UK: Kia Soul Burner Edition video review
It’s widely known that Soul crossover has so far been a great success for Kia. If you take a look at Soul’s initial global sales numbers you can find out that those are very encouraging and on increase month by month.
Kia thought it would sell about 40.500 Souls in the US and Canadian markets in the first year on sale. But since the youth-oriented Kia car is being snapped up so fast Kia’s executives began studying whether they may need 10.000 or more Souls to satisfy consumer needs.
Although the North America has been considered as the main market for the multi-award-winning Kia crossover, the Soul has also seen a strong demand in Europe. As a matter of fact, initial European sales are exceeding Kia‘s expectations by about 13 percent! Since Soul’s sales commenced earlier this year, Kia dealers managed to sell over 6.500 units in Europe alone.
The Soul has been particularly successful in the UK where it was also titled as “Best New Model” for 2009 - by Fast Car magazine. Speaking of sales numbers, more than 500 Souls have been sold so far, but what’s even more interesting is the fact that all of the Soul Shakers have been sold out even before they hit the UK dealers and the dealers are now waiting the new shipments to arrive.
In the UK, Kia Soul is available in three different trim levels: Samba, Shaker and Burner. The most attractive of all three UK Souls is definitely the high-end Soul Burner model which looks almost exactly like a Soul Burner concept that we have seen at Geneva auto show last year. The Soul Burner comes available with accessories such as 18-inch alloy wheels, red grille, silver dragon decals, lightning door speakers and others. It also features a Lotus tuned suspension!
There’s a great video review of Kia’s “mad machine” (yes, that’s how the reviewers called the Soul Burner) that I just found on Youtube and you can watch it here:
May 13th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
where i am it’s just too expensive
USD$19k for the basic diesel manual where the top of the line Forte manual goes for a couple of grand less.
They are trying to market it as a alternative to the BMW Mini so charges like it’s a limited edition model (it will be due to the fact there’s strong negative reaction to the styling).
lack of a 2.0 litre petrol also hurts it
May 13th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Yeah, here in Australia, as I predicted, it is a little too expensive, it runs more expensive than the top of the range Cerato/Forte. Which for a 1.6L just doesn’t appeal to many people here in Australia unfotunately… oh well, right car for the wrong country I think.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
The Soul is also too expensive here in Slovenia. Base model costs 3.000 Euros more than similarly equipped pro_cee’d.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
or maybe the Forte/Cerato is underpriced. It is only US$14.5k in base form. The others cars we have are vastly more expensive. An automatic base Mazda 3 is a tad less expensive that the top of the line auto Forte/Cerato.
As expected the Cerato will spawn a coupe and (if you beleive Canada) a 5 door liftback soon so I’m hopeful there’s one the right size for me.
I am also too old and conservative for a Soul too.
May 14th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Tony a Forte 5 is coming to North America based off the C’eed 5 door. Dont worry.
That Video was worth a loud and resounding hard cheer!!!!!!
May 15th, 2009 at 3:59 am
They are calling it the Five-Te
May 15th, 2009 at 5:05 am
lol, good one.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:32 am
You can get the Burner edition model Soul in the UK for £13,995 ($21,300 USD) under the car scrappage scheme at the moment. I wasn’t too sure about the shape but now I see the ad every time I watch CSI… it’s growing on me. As @Tony said though, a 2.0 litre version would make it a great top of the line model.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I was in a hurry dropping someone off at work when all of a sudden the light turned red. This gave traffic behind me to catch up to me. All of a sudden I saw a lime green Kia Soul come up behind me. This is my 5th time seeing a Kia Soul on the streets. To bad I had to turn right so I couldn’t see what trim level it was. I’m thinking it was a Soul!.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
It was either a + or a !. I have been seeing quite a few, too. Where do you live?
March 12th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
I live in vegas and SOUL are non-existence here. Scion XBs and Honda Elements reign vegas. We have alot XB taxis but they are 2-tone color.
March 12th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
I drive a XB because of toyota reliabilty and its just look more of grown up box than any of the others boxes ….but that’s just a preference.
March 12th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
I perfer something rare with good quailty over something with quailty and is seen every .05 of a second.
August 3rd, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Great looking car. Has so much character!