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May 2009 sales: Kia Soul outperforms Scion xB and Nissan Cube

Kia Soul tops the May 2009 sales charts in the econo “box car” segment. Beats Scion xB by more than 1.500 units!

Kia’s May 2009 sales report revealed the Soul has had it’s best sales month since it’s February arrival. The model has seen it’s sales topping 3.855 units, up 19.4 percent over the month earlier when 3.228 Souls were sold.

Impressive initial Soul sales is good news, but what’s even more exciting is the fact that Kia Soul outperformed both of it’s main rivals in the US market. As of the end of April, Kia Soul has been competing to win over the customers only against Scion xB, but last month, the competition has been intensified with Japanese Nissan putting it’s all new, 2010 Cube crossover to the battle.

kiasoulvsscionxbvsnissancube.jpg

With sales of 3.855 units last month, the Soul has conquered the No. 1 spot in the econo “box-car” category beating the Scion xB in the second place and Nissan’s Cube in third by more than 1.500 units. Scion has sold 2.216 units of it’s boxy xB while Nissan sold 1.745 units of Cube.

When we look at the year-to-date sales numbers, the xB remains to be the best selling “boxy car” in the US market, but it’s sales in the first five months of fiscal year have fallen from 21.241 units to 9.697 units. In contrary, the sales of Soul crossover has been on increase (8.363 Souls sold to date) and with such performance, the Soul is expected to top the econo “box car” year-to-date sales charts already at the end of June.

According to Kia, one of the main reasons the Soul has been so popular in the States (and Canada – around 1.000 units of Soul sold on average each month) are exceptionally good reviews and test-drive reports from automotive organizations and cars-related websites, including the U.S. based automotive consulting firm Kelley Blue Book, Automotive Lease Guide, Autoblog, Edmunds and others.

Latest Automotive Guide’s report revealed that Soul’s residual value after three years was valued at 56 percent of the original value, placing the Soul a top of its rivals in the “box-car” segment. The Soul has also been recognized as the BEST VALUE car by Texas Auto Writers Association while earlier this year, the car has been named to the Ward’s Autoworld “interior of the year” list.

A multi award winning Soul has also beaten the Nissan Cube and Scion xB in a recent comparison test conducted by Popularmechanics and it also got high remarks from the editors of test drive reports at Autoblog, Edmunds, Popularmechanics, KBB, Jalopnik and others! The 2010 Kia Soul rocks!! www.kia-world.net

16 thoughts on “May 2009 sales: Kia Soul outperforms Scion xB and Nissan Cube

  1. Just little more improvement in sales then Soul will be outselling both of them combined =D

  2. We have sold at least 1-2 a day pretty much every day for 2 months. I think we sold 20 in April and like 30 in June. Availability is the problem and I think we will see that reflect in the Sales numbers over the next 2 months.

  3. Agreed Colby, we haven’t been able to keep enough in stock here. Hopefully Kia can start pushing more of these to us quickly!

  4. Once they start building these at the Hyundai plant in Alabama, it will be easier for you to get them.

  5. @ Bornloser: That’s not a very dramatic decrease. In the Netherlands the Kia sales were down by 98.1% (April), 94.2% (May) and 63.8% YTD, because the Dutch importer went bankrupt (Kroymans – which was also the official importer of Cadillac/Hummer/Corvette in Europe and Alfa Romeo, Saab, Jaguar and SsangYong in the Netherlands).
    Fortunately Kia Motors Europe has taken over the Dutch import activities.

  6. It’s not dramatic… yet… but with stocks running out and cee’d, picanto and sorento unavailable for new orders I fear the near future…

  7. Bought the M/T Soul+ Colby wanted. Great car. Drives “Big” but Parks “Small”
    Interior dimensions are amazing, especially width. It really feels like a 4000 lb
    tightly sprung mid size. 30+ MPG.

    Bob

  8. The Soul is starting to pick up sales in Australia,thats good as people ask me what is it?We are very proud of our Soul2 we have nearly got all the Accessories fitted except MUDFLAPS which i had to get from a friend in U.S.A.
    still cannot get them here in Aussie.We call our Soul Little Hummer.

  9. kia has updated the soul for 2012. going to either have 6 speed auto/manual transmissions. the 1.6 wil now have 135 horsepower and will get 28 city, 34 highway. the 2.0 will have 160 horsepower and will get 27 city and 33 highway.