought they were weird and annoying but I loved them. Whereas now the whole overdone and surreal advertising schtick has been beaten into the ground 7 or 8 times over at this point (I blame Old Spice, but not because their ads are/were bad, but because of the awful pandora’s box they opened) it actually felt kind of fresh back then.
I think I can remember every frame of that ad with LMFAO playing. It scratches very specific nostalgia itch for me, as those were fun and carefree times in my life. But anyway, the Soul has always been a great little car. Other companies had been flirting with the enlarged Kei car/boxy compact crossover thing for a while (I know someone is going to be here to pledge their allegiance to the Scion XB any second) but IMHO Kia did it best.
The Soul has always been a cheerful little thing in a sea of penalty boxes. It’s an economy car that doesn’t openly hate its owner. They offer it in a variety of colors, I think you could still get manual ones until a couple of years ago, it’s simple transportation done right. I’ve also seen a lot of them with assorted accessories so I think the aftermarket has a fair amount you can buy to make your Soul more unique.
IMHO all of the other big manufacturers are still kind of playing catch up to the Koreans in this class of car. They wormed their way into the market and legitimacy on the backs of compact “crossovers” that were actually pretty damn good, and it forced everyone to up their game when it came to entry level cars. Now it’s harder to find one that sucks than it is to find one that’s perfectly cromulent.
Anyway, this is a bummer. Pour one out for the Soul, it was always a good and cheerful little car for the masses…and in this day and age of everything getting bigger, angrier, more expensive, and more butch I think people are going to miss cars like the Soul more than they know.
I haven’t driven one since maybe 2020, but the last one I had as a rental was a surprisingly good car. Like, I always liked the idea of the Soul because I liked boxy cars (loved the 2nd gen xB I had for a few months) and my first car was a Kia so I had a soft spot for the brand, but I assumed they weren’t particularly good because they were just cheap economy cars. It was reasonably quiet and comfortable, and drove pretty nicely.
If it wasn’t for the Kia Boyyyzzz issues in my area I’d certainly recommend it (if you have a Kia Boyzzz issue in your area, the price of these on the used market reflects that, and if you have a safe garage in the burbs they may be worth looking into).
They added immobilizers to all of them several years ago.
Sorry I’m late, I’ve been crazy busy. While I do love my second gen XB, that love extends to the whole class of car. Yeah, some were unnecessarily weird (looking at you Cube) but they had a ton of utility in a very efficient package all without trying to pretend to be something they weren’t.
I really agree with your point about the execution of the Soul; they did a really good job of making a decent entry level car that didn’t necessarily feel or look like an entry level car that was also very useful. I’ll mourn the loss of the last survivor of this class of car.
The Kia Niro fills much of the same niche the Soul filled, just at a slightly higher MSRP.
Kia likes to discontinue nameplates just when they’re starting to become memorable and the Soul is arguably their most memorable vehicle.
Came here to say this, love our Niro!
The Seltos is closer in price and size and has AWD “available”.
You’re right, it’s remarkably similar. I hadn’t considered it because the Seltos is styled more like a crossover whereas the Niro has that “enlarged hatchback” look that fits better as a successor to the Soul’s offbeat styling.
All the current gen Niros are electrified too, which is a real selling point. You can get a hybrid, a PHEV, or a full EV depending on your use case. The Soul was only electrified once and it was a slapdash EV project that just wasn’t competitive. IIRC the engineers more or less did it to get experience turning an existing ICE platform into an EV, and obviously it didn’t go very well.
My kid will be very sad she has had an alien II green soul since it was new in 2015 and has driven the crap out of it for around 170K miles. It has been a great car. very reliable and holds up to a massive amount of spirited driving and being full of drunk rugby players (She is the rugby team sober cab and fullback). When I get to drive it It reminds me of the 70s and 80s hot hatches I enjoyed when I was young. It will be missed even if I never considered it an SUV like Kia did.
A very close friend who lives in Wisconsin has a 230K mile red Soul that still runs like a top. It’s a great little car.
Aww, that’s a shame. At least the Soul added some variety to the roads.
That being said, I’ve always wondered why the early commercials leaned so heavily into making the hamsters so very anatomically correct.
I kind of liked the fact that they were chubby most of the time. Or is that not what you meant?
The chubbiness was fine – in fact, they were a bit creepy once they started being hamster heads on human bodies. An actual male hamster’s proportions look more than a bit odd when you stand them up on two legs and stuff them into some pants.
Wow, what a bummer.
I know that we’re headed to a new reality where there’s like, 4 car brands and they all sell the same 5 sizes of crossover and that’s it, so I guess brands no longer need to offer unique products anymore, but goddamn. There’s just so, so little fun to be had in the new car market these days. No coupes, no box cars, and hardly any hatches to be had. And sedans slowly going extinct too.
All true and all sad. Bon voyage little Soul. We’ll miss you.
All crossovers and short box pickups. SO sad.
My dad bought a 2010 Soul brand new to replace his older Geo Tracker. 5-speed manual, 147HP, the whole little “sport” trim that just added a funky spoiler and a red interior. Growing up I thought it was the coolest shit ever. “My dad drives a Kia Soul.” That one usually got me laughed at on the playground.
Some ten, fifteen years later the car’s in my name and while it’s seen better days, I do genuinely believe no matter what “far cooler” car I replace it with, it will just always stick out to me as “the one.” That’s my damn car right there.
A firm salute to the Soul for making me a lover of small hatchbacks and the manual transmission, no matter how clunky it may feel.
Aren’t you supposed to be working?
I know that around here (Los Angeles), the Soul was getting difficult to insure in some zip codes because of how regularly they were being stolen. A cheap car isn’t so cheap anymore when your insurance company wants $4k/yr to keep it minimally insured for a non-old-person owner.
I guess it’s just because I’m an ‘old person’ and haven’t had a moving violation in decades, but I live in LA and insure two cars (both old admitedly, but not ‘minimally’ covered) for about $1K/yr.
Are either of them a Kia Soul?
Definition of old person still pending, most would consider me one too. I have no moving violations either and my auto insurance is $5k per year for 3 cars (all 10-20 yrs old and weird/expensive-ish) and 2 motorcycles.
No, I’ve never had a Kia of any kind yet. Mine are a 240 wagon and an NA Miata. I insure w/Progressive. No collision coverage, but I keep fairly high liablity coverage levels since I own my house/have other assets.
I’ve also got another newer Volvo (XC90) and a motorcycle too (Suzuki Vanvan which I haven’t got around to selling yet) but I let the insurance on them lapse since there’s only one of me to use all four vehicles.
I suspect some areas of LA are more prone to car theft than others, and the whole Kia Boyz thing didn’t help rates.
Insurance is not a problem for my mother’s ’23. It’s cheaper to insure than the 20yo Volvo wagon it replaced. They added immobilizers to all trims a few years ago, until that point only those with keyless go had them. The insurance companies know this.
We bought 2 on Halloween 2009 – the price was that awesome. Both 5spd manual, one Exclaim and one Sport. The Exclaim moved on to other owners in ’17 but the Sport is still driven today by my son.
When we first got them it was another 6 months before we saw one on the road. Took a little while to kick off but since then they’re everywhere.
I thought it was funny that they clearly marketed to the yoots but nearly every driver I saw at the wheel was 50 and up. We older drivers recognize value, and a seating position that doesn’t hurt our backs!
I think the same thing happened to the xB… the manufacturer expected to sell them to young folks, but it was middle-aged-and-older buyers who appreciated the practicality and value propositions of these cars.
You’d think they would pay more attention to the age group with all the money.
When they first came out, I think base Souls were actually just $14-15K (an unthinkably low sum for any new car now of course) but IME, teens/20somethings spending their own money on a first car often buy used instead of new. But those 40 and over (and especially 50 and over) are less concerned with impressing their peers and are busy making payments on the tail-end of their mortgages, so it doesn’t suprise me that Soul/Element/xB drivers have grey hair more often than not, excepting those teen girl drivers using them as fashion accessories, with parents paying for them of course.
All gross generalizations on my part, but I stand by them. 😉
That and the ease of getting in/out and sitting upright. I love driving my kid’s Kia soul.
Ah yes, that too. You think I’d remember that positive quality of the Soul given the awful state of my own spine.
I daily a Volvo 240 wagon, and getting up/out of it, while not as bad as my Miata, is a bit of an effort.
The xB at least continued on for a few years longer in Japan sold as the Toyota bB, was pretty popular with the younger people there.
Yes, IME (at least in SoCal) the second-gen xB was (and still is, when you see them) more popular with older drivers, whereas the first gen (which seemed more like a domestic JDM product to me) remains popular with younger, often Latino drivers (again, at least here in LA).
Usual disclaimer about gross generalizations here.
Why can’t it be both? We never had any of the box cars, but we did have a minivan and a PT Cruiser, and they were awesome high school & college cars for basically the same reasons (except fuel economy, particularly for the van).
Were either of them orange? Yeah, they were available in orange, green, and other cool colors 😀
No, we couldn’t get those. We really wanted the Java and Denim, but Java was not readily available, and the Denim was only available as a Special Edition package I wasn’t willing to pay for. Ended up with white and Dune (beige).
Oh man! 😛
Honda Fit too, known to be a car preferred by us olds. Then again “you can sell a young man’s car to an old man, but not vice versa”.
We had an ’07 Fit for a little while. I liked it, except that I couldn’t find a seat position that allowed me to reach the steering wheel and still allow room to work the clutch without banging my knees. If I’d waited another model year it may have been a long-term car.
I’m keeping my ’15 forever…11 years so far.
A second-gen Fit Sport with a manual was one of the most entertaining test drives I’ve ever had. I should have bought one.
They are *everywhere* here in God’s Waiting Room, FL. And rightly so, they are a perfect Granny’s last ride. Easy to get in and out of, modern features, and cheap. My now 77yo mother loves hers.
My 70 year old self loves mine in Dunedin FL. At least I was a young 59 when I got mine. 😉
What a surprise and in a bad way. I wonder how Chevy will absorb tariffs in the popular Trax that is one of the most popular nameplates in the GM world.
They should move production to Mexico in their KIA plant and avoid tariffs, lower the price even more if possible to be the alternative to the Rio, the K4 is not. We need cheaper cars that do not feel cheap and the Soul was one of them.
Well, this is a sad bit of news. 🙁
The Soul outived both generations of the Scion xB, as well as Nissan’s Cube and even Honda’s Element to stand alone in the genre of affordable, practical, boxy small cars with personality. I test drove manual and automatic versions of the first gen Soul, and liked them both quite a bit. They weren’t super-refined, but when you considered the price and warranty and practicality with a bit of style, they were more than good enough. We only got the first gen Soul EV in the states, and it was a bit of a let-down in terms of performance/battery longevity as many early EVs were.
Quite a shame really to see it go… I don’t think the K4 is a comparable substitute, though the upcoming hatchback version of it will help.
Also, I missed all but one of those commercials somehow. They deserve some credit for the Soul’s success (and Kia’s too) but that’s not a knock against the car itself. Good marketing isn’t a sin against the qualities (or lack thereof) of the product being marketed.
BTW, it’s just anecdotal of course, but in case you somehow missed that video of a Kia Soul forcibly being flipped over at speed on a California freeway, here it is: https://youtu.be/pqYx9vl7Yt0 …again, the fact that the driver got away w/o serious injury is no assurance that you’d do the same, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
Maybe I’ll go try to test drive a current Soul later this week, just to see what it’s like.
I was youngish and broke in 2010 when the family heirloom 350,000-mile Mitsubishi Galant gave up the ghost. We shopped around for new/used cars that we could afford the payments on and eventually landed at a Kia dealership because the nice long warranty on a new car was appealing to our wallets.
The sales rep tried to persuade us to take a grey Hyundai Elantra wagon that had been sitting on the lot for more than a year, but even with all the incentives they could muster it was going to cost more than a base Soul in a real color (alien green of course). Kept that car 8 years and 100k miles, drove it across the country and only ever had to replace oil, brakes, and tires.
I’m not pretending it was the perfect car, and god knows there were times when I wish we had gone for the wagon instead, but I am sure I’m not the only one who has fond memories of their time in a Soul. Hopefully the K4 hatch will get the next generation of cheapskates out on the road (in far more luxury).
My 2013 served me well for 11+ years. My experience was similar to yours… the only non-consumable repair was a steering damper that needed to be replaced. The first-generation cars had a funky charm that got progressively watered down with each consecutive generation.
The Soul is synonymous with Kia in a way that none of their other models are. I wonder if that might be another reason for dropping it… manufacturers usually don’t want their whole line associated with their cheapest product.
Wow, this one is a bit shocking to me, but the fact it’s made in Korea and tariffs kinda make sense. But it’s exactly the form factor so many want these days and was affordable…I’m surprised to hear sales had been dropping off that much.
Kia doesn’t want to sell them anymore, and therefore, they don’t build them anymore. This has been the case with most mainstream brands and their cheaper compact models. Don’t stock them, claim sales are low, kill the model.
Back in the 10’s, Kia lots were LOADED with Souls. 30-40 sitting there, in various trims and colors and everything. People in this sort of price range looking for a practical new car to replace whatever just died aren’t ordering a Soul, they need to take what’s available.
Since the pandemic our local Kia dealers never stock more than one, in white.
*looks up local Kia dealer website*
Yep, there it is. A single Soul EX, in white.
Ah, I worked at a Kia dealer from around ‘10-‘16 and there were always dozens of the things, I hadn’t really paid close attention in the decade since though.
Whaaaaaaa?!
Anecdotally, this is the most popular Kia out there…although to be fair, most of them are older models, so it doesn’t speak to current sales. But they sure are popular — and that goes for everywhere I’ve been in recent years, cities, rural, suburbs, all over the country.
Apart from the Telluride, I’d even call the Soul “The Poster Child of Kia” (Halo Car is a bit of a stretch).
I’d say the Soul is at least as synonymous with Kia as the Civic is with Honda. There are other very good models, but its what you think when someone says Honda…
The K4 is cheapest by MSRP but I suspect it and the Seltos can be had for the same if not less out the door. The advertised lease and APR incentives in my area are actually more favorable to those than they are the Soul.
I think Kia already make up their mind that this would be the plan years ago. Soul sales started falling just as Forte sales started to climb around 2016-17, even as the Forte reduced available bodystyles. The Soul being the bigger seller than the compact sedan seemed to be primarily a US/North American phenomenon, so it just aligns it more with global positioning. The Soul did what they needed in order to improve their image in the small car space though as more than just a cheapo brand.
Between the Seltos and incoming K4 hatchback, it makes sense the Soul is going away.
I thought about the K4 hatch too. It will likely be more expensive, but most newer Souls I see look to be the lower trims in the range.
Woah, I assumed that the Soul still had a decent market presence. They must be more popular around me than they are across most of the country.
The box cars are dead. The xB, Element, Cube, and Soul have all gone away. The trend was clearly on the way out but I thought the Soul would hold on a little longer. Kia isn’t going to eat the tariff costs on a low-profit model and any attempt to pass the costs along to the consumers would have killed any demand for the Soul.
I always liked the Soul as being cheap and cheerful, and I see tons of them around. I thought the Soul was Kia’s best seller but looks like my data is 5+ years outdated.
If you live in a decent sized city I think that may be why, they’re super popular where I live because the space-to-footprint ratio is damn good for tight quarters.
Eh, sprawling suburbs of a major city where space isn’t an issue.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The best part is how many of them were ordered in cool colors like Kia Soul Green (officially called Alien 2, but it’s the signature color for the Soul)
They stopped offering that green, which was a mistake.
Also, they still sell the Borrego in Korea, under the name Mohave
My favorites were the white ones which looked like a Stormtrooper from the rear.
So Kia will now be just another Soul-less car company?
Shame.
This might not be the Optima time for them to kill off a cheap car.
Looks like that’s their Forte. Hope it doesn’t Stinger them in the butt.
If you ask your Kia dealership about the Soul, they’ll Tellu-“ride something else!”
+1 came here for this
possible COTD contender
Our country needs a Coup in the worst way, but no luck – we’re just overpopulated with Carens.
Perhaps there is some way you can Cee’d things through. Maybe a trip to Rio will ease your burdens?
Kia Boyz didn’t help their sales either
Celebrating this is weird. It’s one less extremely practical and inexpensive car that isn’t a stupid SUV that will never leave payment. To be clear I am aiming this at commenters not the author of this post.
The Soul was priced right, but just so half-assed.
I could fit my entire ass in the Soul.
Sigh. “Never leave pavement”
I read it as “never leave payment” (ie. too overpriced and will never be paid-off) which is still appropriate…
THANK GOD
But what will the elderly drive now?
Oh, that is not the demographic driving them where I live. That’s interesting. Around here it was usually younger people because the entry price was so low. I don’t think it was about being “cool” for several years as the young change what’s cool way to fast for that. But it was still a decent car for a low price. Most of the elderly around my neck of the woods are driving Foresters or CR-Vs.
Old people like them because of the step in height, just like the Scions when they came out
Back to Buick 😛
Around here it seems more like teens/20s girls (old folks want badges like Buick and Mercedes) plus a decent smattering of regular middle class people who take kids to school and commute to work. But it definitely skews heavily female for some reason.
I like to think that women are just more practical, at least when they’re feet are held to the flame. People like single moms are forced into good decisions wherever possible. If I were a marketing analyst, I’d probably track them as a demographic cohort that shows where things are really headed — at least in the real world.