Next month will be the big one for Kia Motors, as it prepares to take the wraps off the Soul and show it to the world-wide public for the first time.
We have already seen an assortment of spy shots of the camo-covered exterior of the Soul. Now we have our first peak at the interior. As the early spy shots proved, the production Soul interior will stay very close to the concept car.
Center stack console retained the shape, as well as did attractively designed, three spoke steering wheel and three gauge instrument cluster. The leather-wrapped steering wheel has a concept-like sporty look and features some controls on the left – possibly for cruise or audio control, and Kia emblem in the center.
There is one more thing that I noticed when I put the concept and production image, side by side. In the concept car, there is a pretty large speaker mounted at the top of center stack, that seems to be missing on production Soul. That part is still covered with some plastic vinyls, so it’s difficult to see if the speaker is still there! What do you say? [Source: GlobalMotors]
Kia Soul Burner – concept car:
Kia Soul – production car:
August 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
the steering wheel looks glossy and the dark coloured steering is much better over grey. I like what me eyes see..
August 29th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Himi is there any word if the secret mpv will be there in concept form along with the Soul? Or a VG concept something?
August 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I think Vg might have a concept to represent it. or should it be PRE-present it? concepts, pre-present producction cars right? maybe it will come after they introduce the production soul.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
As far as I know Kia will put all of the attention to the Soul, so there will not be any other concepts shown this time.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
—speaker mounted at the top of center stack, that seems to be missing on production Soul. That part is still covered with some plastic vinyls, so it’s difficult to see if the speaker is still there! What do you say?—
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Haven’t we already seen that speaker in other spy shots? Its there
August 29th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
himi, is soul searcher a hybrid? click my name to see why i asked that?
August 29th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
You’re right, I checked those shots from two days ago and it’s obvious, the speaker is there! Good!
August 29th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
and is soul searcher a hybrid?
August 29th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
boris, thats VERY interesting! that’d be amazing if the soul popped up with the 1.6L as a hybrid and the 2.0L a gas powered car. i’d shit myself, actually. all the focus is on honda & toyota as the hybrid people and then here comes kia. “the power to surprise”. but i’m also dreaming out loud, here. lol. That speaker is def. still there, though. which is why i’m hoping we all get the joys of great sounding music in our souls.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
if searcher is a hybrid, why didnt Kia say so?. It would be a better choice to make soul a hybrid vs. rio.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
your right. Why make Rio a hybrid now when they plan on changing the body style soon anyways. Soul would make much more sense. It would be a very unique hybrid and I think it would draw ALOT of attention to it, even more than the soul already gets.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Well it’s all up to Kia’s marketing department now. I hope they put it out there. It’s got the chance to be another Mini or a VW Beetle, it’s just got that look.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Thanks for the picture K-Sport besides the hybrid, there is more room back there than I thought!!! Even with the seats up.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
himi Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
You’re right, I checked those shots from two days ago and it’s obvious, the speaker is there! Good!
Himi, you mean a MONORAUL speaker is GOOD?! You gotta be kidding, right…
I remember decades ago, my old man’s 1974 MBZ W115 240D proudly features a mid dash MONORAUL speaker, fcol!
I like my music in left and right channel, through my two left and right ears…thank you very much.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I really, really hope that Kia brings out a hybrid. Anything to have less of those awful style-less piece of shit Prius off the road. This is turning out to be a really exciting vehicle.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
JTZ—Thanks for the picture K-Sport besides the hybrid, there is more room back there than I thought!!! Even with the seats up.—
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its not that deep. the battery or what ever it is is under floor and the spare wheel will be there in the production model. but its still good.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I’m slowly warming up to the two-tone interior color arrangements, like Fiat does with their new world order Fiat 500. And like the Soul Burner has, it would be cool to replicate that two-tone on the production models. Yeah, the center console large speaker looks like it will be there. Plenty of audio controls on the steering wheel. Looks ship-shape to me, men.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
lets see what interior colours we can have… black, brown and beige for a start. then. O,yes, the orange from sportage and the blue and red from picanto. so there should be around 5-6 colours for the soul. or could there be more?
August 29th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Hi himi, i have news from chile, the soul it’s confirmated to santiago’s autoshow and i guess that be comercialized to the end of the year…
August 29th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Thanks for the pic himi. On the dash speaker question , The production Soul has a simular layout like the Rondo my wife has . It has the ten speaker system with one in the center dash..The Rondo i rented after i wrecked my PT Cruiser was a base model and did have the same dash but without the speaker i think it was just a plastic cover. Hopefully the Soul will have a good system and includ the center speaker. The infinity head unit is a good product speakers realy suck bigtime. The first thing i did with my wifes Rondo was to replace all the speakers .And it made quite a difference in sound qualty.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Hey VWOOM its not a MONORAUL speaker its a Midrange…
August 29th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
HIMI look at interior pic again it looks like there is some kind of cover on the dash. Look at the top of the center A/C vents it looks like the dash has wrinkels in it and the top of the pass side dash looks funny!!!!!!!!!
August 29th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
its not the dash that wrinkles. its plastic covers to hide stuff on the dash cuz official soul interior pix aren’t released yet…
August 30th, 2008 at 2:18 am
I know the dash is not wrinkled Boris—IT’S A PLASTIC COVER
August 30th, 2008 at 3:50 am
Actually, we love our Infinity speakers. Grandma’s Rondo LX has no dash speaker. That is an EX Rondo thing.
August 30th, 2008 at 5:23 am
hey RATDADDY… what kinda speakers did you put in the Rondo? i thought the infinitys were pretty good. thats actually what i put in my Spectra5 cuz it just had the regular kia “blue” speakers in there. i was pretty happy. i have a 9 speaker boston sound system in my dodge (came stock) and i added ANOTHER 10″ sub in it as well with an amp & bass controller. i WILL be taking all that with me in the Soul/Forte/Koup (whatever i decide on, prob the Soul).
August 30th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Diego: That’s awesome news! When do you have the show in Santiago? Do you plan to attend it?
August 30th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Hi JoshyLofty, Yes Infinity aftermarket speakers are real good, but in general most of your factory speakers ar not as good it’s a cost thing…I had a stereo shop install 61/2 Boston Acoutics in the doors and a Kenwood sub in the back. We left the center dash alone since it’s a midrange…Sounds alot better now…Oh yea also installed 2 amps.one 4 chanel and a sub mono amp….
August 30th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Well, I guess the Rondo does only have a 315 watt system. Optima’s 340 watt system comes with an amp.
August 30th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
yeah!, i’m not lose it, we have in october, starts 23th october to 2nd november and the 26th october is closed due municipal elections. Kia’s stand is one of biggest of the autoshow, more than Toyota’s stand!
http://www.salondelautomovil.cl/expositores.html#marcas
the website with the brands in show.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Thanks Diego. Great to hear you’re attending the show. I hope you can send us some pics of Soul and other Kia cars at the show!