2010 Kia Soul
This year drew an ordinary 134 complaints for a Kia Soul — the model's median is 288. What they were about is the unusual part: 35.8% of them mention door, against 14.1% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Kia Soul was redesigned for 2010. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 134 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 288 |
| Involving a crash | 22 |
| Involving a fire | 15 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 27 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- door — 35.8% of this year's complaints, against 14.1% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: door, side door, melted, deployed.
- interior — 24.6% of this year's complaints, against 9.3% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: interior, scratch, easily, scratches.
- small — 14.2% of this year's complaints, against 2.6% across the other years of this generation (5.5×). Owners wrote it as: small, design, off car, factory.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH THE CONTACT HIT A DEER WHICH CAUSED THE DRIVER SIDE DOOR TO CRUSH INWARD. NONE OF THE AIRBAGS IN THE VEHICLE DEPLOYED. THERE WERE NO INJURIES. THE CURRENT AND FAILURE MILEAGES WERE 4276.
WHILE ACCELERATING AT A LOW SPEED OUT OF A PARKING SPACE, THE FRONT DRIVERS SIDE DOOR SUDDENLY CAUGHT ON FIRE. A POLICE REPORT WAS FILED AND THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC. THE [VIN] WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE, AND THE CONTACT WAS AWAITING…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V822000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 13V114000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 10V388000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Soul was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2010 Kia Soul? What happened to yours?
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